Written & directed by Ha Joon-won, “Dead Man” (Dedeumaen, 2024) is a new South Korean thriller that revolves around identity theft. It follows a businessman who makes a living selling his name. However, much later, he realizes its detrimental impact on his personal life. It leads him to live in exile. Much later, a political operation offers him another chance to restart his life for the better. Cho Jin-woong plays the lead role of Lee Man-jae in this film. Besides him, the film’s cast includes Kim Hee-ae, Lee Soo-kyung, Choi Soo-young, Choi Jae-Woong, Park Ho-san, Kim Won-hae, Lee Si-Hoon, Jeon Moo-song, and Yoo Yeon-soo.
Spoilers ahead
Dead Man (Dedeumaen, 2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
“Dead Man,” starring Cho Jin-woong, Kim Hee-ae, and Lee Soo-kyung in the central roles, follows a man trying to get his life back on track after getting wrongfully accused of financial fraud.
What happens in the Korean ‘Dead Man’ movie?
“Dead Man” follows Lee Man-jae (Cho Jin-woong), a businessman from Seoul, who faces a divorce lawsuit from his pregnant wife, Jeon Soo-hyeon (Jung Woon Sun). In the past, he was a victim of a bank fraud. For years, she lived with him despite their financial struggles. He plans to move to Australia with a new business venture idea. But she decides to take a step toward freedom. On the other hand, he makes a surprising decision to sell his name to make money. While driving away, his associate, Loony, suggests a lucrative financial opportunity to him.
Man-jae begins working as a CEO for a start-up company named Spotech. On a work day, he gets a sudden visit from Jo Pil-joo (Park Ho San), who claims an abnormality in their stock trading. Pil-joo bullies Man-jae, and a company employee hands over a substantial amount of cash to Pil-joo. Although Man-jae starts earning well, he cannot save his marriage with Soo-hyeon. A few months later, he must go on a business trip to evade a tax investigation. He travels to Macau and spends time waiting for the birth of his daughter, Sol. While in Macau, Man-jae realizes that there is an arrest warrant against his name.
Lee Man-jae’s Imprisonment
The news reveal that Man-jae is accused of embezzling 100 billion won. He calls his associates for answers about these false accusations. But no one responds. Then, two men enter his room and kidnap him to their prison. Then, Man-jae is kept in solitary confinement and is tortured through endless labor. After over a year and a half of imprisonment, he receives a visit from political consultant Shim Eun-jo (Kim Hee-ae). He realizes that his identity is compromised and is declared dead by suicide. For all this period, he was forced to live his life as a dead and nameless person.
Mrs. Shim reveals the details about Congressman Hwang Chi-woon, who has defected from the Minui Party and hopes to establish a new party. The money that Man-jae was accused of embezzling was used by Chi-woon for his party. Mrs. Shim seeks Man-jae’s help to seek revenge against Chi-woon. She rescues him from prison and offers him a new life with a significant bank balance if he fulfills her operation. Eventually, he returns to his office space in Seoul, which he finds it in a poor state. He realizes that Soo-hyeon tried to kill herself after she heard the news of Man-jae’s suicide.
Lee Man-jae’s Redemption
Lee Man-jae meets Loony, who previously led him to Spotech. Then, he realizes that Gong Moon-sik (Kim Won-hae) appointed him to the CEO position at Spotech. Interestingly, Moon-sik is a puppet boss facing a severe debt threat when the company suddenly shuts down. Moon-sik returned to the office space and ended up burning himself to death. After Moon-sik’s death, his daughter, Hee-joo (Lee Soo-kyung), remains determined to seek revenge for her father’s death. Unlike most of the world, she believes Man-jae is still alive. She mentions this theory anywhere she can. So, in the present, Man-jae arranges a meeting with Hee-joo.
After a brief discussion, Man-jae and Hee-joo decide to find the culprit who conned him and Moon-sik by manipulating the stocks. Soon after, someone steals a ledger from her house that was important for their investigation. Then, Loony leads Man-jae and Hee-joo to the ‘Big Foot’ criminal who carries out his identity theft scams in a scrapyard. Mrs. Shim wants that ledger anyhow to bring down Hwang. After a dialogue with her, Man-jae and Hee-joo meet a fixer in the scrapyard.
They get him a lucrative deal and extract information on the bookie he works for in exchange. This man leads them to an expert money launderer, ‘Laundry Cho.’ Laundry Cho previously tricked a bunch of local club agents into opening stock accounts in trust funds by offering a considerable sum. However, they needed to return all the money once the stock went down.
Dead Man (Dedeumaen, 2024) Movie Ending Explained:
Mrs. Shim helps Gong Hee-joo to infiltrate one of the clubs to find Laundry Cho. They meet Hipster (Choi Soo-young), a popular club MD connected to the barge business world. Hipster informs Mrs. Shim about an event for young female CEOs happening the following night. Hee-joo decides to enter it under a false identity. Then, Hipster leads her to Laundry Cho’s hotel room. Once Hipster leaves, Hee-joo turns off the power to Laundry Cho’s room. Then, Hee-joo lets him enter the room to interrogate Cho. There, he realizes that Cho is the chairman of Congressman Hwang’s support association for his new party.
Before Cho’s cronies barge in, Man-jae manages to escape with a file that details Cho’s criminal history. Mrs. Shim decides to use Man-jae to ruin Mr. Hwang’s reputation. Later, during Mr. Hwang’s public address, Man-jae gets recognized by the audience. Soon after, Man-jae realizes that Loony has been betraying him by working for Laundry Cho. While Cho’s men torture Man-jae, Loony feels sympathy for him. So, Loony attacks Cho’s men but gets killed instead. Then, suddenly, Hee-joo breaks into this place with a bulldozer to defeat Cho’s gang.
Can Lee Man-jae reunite with his family?
Man-jae helps Mrs. Shim find the link between the 10 million of embezzled money Mr. Hwang used for his new party. Mrs. Shim wonders where the rest of the 90 million went. Man-jae promises he will help find what that amount is linked to. Since Man-jae fulfills his mission against Hwang, Mrs. Shim offers him the promised amount and his wife’s contact details. Upon calling her, he realizes that she lost their baby through a miscarriage. While processing this painful news, he finds evidence against Yoon Seong-soo (Yoo Yeon Soo), the Minui party chief, who embezzled the remaining amount. Mrs. Shim confronts him but fails to convict him due to insufficient evidence.
While that happens, Man-jae realizes that party chief Seong-soo used Moon-sik’s name to embezzle money even after Moon-sik’s death. So, Man-jae decides to use his name instead. Later, when Mr. Hwang addresses the press, Man-jae enters the limelight. Then, he reveals he is taking the blame for exposing Seong-soo. Then, Mr. Hwang speaks against Seong-soo in the press, and Hee-joo supports the accusations. So, at the end of “Dead Man,” Seong-soo & Laundry Cho face the consequences of their crimes. While that happens, Man-jae meets the old seal master, Mr Jin, who led him into the mess by forging his seal.
He tries to kill the old man but resists the urge. A while later, Mr. Jin gets put behind bars and gets a long sentence. Man-jae appears in the courtroom to remove the ‘dead’ part from his family relation certificate. He walks out with his new ID and meets Mrs. Shin. The film doesn’t disclose whether he reunites with his family or not.
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Dead Man (Dedeumaen, 2024) Movie Trailer
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