‘Black Hair’ Yeon-sil  (Moon  Jeong-suk) is the lover of crime boss Dong-il (Jang Dong-he). She pays off one of the boss’s henchmen, Man-ho (Chae Rang), with whom she once had an affair; Man-ho is an opium addict, and he has been blackmailing Yeon-sil by threatening to disclose their past relations. When Dong-il finds out, he has one of his men severely disfigure Yeon-sil’s face then casts her out, according to the rules of the organization. With nowhere to turn, Yeon-sil becomes a prostitute, but any money she earns is apt to be taken away by Man-ho. One day, she meets a wholesome taxi driver (Lee Dae-yub), who allows her to stay at his house. She goes to meet Dong-il, buthis men, fearing that their boss might be weakend by his feelings for his former lover, decide to kill her off and force her into a car. The taxi driver, who happens to be following them, rescues Yeon-sil just as she is about to be killed, and helps her to get plastic surgery on her face. Meanwhile, Dong-il is unable to forget Yeon-sil. He goes against the rules of the organization by meeting Yeon-sil again and spending the night with her. He confesses his actions to his men and orders them to punish him for violating the rules. As Dong-il and his men are fighting to the death, the taxi driver appears on the scene and demands the beleaguered boss to hand over Yeon-sil.
Captivatingly  recreating  the  world  of gangsters with its dark alleyways and secret hideouts, Black Hair may well be described as the most ‘noiristic’ of Korean movies. The community of gangsters, their dubious codes of conduct, the pronounced fatality of the characters’ situations, the overly dim lighting and  sets that center around basements, the red light district glittering after the rain none of the film’s elements, whether formal or substantial, reflects the actual sights and sounds of Korean society. In this respect, Black Hair is a unique film that resembles neither its contemporaries nor its antecedents. The character of Dong-ila crime boss whose Oedipus-like fate is to confine and punish himself with self-made rules is an archetype in Lee Man-hee’s films. This type of character recurs consistently in later films by the director.