Koma 2004

After attending a wedding party at a hotel, the young socialite Ching wakes up drunk to a terrifying realization: her kidney has been surgically removed. In the ballroom, Ling is identified as the only unfamiliar face, and she quickly becomes the prime suspect, though Ling remains largely unknown to hotel staff and guests. The incident sets off a web of envy, secrecy, and dangerous ambitions that surveys the chasm between Ching’s glittering world and Ling’s harder life.

During the police investigation, Ching realizes that Ling is secretly involved with her boyfriend, Wai. The revelation deepens the tension, as a romance and a risk-filled alliance collide under pressure. Ling is released uncharged due to insufficient evidence, leaving a door open for revenge and a lingering sense that the truth remains buried beneath money, manipulation, and a city’s indifference.

Rather than disappear, Ling begins stalking Ching, seemingly jealous that Ching can navigate places and people Ling can only dream of, while Ling’s own path has forced her into a starkly different survival mode. Ching, at first, sees this as harassment but gradually flips the dynamic and starts following Ling instead, turning the cat-and-mouse dynamic on its head. The two women drift into a tense, layered game where each move exposes the darker corners of ambition, desire, and the price of belonging in a world built on appearances. The danger escalates as Ching begins to fear for her life when Ling starts making threats to remove her kidney too, highlighting how far someone will go when desperation eclipses morality.

One night, Ching is kidnapped by a mysterious man that seems to be an ally of Ling’s. Ching reveals that her kidney is weak, and the man may not be able to sell it for much, a detail that casts new light on the motives behind the crime. She passes out, and wakes to find Ling injured beside her, a startling reminder that their feud is intertwined with real pain and real peril. Ching takes Ling to the hospital, and it isn’t long before Ching discovers that Ling is actually a kind person, more true than the friendships Ching shares with her superficial socialite circle. Ling has a childhood sweetheart, a presence that Ling keeps mostly hidden from the world.

Ching and Ling then make a deal with the mysterious man so that Ching can get a kidney. However Ching informs the police beforehand, and when they arrive, the man holds Ling hostage. Ling allegedly kills the man, a moment that fractures the balance of power and trust. Wai begins to suspect Ling and breaks into her house, adding a new layer of danger to the already electric situation.

Ching invites Ling to her house, where she learns that the man who was killed was Ling’s childhood sweetheart. Ling explains that she and the man had planned to make a living selling kidneys to relieve her family’s financial strain, but Ching’s supposed betrayal sent him spiraling into despair and killed himself. Ling then discovers that Wai has been searching her house, intensifying the stakes and forcing her to act quickly. She holds Wai hostage and asks Ching to come to her workplace, a research center, and give her kidney, a request that tests every boundary of loyalty and humanity.

Ching, armed with an axe, chases Ling, her anger intensifying when she learns that Wai is dead. Ling suffocates her with plastic, a brutal climax that leaves both women marked by what they have done and what they have become. In the end, Ching wakes up in hospital to a doctor’s somber news: she was in critical condition, but saved by a donor kidney recovered from the scene. She realizes that Ling hacked herself to death to give her the kidney she always wanted, a revelation that shatters the world she knew. Unable to digest this information, she screams for the doctor to remove her kidney, as the camera cuts to a shot of Ling lying dead with her voiceover saying, “You’ll owe me this forever.” There is a final shot of Ching, under the effects of sedatives, slipping toward unconsciousness, leaving a lingering question about the true price of desire and the darkness that can live in even the most glamorous lives.