“A strange tale sent by a deceased person becomes a reality.”

In 1930, the city of Kyungsung, the Maeil Shinbo newspaper journalist Kim Chung-seon was put in charge of taking the strange tales submitted by its readers. One day, a story arrives but it is sent by a dead man. A few days later, the same incident described in the story actually takes place. Investigating the strange tales, Chung-seon discovers the hidden truth about the past.

In 1930, horrendous incidents and an ominous atmosphere is surrounding the Japanese colonial capital, Kyungsung.

Kim Chung-seon (30, Male) is living in a mansion in Sampan-dong, with his wife Hise (28, Female), and her father, Ryusuke (58, Male), who was naturalized as a Japanese citizen.

Being a journalist for Maeil Shinbo newspaper, Chung-seon is put in charge of a strange tales project where the readers would submit the stories to get published. One day, Chung-seon witnesses a scene of a fire and a stranger looking at him through the fire, but he makes little of it. However, he learns that the exact description of the fire incident is in one of the submitted strange tales. Chung-seon pays a visit to the sender of the story, Park Mu-seon, only to learn that he has died long ago. He thinks the submission was a prank.

Meanwhile, Hise tells Chung-seon a strange story about her late mother, who said she witnessed a monster when she lived in the house that they are currently living in.

Soon, a tale titled A Tree Cursed by a Goblin is submitted and someone kills himself by being hanged from a tree just as it is described in the tale. Chung-seon senses that these are not simple pranks and starts investigating the incidents with his colleague Seon-hum (26, Male). Soon, he discovers the man who committed the suicide is the same person who sent him the strange tale, Choi Gil-sang. To make matters worse, he finds out that the stranger he encountered at the fire scene is the dead man, Park Mu-seon.

While Chung-seon is deeply confused as to if a ghost-like figure is pulling pranks on him, Hise displays more and more strange behaviors. She even claims that she witnessed her mother’s suicide in the past and that a monster lifted her mother up to hang her.

Looking at a pattern embroidered on the kimono owned by Hise’s mother, Chung-seon is reminded of spotting the same pattern at the houses of Park Mu-seon and Choi Gil-sang and senses that there is a hidden connection between them. In the meantime, another strange tale arrives and Chung-seon finds out that both men are from the village of Hwajin. To keep another incident from happening and to dig up the whole truth, Chung-seon heads to Hwajin.

A Weird True Tale was conceived when I came across the fact that a newspaper company posted a ghost story to its readers in 1930. At the same time, I thought about what ghost stories would mean to people in the context of the Japanese colonial period, and I thought that ghost stories might have been an expression of hurt and anger for them. So, through the main character who submitted the ghost story, I tried to tell the wounds of an individual in a mysterious and terrifying way.