Marley (1)

Sunbi suffers through first days of school, feeling even more isolated and rejected, not helped along by her snide stepsister, Mira. A boy, Taehoon, uses a special camera to take her picture, and discovers a strange aura that follows her, which, to Sunbi, is an evil smelling and foul spirit beast that refuses to leave her alone, and wants to encompass her. She struggles with a phalanx of these beasts, who were called from their world by innocent kids playing ghost, and is almost overtaken by show more them, save for a monk who beats them away with a peach blossom branch. He marks her forehead and tells her the key to their appearance, which is her own fear and hatred. A confrontation with her father isolates her even further, as she fights to hold on to her grandmother's talisman of bells and shield, and screams that she is not her mother. She realizes she must confront her truths in order to escape the hate and the beasts, and she goes in search of a kinder protector spirit, in the form of the Dokebi, on the spirit mountain behind the school. show less

Sunbi ends up in a remote village where she enounters both evil and goodness, helping a mean daughter who treats her deaf and dumb mother with cruelty derived from her own pain and humiliation at having such a mother. Meanwhile, the young man back at home continues to intrigue, and assists the dokebi in finding Sunbi just when she needs him most. It seems greatness is coming, but the side adventures are the slow process by which we must all experience her journey, I suppose.

Sunbi learns how to tempt the dokebi into forging a relationship with her, and dressed in a mask on a rainy day, she takes acorn jelly she's made to bribe them. One giant of a dokebi, biggest and strongest, she chooses by splashing paint on him, He cannot clean himself, and falls into a rage, as well as becomes prey to the others who don't recognize him with the paint on. Eventually the two join together: he enamored with her as a girl, she in need of him for protection and guidance through show more the spirit world. She helps Taehoon's mother by luring the kitchen god spirit out from the furnace area and back to the kitchen, and meets the bathroom god and the house guardian spirit. Meanwhile, a flashback shows us that her mother, institutionalized, had commited suicide in order to end the relentless tests and drugs and misdiagnoses. Tension mounts within the family as the father happens upon the dokebi in Sunbi's room, a sword in her hand, as she was trying to protect herself from being "shagged" by him. Her glorious warrior self surfaces in that moment, which the dokebi respects, hence their union. show less

After Sunbi runs away from home, a young man comes to live at the house, with similar mystical powers that raise new questions both about Sunbi, her past, and her dokebi spirit, who cannot find her. She gets involved with a young man, once a runaway from an terribly abusive father, who has abandoned his younger sister to the father's wrath, and lives with the guilt of it. The spirit of the abused sister lingers in his life, and causes trouble for Sunbi and the young runaway girls whom he show more pimps. She manages to escape from this group, and continues her journey for understanding and peace. show less