Chul-su is an intellectual who anguishes between the separation of reality and the ideals of ideology. The film portrays the life and conflict of partisans who remain in their hide-out in Piagol of Mt. Jiri continuing meaningless battles. Its members include A-gari, who is said to have eaten the organ of a reactionary, a cold-hearted opportunist Man-su, a loyal communist Ae-ran who is in love with Chul-su, an old soldier and a young soldier with friendship growing between them despite the cruel circumstances, and So-ju who remains quiet out of fear. Piagol is the first film that features partisans as main characters and sets an example for other films on partisans made since. The film suffered from censorship for its too realistic description, and therefore too human approach to partisans, banning it from movie screens before it was released after re-editing. However, the film transcends the difficulties at the time of its release and is reviewed as an anti-communist/humanist masterpiece. Years later, it is now praised as a film that represents the realist films of Korea. (CHO Young-jung)