Missing (2007) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Guo Dong was beheaded during a mysterious accident while diving near the Yonaguni underwater city. Later, his ghost reveals to Gao Jing that his oxygen tank was crushed by ocean currents, causing his death. The exact circumstances of the beheading remain ambiguous, with the body found without a head at his funeral.

Foreshadowing: Earlier in the film, Guo Dong takes Gao Jing to the dangerous underwater ruins, hinting at the peril of the location.

• guo dong death
• beheading
• oxygen tank
• diving accident
• yonaguni

Yes. At the end of the film, a camcorder video reveals that Gao Jing stabbed Guo Dong during a nitrogen narcosis episode while diving. She had no memory of this act due to the narcosis and later memory loss. This revelation reframes the entire story, her guilt manifested as ghostly visions of Guo Dong.

Foreshadowing: Gao Jing experiences memory gaps and undergoes hypnotic therapy to recover lost memories, suggesting something traumatic happened.

• stabbing
• nitrogen narcosis
• guilt
• camcorder video
• memory loss

At Guo Dong's funeral, the body has no head and the fingerprints are worn away, making identification impossible. Xiao Kai refuses to accept this as her brother and becomes convinced he could still be alive, leading her to investigate and search for proof that the remains are not his.

Foreshadowing: The missing head and lack of fingerprints plant immediate doubt about the body's identity.

• xiao kai
• funeral
• fingerprints
• identification
• brother alive

Xiao Kai and Haiya Amu discover a white-haired severed head at a shipwreck site. Xiao Kai insists it belongs to her brother Guo Dong, though this remains unresolved. The head's discovery intensifies the mystery and leads to further dangerous confrontations around the canister containing it.

Foreshadowing: Earlier, the lack of Guo Dong's head at the funeral sets up this search.

• severed head
• shipwreck
• xiao kai
• white hair
• canister

Gao Jing begins seeing Guo Dong's ghost after undergoing hypnotic therapy and taking drugs to recover her missing memories. The drugs cause heightened sensitivity to light and sound, and her guilt over potentially causing his death manifests as spectral visions. Her patient Simon also sees the same ghost, lending credibility to the apparitions.

Foreshadowing: After her memory loss and during drug therapy, Gao Jing becomes increasingly disconnected from reality.

• ghost
• guilt
• hypnosis
• memory loss
• spectral vision

Gao Jing suffers memory loss about the events surrounding Guo Dong's disappearance. She undergoes hypnotism and drug therapy to recover these memories. The gaps are eventually explained: she was under nitrogen narcosis during the diving accident and later stabbed Guo Dong, causing her mind to suppress the traumatic event.

Foreshadowing: Her boss Dr. Tang oversees her therapy, suggesting her memory issues are severe enough to require clinical intervention.

• memory loss
• nitrogen narcosis
• hypnosis
• trauma
• amnesia

Gao Jing suspects that Xiao Kai is channeling the ghost of Su Zhenjing, a young woman from Hualien. This change in Xiao Kai's speech pattern occurs after Gao Jing begins her memory work, suggesting a supernatural connection between the living and the dead in the film.

Foreshadowing: The film establishes that ghosts can communicate with and possess the living.

• xiao kai
• accent
• su zhenjing
• channeling
• possession

After finding the engagement ring Guo Dong hid for her on the beach, Gao Jing walks into the ocean. This act symbolizes her surrender to the past and her desire to reunite with Guo Dong in the underwater realm of Yonaguni, where their love story fundamentally exists. The ending is bittersweet, she finds closure but chooses a tragic, symbolic dissolution.

Foreshadowing: The ring was hidden at Yonaguni, the underwater city that represents their connection and Guo's final resting place.

• ocean
• ring
• reunion
• yonaguni
• bittersweet ending

Haiya Amu is sent by Gao Jing to verify whose head is in the canister. He returns home with a knife in his back, murdered. The killer is never explicitly identified, but the violence occurs as part of the escalating danger surrounding the severed head investigation. Xiao Kai later runs over Simon, suggesting the culprits may be connected to those protecting the head's secrets.

Foreshadowing: The canister and severed head become central to escalating violence throughout the film.

• haiya amu
• murder
• knife
• canister
• investigation

Simon, Gao Jing's patient, sees a dripping wet ghost of Guo Dong and warns that a white-haired ghost is pursuing them. His visions align with Gao Jing's, suggesting the ghosts are genuinely present rather than simply products of her imagination. Simon helps Gao Jing attempt to contact Guo Dong's spirit.

Foreshadowing: Simon's sensitivity to the supernatural mirrors Gao Jing's own increasing awareness.

• simon
• ghost
• patient
• wet ghost
• vision

After Haiya Amu is murdered, Gao Jing panics and throws the severed head from her balcony, presumably to dispose of the dangerous evidence. She is then attacked by Xiao Kai, and the police intervene to prevent further violence. This act represents her desperation to escape the mounting mystery and danger.

Foreshadowing: The canister has already caused multiple violent confrontations and deaths.

• severed head
• balcony
• disposal
• xiao kai
• police

Guo Dong hid an engagement ring in the Yonaguni underwater city with the intention of proposing to Gao Jing. When she finally discovers it on the beach near Feng Lai, it represents their unfulfilled promise and love that transcended death. The ring becomes a symbol of both what she lost and what she finally understands about their relationship.

Foreshadowing: Guo Dong takes Gao Jing to Yonaguni early in their romance, foreshadowing the proposal intention.

• ring
• engagement
• proposal
• yonaguni
• promise

Nitrogen narcosis occurs when divers breathe compressed air at depth, causing nitrogen to have an anesthetic effect on the brain. During the CO2 burial dive, Gao Jing experiences nitrogen narcosis, which impairs her judgment and memory. While in this state, she stabs Guo Dong, later revealed on video, before he saves her and disappears.

Foreshadowing: The seabed dive is the initial setting where the relationship and tragedy begin.

• nitrogen narcosis
• diving
• compressed air
• depth
• impaired judgment

Yonaguni is a legendary ancient underwater city in the Ryukyu Islands that Guo Dong shows to Gao Jing. It represents a liminal space between worlds, past and present, living and dead. The final scene shows their ghosts swimming together around Yonaguni, suggesting it is where their love truly exists, transcending life and death.

Foreshadowing: Guo Dong specifically brings Gao Jing to Yonaguni to hide the engagement ring, binding the location to their relationship.

• yonaguni
• underwater city
• ruins
• legend
• spirits