Yoon-ju, who has lived her life as a madam in an entertainment establishment, decides to quit and live a different life. Director Lee Won-young's 'Elements of Despair' consists of several episodes where Yoon-ju, confined to her cramped home and deeply isolated, ventures out to meet and converse with various people. The film's method of capturing this transformative period of life, much like the director's previous work sharing a similar title, 'Elements of Hope,' relies not on conventional narrative structures but on scene compositions that fragmentarily observe and reassemble the character's body. The camera focuses on Yoon-ju's face and parts of her body, observing the forms captured in cross-sections of reality rather than reproducing reality as it is. Yoon-ju's journey, filled with misaligned gazes, repelled hands, unfocused shots, and constant tremors, does not, however, conclude solely in despair. Upon connecting with unexpected others, Yoon-ju's body returns not as a fragmented entity but as the locus of her own felt subjectivity. The film proposes a new space of possibility arrived at the end of despair.