Review of Unlocked / 스마트폰을 떨어뜨렸을 뿐인데, directed by Kim Tae-joon

This blog post is a celebratory one—it marks the last blog post of clearing through my backlog! In the summer of 2024 I had a gap between graduating graduate school and heading off to Korea for a program, which means I watched a ton of content and read quite a few books during this time.

As I run a book, television, and movie blog on this website, that means I was reviewing and making content about what I was consuming during this time. This movie is the last movie I watched before heading off to South Korea, and I watched it to make sure that I could understand some Korean still.

That said, I also watched it because I love the actors who were starring in it. After watching a ton of Korean movies leading up to this time where I headed there, there were some actors I became more loyal fans of because of the quality of their content. Or, in the case of Wi Ha-joon, every so often what they appeared in.

I don’t want to ramble too much on this introductory section, so let’s jump into straight into the review and summary. This is a movie that feels definitely like it could happen in real life, that’s for sure.

After leaving a smartphone behind, a man tracks her every move after rigging it and giving it back to her.

Our main character in this movie is Lee Na-mi, who is a young woman that’s pretty typical for her age. She goes to work as a marketer at a jelly dink company, and she also helps her dad out at his cafe whenever she has time. The conflict of this movie begins when she leaves her phone on the bus one day.

Oh Jun-yong finds it and decides this is his chance. Using a fake voice app, he tells her, through her friend and access to the phone, to pick the phone up at the repair shop the next day. He fixes the phone, and with the password, he installs some spyware onto the phone.

He returns the phone, then continuously begins to stalk her throughout her day to day life. We learn that this isn’t the first person he did this to, but he’s watching like a hawk. When he gathers enough information, he meets up with her by matching his schedule to seem coincidental, and then actually becomes friends with her.

As this happens, a detective, Ji-man, works on a case where a body was found in the woods. He starts thinking that it was his estranged son, who happens to be Jun-yong.

Na-mi’s father is suspicious of him though, but then Jun-yong manages to get inside of his house and holds her dad captive. She doesn’t know of this yet, but the worst is yet to come.

Utilizing her social media activity and knowing all her passwords, Jun-yong rigs it so that information only Na-mi would know about her work is leaked. She runs a big social media account personally, and it looks like she herself is badmouthing the company and causing them to tank.

Her boss then fires her, as she’s pissed about it, especially after Na-mi sleeps in and shows up to the office late this same day. Eun-joo, her best friend, and Na-mi go to the police to tell them she was hacked, but they’re turned away.

Jun-yong sees them trying to meet an online safety expert, then poses as the guy himself. He then gets Na-mi to believe that it was Eun-joo, causing their friendship to fall apart and leaving Na-mi even more vulnerable. Na-mi goes back to the repair shop, where she meets the detective and his partner.

After meeting them, she realizes it was Jun-yong who caused all of this. The detective doesn’t tell her he is a serial killer, and she suggest setting up a trap. They also don’t recognize him when they see Jun-yong going to her apartment, and the trap fails. Na-mi goes to her father’s, then discovers Jun-yong is there.

He forces Na-mi to drown her father, but he doesn’t know Na-mi signaled the detective. They take him down, and we learn that he stole the detective’s son’s identity. Turns out the son was his first victim. At the same time, believing her father is dead, Na-mi shoots him.

Her father does live, and Jun-yong is arrested. In the movie’s final moments, Na-mi goes back to her normal life and is restoring what was destroyed before.

Overall Thoughts

This was an interesting movie to me because of how this could literally happen to anyone. I often think about how elderly people fall prey to scams and clinking links or downloading content they shouldn’t because they don’t know how to engage with technology.

A young woman like this could easily fall prey to it too. This killer is someone who lives for the thrill of the hunt, and he doesn’t care about how long it takes because it’s part of the chase.

Outside of this, I think that the acting in this movie is top level. Im is an actor I’ve been continuously impressed with in whatever I’ve seen him in. I still remember when he was only in his K-pop group—that’s how long I’ve been in the Korean culture wave hole. It’s endless, and I’ve been loving it.

All in all, I genuinely enjoyed this film. Go watch it if you haven’t already and want to—there’s a lot to enjoy in this one, especially if the synopsis already appeals to you.

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