Fabricated City 2017

Kwon Yoo, a former national taekwondo champion, spends his days at an Internet cafe immersed in a high-skill online FPS where his in-game persona, “Captain,” leads a tight-knit crew that calls themselves RESURRECTION. After a routine gaming session, he stumbles upon a found smartphone and heads to the owner’s apartment to return it, setting off a chain of events that will upheave his life.

The very next day, [Kwon Yoo] is arrested and accused of killing a young girl. The body of evidence seems overwhelming: the murder weapon sits in his house, his fingerprints and DNA are at the scene, and security footage appears to place him at the apartment during the crime. Under sustained media pressure, the court swiftly convicts him, sentencing him to life in a maximum-security prison. In the harsh environment of the prison, [Kwon Yoo] draws the eye of the gang leader [Ma Duk-su], and his early days are brutal, with beatings marking his first impressions of life behind bars. His mother visits, insisting she is fighting for his freedom and urging him to endure.

With the help of a sympathetic inmate, [Kwon Yoo] retrains himself and begins to push back, culminating in a hard-fought victory over [Ma Duk-su]. The turn of events intensifies when news arrives that his mother has taken her own life, prompting a desperate break from prison and a nationwide manhunt. He seeks out [Min Chum-sang], the public defender who defended him, and is handed his mother’s necklace with a quiet vow that his case will be re-examined. This moment marks the start of a new path toward uncovering the truth.

[Yeo-wool], one of his RESURRECTION teammates, reaches out and brings him to her house on the city’s outskirts. Soon, the whole RESURRECTION crew gathers, and [Yeo-wool] has already researched the case, spotting irregularities in the narrative of the evidence. The team bands together to help [Kwon Yoo] clear his name, revisiting recent high-profile violent crimes and, through security camera footage, tracing a truck parked near the crime scenes.

Following this lead, [Kwon Yoo] makes his way to the apartment of Noh Joon-young, a rising TV actor, and discovers a corpse. While hiding in a corner, he watches a team of “specialists” stage a crime scene, crafting a tale of rabid fan stalking, killing, and embalming her idol. Unbeknownst to him, the apartment is being surveilled by Min, the mastermind behind the framing. The real killer turns out to be the daughter of a wealthy businessman known as “Chairman Chu,” who hires Min to find a scapegoat. Using a massive intelligence-gathering supercomputer hidden in his apartment block, Min identifies an appropriate candidate, a girl named So, and dispatches a team to drug her and collect hair, saliva, and blood to fake the crime scene.

Later, they lure So to Noh’s apartment and execute the narrative. In parallel, [Kwon Yoo] learns that his supposed victim was killed by the son of a wealthy client, and he is framed as the culprit. After tracking So, the team bugs her phone and uncovers Min’s accomplice. [Kwon Yoo] attempts to kidnap the accomplice but is captured by the gang leader, who was freed thanks to Min manipulating prison records. [Yeo-wool] intervenes, saving him and driving him to safety. To understand how Ma found him, [Yeo-wool] discovers a tracker hidden in his mother’s necklace and realizes Min is involved. After RESURRECTION sabotages Min’s operation, [Kwon Yoo] confronts Min at his command center. He beats Min and begins transferring Min’s data (including surveillance footage of his victims and call logs with his client) using [Yeo-wool]’s thumb drive.

Min implies that the suicide of [Kwon Yoo]’s mother was actually a murder set up by Min. Min then reveals that Ma is at [Yeo-wool]’s safehouse and has captured his teammates. Unable to wait for the data transfer, [Kwon Yoo] races back to save them. Evading Ma’s gang, Min’s subordinates, and the police, the group hurries to a TV station. On the way, they learn that Min has manipulated the media into portraying his team as a “psychotic crime ring.” The team distracts the pursuers while [Yeo-wool] sets up her equipment. In the end, everyone except [Yeo-wool] is captured, and as Min celebrates, his command center shuts down, revealing that [Yeo-wool]’s thumbdrive has completed its mission.

With the crucial evidence recovered from Min’s computer, [Yeo-wool] and the two hitherto absent teammates assemble a presentation. They override the TV station’s regular broadcast and lay out the facts, detailing Min’s involvement, his clients, and how the victims were framed. Min is arrested, though the story hints at a deeper force at work behind him. [Kwon Yoo] is finally cleared of all charges and released. In the closing scene, the group gathers to share a meal, chatting and enjoying their hard-won freedom.