[3][4][5] Starring Kim Hye-soo, Yoo Ah-in, Huh Joon-ho, Jo Woo-jin, and Vincent Cassel, it is the first Korean film concerning the IMF financial crisis as its main subject.

Meanwhile, a young financial analyst named Jung-hak (Yoo Ah-in) hears stories on the radio about families in distress — particularly those selling their homes below market price to pay bills resulting from small business bankruptcies.

Si-hyun's report concludes that Korea will run out of foreign reserves which serves to peg the Korean won's artificially fixed exchange rate to the US dollar within a week.

Si-hyun's story shows how the government acted during the crisis, Jung-hak's narrative frames the downturn in economic terms, and Gap-su represents millions of real Korean small business owners who suffered in 1997.

[19][20] Ahead of its local release, the film was sold to 17 territories including USA, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Macao.

[27] The Hollywood Reporter's Clarence Tsui called it "An engaging multi-strand story about a nation in turmoil", and wrote, "[...] director Choi Kook-hee has sought to fill that void in a dramatic and furious exposition of causes and effects as seen through the eyes of his three protagonists, who experience the crisis up close in different ways.