Confession 2022

Yoo Min-ho, a high-powered CEO, finds himself the prime suspect after the police discover him with the body of his former mistress, Kim See-hee, in a hotel room locked from the inside. His defense team brings in a renowned attorney, Yang Shin-ae, who travels to his remote, snow-blanketed cabin to decide whether to take the case.

Min-ho maintains that his affair with See-hee ended two months earlier and that their last meeting at the hotel was prompted by someone trying to blackmail them about the affair. He insists he was attacked by an unseen assailant, and when he woke, See-hee was already dead. Shin-ae counsels him to tell the truth, noting that the case appears linked to the disappearance of a young man, Han Seon-jae.

Min-ho narrates a crucial sequence from two months ago: he and See-hee met at the cabin, the affair ended, and as they were leaving in Min-ho’s company car, See-hee swerved to avoid a deer, causing the car to stall and another vehicle to crash into a boulder. Afraid of exposure, See-hee urges Min-ho to dispose of the other car and its dead driver, Seon-jae. While Min-ho goes to handle the disposal, See-hee remains in the stalled car, aided by Young-seok, a passing mechanic who happened to be Seon-jae’s father. Min-ho later has his lawyer destroy the implicated company car and report it as stolen, but Young-seok reports Seon-jae’s disappearance and provides a description of See-hee and the vehicle to the police, turning See-hee into a suspect.

Shin-ae suggests a bold defense theory: the blackmail message was likely tied to the Seon-jae incident rather than the affair. She reveals that Seon-jae’s mother, Lee Hee-jung, was a hotel receptionist and proposes that she and Young-seok could have conspired to kill See-hee to exact revenge and frame Min-ho. Min-ho appears to buy into this, claiming he saw Young-seok in the hotel room, though Shin-ae calls this a lie.

In a dramatic turn, Shin-ae admits she lied about Hee-jung’s hotel job to prod Min-ho into confessing. She shows that Min-ho was the true driving force behind the cover-up: See-hee, guilt-ridden, contacted Young-seok to confess her role, but Min-ho killed See-hee and allowed himself to be arrested. He signs an agreement to hire Shin-ae and even proposes a plan to plant evidence on Seon-jae’s body to make See-hee the sole culprit posthumously. He also points to the lake where the car was sunk, insisting Shin-ae destroy a wrench inside the car.

The plot twists when it’s revealed that Shin-ae is not the real attorney at all: she is Lee Hee-jung, Seon-jae’s mother and a retired actress. She and Young-seok had kidnapped the genuine Shin-ae to stage the meeting and coax Min-ho into a confession. Min-ho, after comparing the real Shin-ae’s signature with Hee-jung’s, attacks Hee-jung and calls the police, prompting her arrest along with Young-seok.

Yet the enigma isn’t finished: Hee-jung realizes that Min-ho traveled to the cabin deliberately, not to confess, but to uncover the wrench and the truth about Seon-jae’s fate. The police later locate Seon-jae’s car and body in the lake beside the cabin, confirming Min-ho’s presence and intentions. The discovery seals Min-ho’s fate as the investigations close in, and the cascade of betrayals—to Shin-ae’s true identity, to Seon-jae’s family, and to the truth itself—culminates in a final, chilling revelation that the truth was always nearer than anyone expected.