Overview of Somebody

What happens when a serial killer and a woman who has an awkward personality meet? Well, things get messy and their life becomes a shade of grey. Korean drama ‘Somebody’ features Kim Sum (Kang Hae-lim) an app developer who creates a dating app known as ‘Somebody’. Originally intended to help people find their perfect match, things soon go wrong when a mysterious serial killer starts using the app to hunt and kill his victims.

Even though Kim Sum has difficulty communicating with other people, she has two friends, Im Mok-won (Kim Yong-ji), a shaman and Yeong Gi-eun (Kim Soo-yeon), who works as a police officer.

Indulging in the interesting thriller drama in which a murder takes place and the app named ‘Somebody’ is involved in the murder case is worth a watch.

Profile

• Drama: Somebody
• Director: Jung Ji-woo
• Writers: Jung Ji-woo and Han Ji-wan
• Network: Netflix
• Episodes: 8
• Release Date: November 18, 2022
• Language: Korean
• Country: South Korea

Cast

• Kim Young-kwang as Sung Yun-oh, an architectural designer and a psychopathic killer.
• Kang Hae-lim as Kim Sum, an extremely talented developer of the application ‘Somebody’.
• Kim Yong-ji as Im Mok-won, a shaman who is friends with Sum and Gi-eun.
• Kim Soo-yeon as Yeong Gi-eun, Sum’s best friend and a police officer who tracks down a mysterious case involving an app named ‘Somebody’.

Supporting

• Bae Kang-hee as Lee Ha-in, a co-worker and Spectrum server manager.
• Choi Yu-ha as Samantha Jung, the representative of Spectrum, a service provider for the ‘Somebody’ app.
• Choi Sang-hyuk as Shim Woo-cheol
• Choo Sun-woo as Jang Ha-na
• Song Yeon-ji as Rose
• Shin Moon-sung as Min Gi-ung, a professor.
• Kang Ji-eun as Hong Gong-joo
• Kim Joong-ki as Kim Eun-pyeong, a detective police officer.
• Shim Woo-sung as Oh Bool-gwang, a detective police officer.

Synopsis

Kim Sum’s Childhood and Evolvement of the App ‘Somebody’

Kim Sum (Kang Hae-lim), is highly talented with software codes and algorithms. She always found it a little hard to understand people and that’s why Kim Sum never found someone with whom she could truly connect. She feels that her shy nature often holds her back from interacting with others and often makes her lonely.

While in school, she is hired by a man to help rig the lottery machines and in return, she receives a large sum of money. Kim Sum uses this money in preparation for the upcoming youth programming competition. When she puts up her exhibit in the competition, no one takes any notice of it.

A woman named Samantha Jung (Choi Yu-ha) arrives at the stall and asks about it. Kim Sum explains that what she has made is a dating app ‘Somebody’ and with the help of the AI chatbot used in the app, it can keep a record of every text that the users type and then delete before sending. The app also makes suggestions based on this record.

Kim explains that she has been able to colour-code the emotions and personality traits of users based on how they interact with people in the chatroom. With the help of the app, Kim Sum hopes to find a soulmate for herself and she is finally able to feel such strong emotions after years of struggling with Asperger’s Syndrome.

Present Time

A few years pass, and Kim Sum and Samantha, are now seen working together at the same matrimonial company ‘Spectrum’ and Samantha is the CEO of the company. In the meantime, as the app becomes a success, she and her partner, Samantha, cash in on it. The matrimonial company launched Kim Sum’s app as a new dating app and named it  ‘Somebody’.

Kim Sum was appointed as the CTO of ‘Spectrum’. However, despite being in a good position financially, she is extremely sad because of the completely solitary life she leads. With trouble, particularly expressing even basic emotions in situations, the chatbot she made becomes her closest friend and Kim Sum regularly chats with it in her garage every evening.

While the app gives a happy ending to many couples, the Korean police administration comes knocking on ‘Spectrum’s’ doors looking for information regarding the recent murder of two individuals. It is revealed that both had been extensive users of the ‘Somebody’ app and had also met each other through this platform before killing themselves.

Police were now asking for their chat records. Samantha tried to brush away from this new problem as releasing such personal information can tarnish the company’s reputation. However, Kim Sum decides to investigate it on her own.

Who Is That Killer Using the Somebody App for His Criminal Activities? 

The police suspected that the two individuals had not murdered each other. There is a presence of a third person involved in the case, someone they might have met on ‘Somebody’ app. Kim Sum lists a few accounts and sends out likes to all of them, and gets a few likes back instantly and she starts having personal chats with them.

A peculiar incident makes her reach the real killer. One day a stray cat is hit by a car on the road in front of Kim Sum’s house, and she couldn’t help the animal. She shares this with the men she is chatting with, and one of them encourages her to kill the cat. She identifies the murderer, a man named Sung Yun-oh (Kim Young-kwang), who works as an architectural designer.

They both try to get to know each other and a bond grows between the two individuals because Sung Yun-ho also had a similar childhood as Kim Sum with nobody to spend time with, and that made him a terribly lonely person too. From here on, a hard-to-believe romantic relationship keeps growing with time.

An Untold Flashback about Sung Yun-ho

Sung Yun-ho had first heard of the ‘Somebody’ dating app from other men who worked out at his same gym. He created a profile on the app and he was suggested numerous profiles of women to connect with. He messaged one of them and the person happened to be near to him.

The woman asked him to reach a hotel room, and once she reached there she told Yun-ho that she wanted to invite a third man to sleep with her. But before this third man arrived, Yun-ho and the woman indulged in lovemaking, during which she told him to choke her. Since it is the first time Yun-ho has experienced such pleasure, the well-built Sung Yun-oh goes overboard and accidentally murders the woman.

The third man also arrived shortly after, and Yun-ho had to kill him too, making the incident seem like the two victims had murdered each other. This is the same case that the police were investigating and wanted matrimonial company ‘Spectrum’s’ help with.

Since that time, Sung Yun-ho has become addicted to the thrill of killing. He connects with women to meet them and, after killing them, he deactivates their ‘Somebody’ accounts, and makes a new account on their phones. He names it with the number that this new victim was in his list of victims.

How Sung Yun-oh Attacked Yeong Gi-eun and Im Mok-won?

Although Kim Sum is shown to have difficulty communicating with most people and therefore has no close relations, she has two estranged best friends, Im Mok-won and Yeong Gi-eun. These two run across Sung Yun-oh’s path while saving a disabled girl who got trapped with Yun-oh through the dating app. Yun-oh abandoned the girl in an isolated place away from the city and threw her wheelchair away. She somehow crawled out of the place and managed to return to the city, where Im Mok-won cared for her and nursed her back to health.

In the following weeks, Gi-eun and Mok-won started to look for ways to find out the man to punish him. They were doing it on unofficial grounds and even asked for Kim Sum’s help when they found out that the man they were searching for is Kim Sum’s new boyfriend. Kim Sum keeps protecting her boyfriend from suspicion.

Ending Explained: What Happens To Kim Sum and Sung Yun-oh at the End

Sung Yun-oh came to Kim Sum’s house and confessed to his crimes and murders before they met. Yeong Gi-eun suspects impending danger, and after having tracked down her attacker to be Sung Yun-oh, she informs her police friends about a meeting between Sung Yun-oh and Kim Sum. Kim Sum’s blind love soon starts to fade as she is scared that her dear friend Yeong Gi-eun’s life is in danger.

By the time the police track Kim Sum down, she is back at her ‘Spectrum’ office, playing a video game with her colleagues, and probably for the first time in such a social situation, Kim Sum laughs out loud when she wins the game.

Theme

Having someone to connect with is not as easy as it seems, and the sought-after South Korean drama ‘Somebody’ took it to another level and gave it a sinister turn.

The drama ‘Somebody’ portrays intriguing approaches to loneliness and to human’s dark side. With an outstanding cast and great performance from the protagonists, the drama highlights the loneliness of Kim Sum on the autism spectrum and the struggles faced to connect with people through the lens of Kim Sum.

Awards

No information is available.

Interesting Facts about Somebody

1. The drama ‘Somebody’ story is based on the 2000 satirical American psychological horror film ‘American Psycho’.
2. It is the second main role for Kang Hae-lim after starring in the 2008 Korean drama ‘Govengers’.
3. ‘Somebody’ marks Kim Yong-ji’s first leading role in the Korean entertainment industry.
4. Kim Soo-yeon is making her acting debut in ‘Somebody’ as Yeong Gi-eun.

FAQs

1. Who are the writer and director of ‘Somebody’?
   The drama is written by Jung Ji-woo and Han Ji-wan and directed by Jung Ji-woo.
   
2. What is the genre of ‘Somebody’?
   The drama falls into melodrama, thriller, and crime genres.
   
3. How many episodes are in ‘Somebody’?
   ‘Somebody’ has concluded a successful 8-episode run.
4. Is the K-drama ‘Somebody’ worth watching?
   
   Absolutely, the protagonists’ deeply emotional and unsettling performances uplift the psychological thriller to keep up the excitement with very promising erotic thrills and crime-led ambiguity over storytelling.
5. What is the Instagram ID of Kim Yong-ji?
   demi_kimee is the Instagram ID of Kim Yong-ji.
6. What is the Instagram ID of Kim Young-kwang?
   

   aksakfn12 is the Instagram ID of Kim Young-kwang.