# The Man with Three Coffins (나그네는 길에서도 쉬지 않는다)
**The Man with Three Coffins** (나그네는 길에서도 쉬지 않는다, literally *The Traveler Does Not Rest Even on the Road*) is a 1987 South Korean road movie directed by Lee Jang-ho, adapted from Lee Je-ha's novella of the same title, in which a widower carries his dead wife's ashes through a winter landscape haunted by apparitions, omens, and shamanic ritual.[1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_005238) • [2](https://eng.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_010375) It won the international film critics' prize at the 2nd Tokyo International Film Festival in October 1987 and the Caligari prize for innovative work at the [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival), and it is remembered as one of the films that broke 1980s taboos in historical consciousness.[3](https://imnews.imbc.com/replay/1987/nwdesk/article/1796424_29505.html) • [1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_005238)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / year | Lee Jang-ho, 1987 (South Korean release June 11, 1988)[4](https://m.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19880032) |
| Source | Lee Je-ha's novella of the same title, winner of the 1985 Yi Sang Literary Award[2](https://eng.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_010375) |
| Running time | 104 minutes per Korean archives; 117 minutes per some festival catalogs[1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_005238) • [5](https://filmfestdc.org/PDFs/catalog1988.pdf) |
| Principal cast | Kim Myung-kon (the man, Soon-seok); Lee Bo-hee in three female roles, including the nurse Mrs. Choi[6](https://biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=36006&pyear=2018) |
| Awards | International film critics' prize, 2nd Tokyo International Film Festival (1987); Caligari prize, Berlin International Film Festival (1988, Forum)[3](https://imnews.imbc.com/replay/1987/nwdesk/article/1796424_29505.html) • [1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_005238) |
| Box office | One screen, 31 total admissions, total gross $152[4](https://m.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19880032) |
| Standing | Ranked 35th in a 1998 "Korean Film Best 50" selection[7](https://memory.library.kr/files/original/6d4b55a7c7ebf17f224c744e1927a60e.pdf) |
## Spoilers
### Story
One winter, Soon-seok (Kim Myung-kon) sets out for Gangwon Province to scatter the ashes of his wife, who died three years earlier. He reaches the east-coast town of Mul-chi, wanting to bury the ashes in her homeland in the North, but because he cannot cross the border he tries to scatter them on the coast and is driven off by a guard.[1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_005238) • [2](https://eng.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_010375)
At a motel he meets a dying old man from north of the Armistice Line and the nurse who cares for him, Mrs. Choi (Lee Bo-hee). The old man wishes to die "as close to the North as possible." Soon-seok initially declines, but once two women tied to him pass away one after another as he travels, he goes looking for the old man and Mrs. Choi once more.[2](https://eng.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_010375) The nurse tells him of a shaman's prophecy that she will marry a man carrying three coffins, and he wonders whether he is that man.[1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_005238) On the return journey toward Seoul the pair encounter an exorcism, and she becomes possessed by a shamanic spirit.[8](https://www.3continents.com/en/film/l-homme-aux-3-cercueils/) The film ends with a shamanic rite for the dead by a riverside, a scene the London Korean Film Festival program called one of the most mysterious in Korean cinema; director Lee said the crew and cast came upon it by lucky coincidence on the day of shooting.[9](https://www.koreanfilm.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/LKFF19-Brochure.pdf)
Lee Bo-hee simultaneously plays the three women the protagonist meets, including the nurse, a multiple role that maximizes the film's surreal atmosphere.[6](https://biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=36006&pyear=2018)
## Method and style
The film takes on the outward shape of a road movie, yet instead of tackling division and loss directly, it circles around them indirectly, filtered through a sensibility populated by ghosts, portents, and shamanic figures.[2](https://eng.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_010375) Lee Jang-ho said it was more fruitful to receive Lee Je-ha's text sensorially than to analyze it structurally, and he likened the author's writing to "automatic writing." Production followed the same principle: instead of a pre-scouted route, the crew tracked shifting conditions and choices on location, producing a rhythm that deliberately unsettles causal smoothness and narrative immersion.[2](https://eng.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_010375)
Visually, Lee employed a variety of photographic effects and a strong dose of monochromatic sepia to reinforce the film's airy unrest.[5](https://filmfestdc.org/PDFs/catalog1988.pdf) The London Korean Film Festival's 2016 retrospective described it as a hypnotic trance film using a floating voice-over and avant-garde montage to evoke the protagonist's sexually charged fears and frustrations.[10](https://www.closeupfilmcentre.com/film_programmes/2016/lkff/lee-chang-ho/)
## Place in Lee Jang-ho's career
Lee Jang-ho, born in 1945, began in film under director Shin Sang-ok and debuted with *Heavenly Homecoming to Stars* (1974); his earlier films include *Good Windy Day* (1980) and *Declaration of Idiot* (1983), the latter made in defiance of the new military regime's censorship policies.[6](https://biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=36006&pyear=2018) • [11](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/upload/webzine/1f34f3c5-16e7-4043-8e24-07b21f7603af.pdf) With *Declaration of Idiot* and *The Man with Three Coffins*, a series of experimental works, he joined the ranks of the directors representing Korean cinema of the early and mid-1980s.[11](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/upload/webzine/1f34f3c5-16e7-4043-8e24-07b21f7603af.pdf)
A Korean scholarly survey places the film among the "new sentimentalism" works that appeared in force in 1987, but notes it is usually classified with the Korean New Wave instead, being too austere for a conventional melodrama.[12](https://journal.kci.go.kr/djnar/archive/articlePdf?artiId=ART002441384) In a 1998 poll selecting a "Korean Film Best 50," it ranked 35th.[7](https://memory.library.kr/files/original/6d4b55a7c7ebf17f224c744e1927a60e.pdf)
## Reception and afterlife
Commercially the film was a failure: it opened on a single screen on June 11, 1988, sold 31 admissions, and grossed $152.[4](https://m.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19880032) Its reputation rests on festivals and retrospectives. After Tokyo (1987) and Berlin (1988, Forum), it returned in retrospectives including the Busan International Film Festival's Korean Cinema Retrospective (1996 and 2018), the London Korean Film Festival's Lee Chang-ho retrospective (2016) and "A Century of Korean Cinema" focus (2019), and the Jeonju International Film Festival's "100 Years of Korean Cinema" (2019).[4](https://m.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19880032) • [6](https://biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=36006&pyear=2018) The Korean Film Archive has released it on DVD and on its Korean Classic Film YouTube channel.[13](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/45616) • [14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2AHAmicRTQ)
Records disagree on the running time: Korean archives and festival databases list 104 minutes (Jeonju lists 105), while the 1988 Washington DC festival catalog and the Festival des 3 Continents list 117 minutes.[1](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_005238) • [15](https://archive.jeonjufest.kr/db/movieView.asp?idx=AFF9C2225CA04118A&listGubun=movieList&reUrl=%2Fdb%2FfestivalList.asp%3FEP_NUM%3D20&sEP_NUM=0&sText=&sType=) • [5](https://filmfestdc.org/PDFs/catalog1988.pdf) • [8](https://www.3continents.com/en/film/l-homme-aux-3-cercueils/)
## References
1. [나그네는 길에서도 쉬지 않는다, 시네마테크KOFA (Korean Film Archive)](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_005238)
2. [The Man with Three Coffins, Korean Film Archive (English)](https://eng.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_010375)
3. ['나그네는 길에서도 쉬지 않는다' 국제 비평가상 수상, MBC 뉴스데스크 (1987)](https://imnews.imbc.com/replay/1987/nwdesk/article/1796424_29505.html)
4. [The Man with Three Coffins (1988), Korean Film Council / KOFA film record](https://m.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19880032)
5. [The Man with Three Coffins, Filmfest DC catalog (1988)](https://filmfestdc.org/PDFs/catalog1988.pdf)
6. [The Man with Three Coffins, Busan International Film Festival, Korean Cinema Retrospective (2018)](https://biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=36006&pyear=2018)
7. [한국영화 베스트 50, 광주문화 제9호 (1998)](https://memory.library.kr/files/original/6d4b55a7c7ebf17f224c744e1927a60e.pdf)
8. [L'Homme aux 3 cercueils, Festival des 3 Continents](https://www.3continents.com/en/film/l-homme-aux-3-cercueils/)
9. [The Man with Three Coffins, London Korean Film Festival 2019 brochure](https://www.koreanfilm.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/LKFF19-Brochure.pdf)
10. [The Visual Age: Three Films by Lee Chang-ho, Close-Up Film Centre (2016)](https://www.closeupfilmcentre.com/film_programmes/2016/lkff/lee-chang-ho/)
11. [한국영화 100선, 한국영상자료원 웹진](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/upload/webzine/1f34f3c5-16e7-4043-8e24-07b21f7603af.pdf)
12. [대중서사연구 제25권 1호, 한국학중앙연구원 저널](https://journal.kci.go.kr/djnar/archive/articlePdf?artiId=ART002441384)
13. [Man with Three Coffins, KOFA 영상도서관 자료검색](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/45616)
14. [나그네는 길에서도 쉬지 않는다 (1987), Korean Classic Film, YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2AHAmicRTQ)
15. [The Man with Three Coffins, Jeonju International Film Festival archive (2019)](https://archive.jeonjufest.kr/db/movieView.asp?idx=AFF9C2225CA04118A&listGubun=movieList&reUrl=%2Fdb%2FfestivalList.asp%3FEP_NUM%3D20&sEP_NUM=0&sText=&sType=)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1980s › Released 1986 to 1989*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license