Ku-Nam is a cab driver in Yanbian Province, China. He is deep in gambling debt and his wife has gone missing since moving abroad to work. One day, a local gangster offers Ku-Nam to pay of his debts and help him find his wife. However, in exchange for this, Ku-Nam has to murder a man in South Korea.

A South Korean genre film if you ever saw one, The Yellow Sea is at times a gory thriller, a fast-paced action film, and a social drama. Traveling between the gritty, impoverished cities of East China and South Korea, this is a gripping reflection on corruption, despair and manipulation.