The City of Violence
Year: 2006
Runtime: 92 mins
Language: Korean
Detective Tae-su, a veteran of organized‑crime battles, returns to his hometown for his high‑school friend Wang‑jae’s funeral. He reunites with old classmates Pil‑ho, Dong‑hwan and Seok‑hwan, and they reminisce. Unconvinced by the official cause, Tae‑su and Seok‑hwan investigate separately, uncovering a corrupt land‑development scheme run by Pil‑ho.
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The City of Violence (2006) – Full Plot Summary & Ending Explained
Read the complete plot breakdown of The City of Violence (2006), including all key story events, major twists, and the ending explained in detail. Discover what really happened—and what it all means.
Wang-jae, an ex-gangster, chases a group of punks into an alley and is fatally stabbed.
Nearly twenty years pass and four childhood friends reunite at Wang-jae’s funeral: Tae-su, Pil-ho, Seok-hwan, and Dong-hwan.
Each has carved out a different path: Tae-su became a Seoul detective; Pil-ho took over Wang-jae’s business; Seok-hwan works as a debt collector, while his older brother Dong-hwan struggles as a maths professor.
After the funeral, Tae-su decides to investigate the murder within a week before he would return to his job in Seoul.
Meanwhile, Seok-hwan decides to find and kill Wang-jae’s murderers. While investigating, Tae-su is attacked by youth gangs, where he barely escapes with Seok-hwan’s unexpected arrival. They decide to work together.
After hunting the gangs, they discover Wang-jae’s death was not a random mindless attack, but a planned murder. The revelation leads them to Dong-hwan, who confesses that Pil-ho was behind the plan after Wang-jae disapproved Pil-ho’s plans to turn their city into a tourist district. After strangers tried to kill him as part of tying up Pil-ho’s loose ends, Wang-jae’s young murderer agrees to testify against Pil-ho.
A killer douses the young murderer in gasoline and sets him on fire. Later, Pil-ho badly thrashes Tae-su and also targets to finish Seok-hwan, Dong-hwan and their mother in an accident, but Seok-hwan survives. After Dong-hwan and his mother’s funeral, Seok-hwan and Wang-jae’s widow leave the funeral house and see Tae-su waiting outside. Tae-su persuades Wang-jae’s widow into revealing information on Pil-ho’s whereabouts. Tae-su and Seok-hwan storm Pil-ho’s fortress, where they fight their way through swarms of armed cooks until the banquet room.
Meanwhile, Pil-ho kills the Seoul president, which prompts all guests to leave. Tae-su and Seok-hwan confront Pil-ho, who is along with his four elite guards in the room. A fight ensues where Tae-su and Seok-hwan manage to defeat Pil-ho’s elite guards and set to take on Pil-ho, who takes them by surprise by attacking Seok-hwan. Pil-ho turns and stabs Tae-su, but Seok-hwan later finishes Pil-ho with a katana. As Tae-su bleeds to death, an exhausted Seok-hwan notices the carnage that he and Tae-su had created and sighs heavily.
Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 16:30
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