Although Hwal (The Bow) is Kim Ki-duk's twelfth film, this is his first visit to the Cannes Festival, where the film premieres in the Un Certain Regard section. The Korean director examines the torments of love and jealousy as experienced by an elderly man. The hero is madly in love with a young woman, whom he intends to marry as soon as she turns seventeen. Until then, he forms a strong bond with his bow, which is his alter ego. Among other things, the bow enables him to scare off the young woman's many avid suitors, all of whom are determined to possess her. However, when the young woman falls for a student, the bow is suddenly devoid of power. The loss of the object of his affections will be too much for the elderly man to bear.