During the 1850s, Kim Byung-moon saves young Seung-ub from being beaten by a group of drifters. Seung-ub draws a picture to explain the situation, Kim looks carefully at Seung-ub’s rough yet extraordinary talent… and years later, Kim encourages Seung-ub to pursue the life of a true artist and gives him a pen name, Oh-won. Seung-ub meets Mae-hyang, a daughter of a declined Yangban (nobility) who attracts him deeply. But they part when she runs away from persecution from the Catholics. Seung-ub leaves and wanders about in pursuit of the truth of art.
Nobody can hold onto him. Only through pleasure can he eagerly paint. He confirms the power of his brush stroke through his painting of a monkey with a liquor bottle in hand while mocking the world. As fame builds up, he yearns to change and stretch beyond his limits. Then one day, he experiences all his body’s energy flowing into the paintbrush. Seung-ub, in a misshapen bowl, discovers the state he has strived to attain and turns his back to the world and fades away…
