Three young men leave the countryside and head for Seoul. There they encounter tough times and young women a bit more complicated than the ones back home. They also come face to face with the economic inequalities of urban Korea, where the nouveau riche treat them like trash. However, like the character Deok-bae floored by his boxing coach but bouncing back for one more go, the film manages to leave us optimistic about the future. As the theme song has it, there will be fine windy days ahead.

A film regarded as a landmark in making youth culture central to cinema, and offering some hope in the bleak, bloody early days of the Chun Doo-hwan regime. The acting may have dated, like the fashion of those years, but Lee’s comeback film was the beginning of his best work.