Backtracking from his suicide as a broken and depressed man, the film recounts the life of Yong-ho, from his tragic demise to his innocent youth, in reverse order. In between, he is a student, a solider, a police officer and eventually an investor who loses a small fortune in the stock market.

Lee Chang-dong’s award-winning drama is also a work of brilliant construction, revealing its secrets in clever, surprising, and often devastating ways. Be prepared to be thrown for a loop (more than once), and as a story told backwards, it beat Christoper Nolan’s Memento to the punch.