‘Jung_E’ Ending Explained: What Is the True Nature of Jung_E?

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Welcome to the Ending Explained for Jung_E, a new South Korean action film directed by Yeon Sang-ho, the director of films such as Train to Busan, Peninsula, and the Netflix series, Hellbound. The film also stars Kang Soo-yeon, Kim Hyun-joo, and Ryu Kyung-soo. This is the last film role for Kang Soo-yeon, who, sadly, passed away last year. The film is dedicated to her memory. The film tells the story of a robotics expert who is in the process of developing a new weapon to win the civil war that has destroyed this world in the future. That weapon is her own mother.

Jung_E is a film that serves more as a showcase of the excellent work that South Korean companies are now doing in the realm of visual effects. The movie displays some amazing action sequences and creates a future with powerful CGI visuals that no other South Korean film has been able to pull off. Sang-ho is really pushing the technical aspects of the South Korean filmmaking industry with this film. However, the movie feels unfocused until the moment when it finally decides to tell the story it wants to tell.

The following paragraphs contain spoilers for Jung_E. Read at your own risk.

What Is The True Nature Of Jung_E?

The film begins with a cold open where we see a female soldier in a very rough industrial environment. She is moving around this setting with only a rifle in hand and nothing more. She is titled Jung_E, a powerful warrior and one of the best soldiers of her day. She is on a mission, but an army of robots is there to stop her. Jung manages to destroy each one of them. She is so good that it seems a bit impossible that just one woman, with one weapon, is able to kill so many enemies.

However, when it comes time to finally end the battle, Jung gets distracted by a doll, and she gets shot. It is here that the film reveals that this Jung is just an android, made to look like the real one, and the entire battle we just saw is nothing more than a simulation. We transition to the real world, where we meet Yoon Seo-hyun, the scientist in charge of the project and an expert in robotics. It seems that Jung can never go past that point, and she always ends up failing right there.

We also meet Sang-Hoon, the project director working for the megacorporation, Kronoid. Sang is frustrated, but he believes that Yoon will find an answer and make Jung pass that point in the simulation. Song gets ready for a presentation in front of the military, and there we discover that this world is suffering from a long-winded civil war between the colonies in space and Earth. The war has been going on for more than 40 years, and the military thinks that the war could have ended a lot sooner if Jung had been successful in her mission.

You see, Jung was a real person at some point. She was a very famous mercenary, and people thought of her as a real superhero. However, she failed on her mission, which is the same mission that this android version of Jung is being put through. The mission is the test that the android is required to pass to prove that it is better than the original. It is also revealed that the real Jung was, in fact, Yoon’s mother. At the end of the presentation, Yoon ends up convincing the military to approve the project, as she believes Jung will accomplish the mission in the simulation.

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Does Jung_E Finish The Mission In The Simulation?

We follow Yoon throughout her day, and we discover a lot about her. It seems that the last time she saw her mother was before she got into surgery when she was a kid. That same day, her mother had to take part in a mission where she would die. Yoon visits a doctor, and it seems that she is sick once again. She has cancer, and at this point, they cannot operate on her. The doctor gives her some options, including having her brain copied and transferred into a mechanical body.

It seems that when Jung died, she took this option, but instead of the Type A option, where she would be treated as a human, she opted for option C, one that is free of charge. This option made her mind an asset for any company that wanted to buy it. The company that bought it was Kronoid, which ended up becoming the project we see today. Jung_E still cannot pass through the mission, and Sang becomes even more frustrated with each new try. He even threatens Yoon’s life at some point.

The owner of the company calls Yoon to his office. There it is revealed that Sang is an android, but he doesn’t know it. Yoon also learns that the war between the colonies and Earth is coming to an end. Because of this, the company has decided to stop the development of new weapons and instead focus its energy on more home-related tasks such as babysitting or even medical projects. Even Sang seems to be mad about this decision, as it means their entire work will become nothing.

Having just a couple of months to live, Yoon decides to take a risk and steal her mother’s brain from the company. She deletes the combat data from the company’s archives and transfers her mother’s brain from her combat body to another one that hasn’t yet been properly dressed. She escapes from the facility, but Sang follows them. He tries to kill them both, but Jung protects Yoon. Sang realizes he is an android as well and becomes a maniac until Jung kills him.

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Yoon is wounded and about to die, and she begs Jung to leave. The film ends with Yoon making peace with her death and her mom’s, while the Jung she manages to escape with sees an open world of possibilities in front of her.

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