The Unjust

Plot

After the rape and murder of 5 elementary schoolgirls, a crime which deeply upsets the entire country, a fleeing suspect is shot and killed by the police. This leads to bad publicity because the guilt of the suspect cannot be proved, and the real attacker may still be at large. Under pressure from the Blue House, a senior police official assigns Choi, a corrupt captain, on a highly sensitive mission, namely to find a former child rapist who can take the blame in exchange for money for his family. Choi, in return, is promised a promotion and the dismissal of an internal investigation against him, which was caused by his illicit collaboration with Jang, a corrupt businessman. Meanwhile, a corrupt prosecutor named Joo cancels the criminal charges against a corrupt businessman named Kim.

Choi searches through several profiles of rapists, and having settled upon Lee, a border-line retarded school-bus driver, he enlists Jang and his henchmen to kid-nap Lee and coach him in how the confession should be delivered. Jang, however, who is rivals with Kim, takes photographs of Kim and Joo playing golf, and has a henchman approach Kim and murder him. The photographs are mailed to Joo to ensure that Jang will never be prosecuted. At the police station, Lee is denied immunity to the death penalty, and as such, reneges on the deal and tells Joo the truth. In response, Jang sends the earlier henchman to suffer arrest and murder Lee from within the jail. This makes Joo furious and he investigates Choi, finding evidence of his and Jang's partnership. Choi, in response, pleads with Joo not to dismantle his career, and the two agree on a truce.

Meanwhile, Jang, who is tired of being black-mailed by Choi, has saved recordings of Lee's coaching session, and black-mails Choi in return. Choi reacts by murdering Jang using a rigged elevator, and pretends to make peace with Jang's assistant before murdering him as well. However, this incident is seen by Choi's lieutenant, who wrestles with Choi and tries to stop him. During the struggle, Choi accidentally kills his lieutenant, and afterward stabs the dead body with a knife, so that the police will assume that Jang's assistant and the lieutenant killed each other. As Choi receives his promotion and the lieutenant's family mourns, Choi's subordinates become suspicious and privately capture another one of Jang's henchmen, who served as Jang's videographer and who recorded Jang's death and the ensuing fight. To Choi's immense fortune, DNA testing finally succeeds on the body of one of the girls mentioned earlier, and Lee is proved as the real attacker all along, finally satisfying the public. Nonetheless, the subordinates release the video of the coaching to prove Choi's connection with Jang, and what is more, they ambush Choi at a charnel house and murder him in revenge. The final segment shows Joo's subordinate blowing the whistle by releasing the golf photographs, but in spite of the media reporting that charges will be filed, Joo meets with a senior official who calmly assures him that everything will be alright.

Film festivals

The Unjust has screened at numerous film festivals around the world, including the Panorama section of the 61st Berlin International Film Festival, the Hong Kong International Film Festival, the Shanghai International Film Festival, the New York Asian Film Festival, the Fantasia Festival, the Hawaii International Film Festival, the Vladivostok International Film Festival - Pacific Meridian, the Sitges Film Festival, the London Korean Film Festival, and the Udine Far East Film Festival.