Plot

During the Korean War in 1951, little Manuk is playing on the streets of his village and dreaming of life at the front where his father is a soldier. He returns home to find a parcel on the doorstep and, thinking it is a birthday present, he opens it. But its contents will change his life.—Anonymous

In Korea in 1951, a small boy called Manuk (voice: Joshua Ahn) is on his way home from school, playing as he goes. He wears a white badge on his shirt that says "happy birthday" in Chinese characters.

The first scene opens on a butterfly perched on a somewhat puzzling structure; the boy, inside, is singing. When he comes out, the camera pulls back to show that the puzzling structure is the wreck of a plane that crashed into a building.

Manuk makes his way through the village to a railroad track, where he puts his ear to the rail to listen for a train. Evidently he hears one coming; he lays a bolt taken from the plane on the rail, where the train flattens it. The train is hauling tanks.

The boy picks up the flattened bolt and finds that it's been magnetized. He continues to a spot that overlooks the tracks. Seeing war planes in the distance, he pretends to shoot at them, exchanges a few urgent words with an imagined fellow soldier -- "Dad" -- and throws a rock grenade that hits a postman on a bicycle.

Arriving home at last, Manuk opens a package he finds on the porch. He pulls out a worn wallet containing a picture of himself and a young man, a set of dog tags, and a boot. There's no sign that the boy understands what it means that these objects have been sent home. He puts on the dog tags and engages in more soldier-play.

Indoors, the boy plays with toys -- mostly war-themed -- that he seems to have made himself. Sprawled on the floor, he falls asleep. His mother comes home.