Roman Kogler, 19, convicted of manslaughter, tries to build a new life for himself working at a municipal funerary institution. Most of the film shows him carrying corpses and cleaning coffins. Then one day Roman sees an old woman’s corpse bearing his family name, and begins to wonder who his mother is, and who he is. [Breathing] is a story of realizing life through death. Whenever returning to jail, Roman is inspected for drinking or hiding something. Enduring the abnormal place, he becomes aware of how repetitive life is. Nobody can be free, yet anybody can dream of being free while alive. (LEE Sang-yong)