Overview of Unlocked

‘Unlocked’ is a South Korean thriller film, based on the book of the same name by author Akira Teshigawara. The film has ruled over Netflix, since its release on 17 February 2023, and has become the second most-watched film on Netflix globally.

Profile

Movie: Unlocked
Genre: Thriller
Director: Kim Tae-joon
Writer: Kim Tae-joon
Cinematographer: Kim Yong-seong
Distributor: Netflix, CJ ENM
Language: Korean
Release Date: February 17, 2023
Country: South Korea

Cast

Main

Chun Woo-hee as Lee Na-mi, a marketer at a startup company.
Im Si-wan as Oh Jun-yeong, a man who picks up Lee Na-mi’s smartphone.
Kim Hee-won as Woo Ji-man, a detective investigating a murder case.
Jeon Jin-oh as Kim Jung-ho, an investigative officer.
Park Ho-san as Lee Seung-woo, father of Lee-Na-mi.
Kim Ye-won as Jeong Eun-joo, the best friend of Lee-Na-mi.

Supporting

Oh Hyun-kyung as CEO, the boss of Lee-Na-mi.
Kim Joo-ryoung as Eun-mi.
Gil Hae-yeon as Je-yeon.

Synopsis

Lee Na-mi’s Life Turns Upside Down After She Loses Her Phone

Lee Na-mi is an enthusiastic, fun-loving and energetic girl who works as a marketer at a start-up company. She stays alone in her house. Her father, Lee Seung-woo runs a cafe named Cafe Mizi, where Na-mi works during her free time.

One day, Lee Na-mi drops her phone on a bus by accident and a stranger picks it up. The next day, her best friend, Jeong Eun-joo calls Lee Na-mi’s phone and a man named Oh Jun-Yeong picks up the phone. To disguise himself, he uses a fake voice app and talks using a female voice to Jeong Eun-joo. Oh Jun-yeong tells Jeong Eun-joo that he found the phone in the bus and asks whether he should give it to the police. Jeong Eun-joo asks him to wait as she wanted to speak to Lee Na-mi first. Jeong Eun-joo meets Lee Na-mi and tells her about the stranger who has her phone.

Lee Na-mi calls Oh Jun-yeong and tells him to bring her phone to her dad’s cafe. Meanwhile, Oh Jun-yeong starts collecting every update about Lee Na-mi by reading all the notifications on her phone. He also tries to unlock her phone, but fails to do so, as it is password protected. As Oh Jun-yeong could not unlock Na-mi’s phone, out of frustration and anger, he broke the screen of the phone.

Since her phone was broken and given it for repair, Oh Jun-yeong asks Lee Na-mi to collect it. Using spyware, Oh Jun-yeong created a duplicate of Lee Na-mi’s phone to have ultimate access to her daily activities. He even hacks into her cameras to constantly check her surroundings.

Kdrama Live — Im Si-wan as Oh Jun-yeong and Chun Woo-hee as Lee Na-mi in “Unlocked” (2023) Credit: Pinterest

Police Find Dead Bodies in a Mountain Forest

As time passes by, the police discover a woman’s body inside a mountain forest. The body is in a bad state, and the police start their investigation. Woo Ji-man and Kim Jung-ho are investigative officers assigned to probe the murder case. They discuss the case and they both suspect detective Woo Ji-man’s son.

This happens as Woo Ji-man remembers that he had planted a plum tree for his son when he was young. They also found some plant food products around the dead body that were exclusively used by the officer’s son.

However, as a father, Woo Ji-man is not able to accept his son as a murderer. He had not been in contact with his son for seven long years. For the sake of investigation, Kim Jung-ho asks Woo Ji-man to find out whether his son was in touch with his wife. The investigative officer, Woo Ji-man checks his wife’s phone and realises that she is still in contact with their son, Oh Jun-yeong. He succeeds in the task of finding his son’s address as he keeps on relocating.

The Connection Between Oh Jun-yeong and the Killer

The man who picks Lee Na-mi’s phone turns out to be Woo Ji-man’s son, Oh Jun-yeong, who moves out of his house due to a fight with his parents.

Oh Jun-yeong Meets Lee Na-mi

One evening, Oh Jun-yeong visits the cafe and Lee Na-mi is also there. As we know, Lee Na-mi has never met Oh Jun-yeong, and he remains a stranger to her. Oh Jun-yeong orders ‘plumade’. This leaves Lee Na-mi confused as the drink was only prepared by her father exclusively for her. Little did she know, she was being spied on by the stranger. However, the stranger tells her that he was a regular and often ordered this drink.

Lee Seung-woo sees his daughter talking to Oh Jun-yeong. Even he is confused how this stranger ordered an item which was unknown to the general public. This made him suspect the stranger.

Lee Seung-woo Advises Lee Na-mi

Lee Seung-woo tells Lee Na-mi to keep an eye on Oh Jun-yeong as he gets negative vibes from Oh Jun-yeong. However, she does not pay much attention to her father’s words. Oh Jun-yeong tracks the father-daughter conversation as well.

Officers On a Mission To Catch Oh Jun-yeong

Both the officers reach Oh Jun-yeong’s house as part of the investigation and find some notes and photographs of eight girls. All these girls were found dead. These notes were written by Oh Jun-yeong. They also find Lee Na-mi’s name as ‘number nine’, who is supposedly his next victim. They understand that the body they found on the mountain is Oh Jun-yeong’s recent victim.

Surprisingly, Oh Jun-yeong also comes to his apartment only to realise that someone had broken into the house. He fools the officers in order to make them leave the house. Oh Jun-yeong then destroys all the evidence and runs away from there with his bag that contains his victims’ phones, notebooks and other personal things, which he considered an achievement.

When Woo Ji-man comes to check the apartment again, he realises that all the evidence was wiped out. Due to this, his suspicion grew stronger. He realises that his son is not innocent and could be a serial killer.

Oh Jun-yeong’s Killing Patterns

Woo Ji-man finds the killing patterns of Oh Jun-yeong from the last victim’s mother. Oh Jun-yeong’s pattern was to find a target, somehow steal their phone, find out the password and clone the phone. He even uses the victim’s house after the murder and then survives on their money and their identity.

Seven Dead Bodies Appear in the Mountain

Meanwhile, due to the heavy rain in the mountains, seven buried dead bodies start appearing. Fear spreads everywhere and the investigative officers are upset and under pressure to catch the criminal.

Lee Na-mi Realises Her Phone Hacked

Lee Na-mi realised that her phone was hacked after confidential information between her boss and she had been leaked on social media without her knowledge. This made Lee Na-mi go and file a cyber crime with her friend. However, the cyber security official asks her to bring proof stating that her phone is hacked.

Oh Jun-yeong as a Digital Security Officer

Suddenly, Lee Na-mi remembers Oh Jun-yeong, who once appeared as a digital security officer. She contacts him and Oh Jun-yeong meets her and tells her that someone could have put spyware on her phone.

Oh Jun-yeong tries to convince her that her best friend is behind the spyware. Na-mi begins to suspect her best friend and which creates a misunderstanding. Ultimately, Oh Jun-yeong succeeds in isolating Na-mi from everyone important in her life, including her father, boss and now her best friend. Out of anger, Lee Na-mi throws her phone and it breaks.

Investigative Officers to Catch Oh Jun-yeong

The investigative officers want to capture Oh Jun-yeong at any cost. They trace his repair shop location. Oh Jun-yeong, who is one step ahead, destroys all the evidence beforehand. Lee Na-mi also goes there to search for him as she had broken her phone. The officers and Lee Na-mi meet there.

Woo Ji-man tells everything about Oh Jun-yeong to Lee Na-mi, except the fact that he is a dangerous killer. They decide to catch him before someone else becomes a victim. They tell Lee Na-mi to continue to pretend as if she is unaware of the phone hack.

Lee Na-mi invites Oh Jun-yeong to her house with a plan that Woo Ji-man can arrest him. After a makeover, Oh Jun-yeong comes to meet her. Woo Ji-man comes to arrest Oh Jun-yeong, but fails to recognise him as his son.

Lee Na-mi Goes to Her Father’s House

The officers ask Lee Na-mi to stay away from her house and she goes to her father’s house, instead. They drop her off at Seung-woo’s house. They plan that Lee Na-mi should only update the officers through messages. She also informs that if she does not respond, then they should come immediately. Lee Na-mi finds Oh Jun-yeong inside her dad’s house and he forces her to send a message to the officers that she is safe and will talk to them the next day.

Oh Jun-yeong takes Lee Na-mi to her dad and keeps him captive in the bathtub. He also ties her hands and feet and puts her inside the bathtub. The officers receive an alert call from Lee Na-mi and Woo Ji-man catches hold of Oh Jun-yeong.

In the climax, after having long conversations and actions, Woo Ji-man opens the suitcase, and finds out Oh Jung-yeong was not his son. He also finds that his son was the first victim of this killer.

Lee Na-mi shoots the criminal as she can not stand what was done to her father, which leaves him unconscious but alive.

The investigative officer receives a call saying that the real Oh Jun-yeong’s dead body was found and its DNA matches Woo Ji-man. The stalker accepts that he has a total of 9 victims, including Oh Jun-yeong. The purpose of killing him was to steal his identity and commit the crime. He did not feel an ounce of shame while killing innocent people. This leaves the audience to believe that he was indeed a psychopath.

Theme

Debutant director Kim Tae-joon takes the idea about the importance of mobile phones in the daily life of ordinary people. The director also portrays the darker side of gadget dependency among youngsters through the South Korean film ‘Unlocked’. The film can leave anyone feeling anxious as to how odd it feels when a pair of eyes follow us around. The film tells the audience that not all hackers look at the victims’ money, but also do it for the sake of their sadistic joy of destroying one before killing them.

In this present generation, mobile phones have become an inevitable part of our lives, and most youngsters consider the gadget an extra body organ. Anything to everything, including wake-up alarms to dinner recipes, we depend on this tiny gadget that can fit into our pockets. Youth rarely share their thoughts and feelings with their friends or relatives in cosy chats, and they empty their hearts into a device thinking its password protection can store every detail about their lives carefully.

The film, ‘Unlocked’, shows the change in the life of a phone-obsessed woman who used to update her entire life on social media, and she eventually lost her phone and was tracked by a dangerous man.

Frankly, ‘Unlocked’ is an eye-opener for phone addicts who take privacy issues casually.

It is not the first film that addresses this subject, but it explains the risks behind social media platforms without any sugarcoating.

While portraying a woman who disconnects from the real world and spends most of her time with a small gadget, the film proves every possible consequence of leading to an unhealthy obsession with smartphones.

‘Unlocked’ is a message for all who treat phones like a human with a soul. It points towards the reality that anybody can easily extract precious information from it. The film also guides us on how to protect ourselves in this technologically-propelled society.

Identity Crisis and Humans

The identity of the murderer in the film remained unknown, which made the police wait for the killer to be conscious. The film director, one being the stateless ghost children in South Korea, indirectly tried to present the real issues of undocumented migrant children in the country.

Awards

No information is available.

Interesting Facts about Unlocked

The Korean thriller film ‘Unlocked’ is about a man that stalks and kills women through their phones.
The cafe in the film is named after one of its production studios.
Oh Jun-yeong finds Lee Na-mi’s old phone on her desk early on while going through her house.
Oh Jun-yeong labels his victim’s phones in order of their death.

FAQs

Is Unlocked a good movie?
‘Unlocked’ is a movie full of surprises.
Who is the director of the film ‘Unlocked’?
Kim Tae-joon is the director of the film ‘Unlocked’.
When was ‘Unlocked’ released?
The film was released on 17 February 2023.
What is the Instagram ID of Chun Woo-hee?
Her instagram is thousand_wooo.
What is the Instagram ID of Im Si-wan?
His instagram ID is yim_siwang.

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Unlocked: Overview, Cast, 4 Fun Facts & More