Welcome to Dongmakgol

A US Navy pilot, Neil Smith, is caught in a mysterious butterfly storm over Korea and crash-lands in the remote mountain village of Dongmakgol. The villagers bring him inside and nurse him back to health as the wider war rages beyond their borders. He offers a Korean-English primer to Teacher Kim in an effort to communicate, highlighting the cultural gap between the village and the modern world.

Smith hands Kim a Korean-English primer to facilitate communication, but Kim quickly gives up when Smith complains after a simple English greeting. The moment underscores the villagers’ lack of exposure to modern language and technology. It foreshadows the misunderstandings that flow from their different worlds.

A North Korean platoon is ambushed by a South Korean unit and forced to flee into the surrounding mountains. The survivors—Rhee Soo-hwa, Jang Young-hee, and Seo Taek-gi—press toward Dongmakgol, setting the stage for an unlikely convergence. The clash foreshadows the villagers’ role as an unexpected arbiter of the war.

An absent-minded girl, Yeo-il, guides the three North Korean soldiers to Dongmakgol and they encounter two South Korean deserters, Pyo Hyun-chul and Moon Sang-sang. The mingling of combatants from opposite sides unsettles the village, which has no frame of reference for their weapons or war. The discovery triggers a tense, surreal encounter.

A tense standoff forms as North and South soldiers face off while the villagers misunderstand the situation and go about daily tasks. They mistake rifles for sticks and grenades for painted potatoes, watching the drama with wide eyes. The moment intensifies when the soldiers try to intimidate the locals to gain control.

Exhausted Taek-gi accidentally drops a live grenade, which Hyun-chul misreads as a dud and tosses aside. It rolls into the village storehouse and explodes, destroying the winter corn stockpile. The surreal result is corn kernels raining down like popcorn across the village.

Shocked by the damage their quarrel caused, the North and South soldiers agree to a truce and redirect their efforts toward helping the village. They work side by side to harvest potatoes and repair damaged fields, learning to cooperate despite deep-seated hostilities. The villagers observe the fragile alliance taking shape.

The joint effort extends to hunting a troublesome wild boar that threatens the village. They bury the animal out of respect, but sneak out later to eat it, sharing a tense yet bonding meal. This moment signals a loosening of wartime suspicions among the fighters and villagers.

Allied commanders dispatch a rescue team to recover Smith, believing he’s been captured. The team parachutes in at night and suffers heavy casualties from a butterfly swarm and rough terrain, complicating the mission. The chaos also threatens to expose the village to covert bombing plans.

A clash erupts as the rescue party presses into the village, and Yeo-il is fatally wounded in the crossfire. The Korean translator is knocked out by Smith and then captured by the villagers, revealing the Americans’ presence to the locals. The village’s fragile quiet hangs by a thread.

With news of a bombing plan, the North and South soldiers decide to construct a decoy enemy base away from Dongmakgol and use equipment salvaged from a downed plane. Smith is sent back to tell the Americans there is nothing to bomb, while the decoy is prepared. The plan aims to buy time and spare the village from destruction.

The decoy base draws the bombers away, but Taek-gi, Young-hee, and Sang-sang are killed during the initial engagement. The remaining soldiers are wiped out by the bombs, yet they die with smiles, knowing they saved Dongmakgol. Butterflies appear where they fell, joining the swarm overhead as Smith mourns the loss.