The Truth Beneath 2016

Kim Yeon-hong [Son Ye-jin] seems to have a flawless life: she is beautiful, married to the charismatic young politician Kim Jong-chan [Kim Joo-hyuk], and her once-troublesome adolescent daughter Min-jin [Shin Ji-hoon] is now doing better at school. When Jong-chan announces a bid to unseat the powerful incumbent No Jae-soon [Kim Eui-sung], the couple’s dreams are put to the test as the election looms. A few days before the vote, Min-jin vanishes, and what begins as a worried search rapidly deepens into a web of secrets that threatens her family and their public image.

At first, Yeon-hong and Jong-chan fear Min-jin has run off to draw attention, a tactic she had used before. But Yeon-hong soon discovers that the friend Min-jin claimed to meet does not exist. The clues point to a troubling dynamic at the school: a poor girl named Choi Mi-ok [Kim So-hee], who nonetheless wears an expensive watch that resembles Min-jin’s. The contrast between appearance and reality unsettles Yeon-hong, heightening her suspicions as she confronts Mi-ok. Mi-ok’s presence in the narrative ties into a larger pattern of manipulation and desire for power that threads through the story.

As Yeon-hong pushes deeper, she uncovers evidence of a leaked set of exam papers from a young female teacher at the school. The teacher admits she leaked the papers, claiming the motive was to help Min-jin and Mi-ok improve their grades and avoid bullying, a tactic that backfires in the face of escalating tensions. Yeon-hong’s attempts to get to the bottom of Min-jin’s disappearance lead her to seek answers beyond the police, even consulting a shaman, but the trail grows colder as the investigation stalls. The police eventually discover Min-jin’s dead body in the woods, a revelation that rocks Yeon-hong to the core and pushes her toward seeking citywide sympathy for Jong-chan’s campaign.

Crucially, Yeon-hong’s pursuit of truth strains the political landscape. She confronts the rift between the party’s push for a sympathy vote and the grim reality surrounding their daughter’s death. Meanwhile, the family’s driver, Jong-chan’s driver [Park Jin-woo], becomes a significant, if shadowy, figure in Mi-ok’s world. Yeon-hong’s investigation leads her to an abandoned building where Min-jin and Mi-ok once practiced music, and attempts to hypnotize Mi-ok fail to produce clear answers. A lie detector test shows Mi-ok lying about burying Min-jin’s body but accepting that she did not kill her friend, complicating the narrative of responsibility and guilt.

Yeon-hong’s theories evolve as she learns Mi-ok is the daughter of Jong-chan’s driver, a connection that fuels a jealousy-based hypothesis about the motive for murder. Yet concrete evidence remains elusive, and Yeon-hong continues to press for the truth. She discovers a secret hideout connected to the girls’ music, along with buried money, a clue that deepens the mystery rather than resolving it. When she corners Mi-ok, the girl finally reveals that Min-jin and Mi-ok had become best friends because they shared a taste in music. Their bond grows tense as Min-jin begins to suspect the schoolteacher might be having an affair, prompting them to use a hidden camera in a car air freshener to record the teacher with her lover. The girls blackmail the teacher for money, a desperate move born from financial strain in Mi-ok’s family.

One rainy night, tragedy strikes: Min-jin is struck by a car, and Mi-ok, who had hidden nearby, witnesses the aftermath and later uses the driver’s car to murder the killer before carrying Min-jin’s body into the woods. Mi-ok then takes the killer’s phone and disappears, leaving Yeon-hong with a crucial clue that shifts the investigation toward those who hired the hit. Yeon-hong, convinced that the person responsible must be brought to justice, plans to confront the mastermind with the evidence the girls amassed.

The tension culminates in a dinner scene that becomes a turning point. Yeon-hong suggests that No Jae-soon and his campaign could capitalize on the tragedy, but the real twist unfolds through a series of flashbacks: the man with whom the teacher was involved is Jong-chan. It becomes clear that Jong-chan had unknowingly hired a contract killer to murder his own daughter. The revelation exposes a devastating web of manipulation, jealousy, and political expediency that has consumed the family from within. Yeon-hong confronts Jong-chan, ties him up, and, in a brutal reversal of the public’s sympathy, uploads a sex video featuring him to the internet, dismantling his career as he watches in powerless horror. The film leaves viewers contemplating how far ambition, fear, and parental desperation can push a family toward ruin, and who bears the ultimate responsibility for Min-jin’s untimely death.