An international co-production between South Korea and Japan, the film stars Jae Hee as a young drifter who develops a relationship with an abused housewife (Lee Seung-yeon).

It was released in South Korea on April 29, 2005, and received generally positive reviews and numerous accolades, including the FIPRESCI Grand Prix award at the San Sebastián Film Festival.

Min-gyu arrives to take Sun-hwa home, and bribes the policeman in charge of the investigation to allow him to strike Tae-suk with golf balls.

There, he practices golf with an imaginary club and balls and develops his gifts for stealth and concealment, frustrating his jailers by remaining out of sight.

"[7] He notes that Sun-hwa "instinctively tries to stop that emulation", but fails, resulting in Tae-suk striking an innocent woman with a stray ball.

[7] Writing of the latter half of the film, Seung Chung describes Tae-suk as "literally [becoming] invisible after mastering the ability to hide in the shadowy jail cell, outside the purview of human vision, through metaphysical 'ghost practice'".

"[9] Seung Chung wrote that the final shot of the film, in which Sun-hwa and Tae-suk stand together on a scale that displays a weight of zero, implies the couple's "mutual transcendence of bodily existence.

"[3] Ma refers to the ending as "ambiguous", writing that Sun-hwa "may well be imagining a union with her ghost lover, or their love may have indeed freed them from their bodies.

"[7] In a 2004 interview with Kim for Cine 21, Chong Song-il interpreted Tae-suk as "Sun-hwa's fantasy", serving as a figure of rescue from her abusive marriage.

[10] The South Korean premiere took place at the Busan International Film Festival the next month, and went on a theatrical release by Happinet Pictures on October 15, 2004.

[12] A. O. Scott of The New York Times noted the "sophisticated modern sound design" exhibited in 3-Iron, and called the film "a teasing, self-conscious and curiously heartfelt demonstration of [Kim's] mischievous formal ingenuity.

[13] James Mudge of Beyond Hollywood called it "an almost ethereal, yet truly captivating film which is fascinating and moving", writing that "it is quite likely that viewers will not even realize the lack of dialogue".