Concrete Utopia Plot Summary
Seoul is left in ruins due to a brutal earthquake, all the survivors of the disaster take refuge in an apartment complex called Hwang Gung Apartments. The residents of the building are already struggling to find resources to sustain themselves when additional survivors from nearby crashed apartment complexes show up at Hwang Gung.
The original residents decide to kick out the outsiders and try to live in an orderly fashion in their new reality. The team elects a leader – resident Young-tak who allots tasks to residents and the residents are rewarded with resources on the basis of their contribution.
This order that the residents of Hwang Gung create is threatened when an outsider and former resident – Hye-won shows up at the complex.
What is Young-tak hiding?
After Hye-won claims that she does not recognise Young-tak, he threatens the young girl and forces her to recognise him as her neighbour.
A flashback from before the disaster shows a taxi driver – Ma Se-beom vising the apartment complex to meet the real Young-tak. The person pretending to be Young-tak is actually Se-beom who was at Hwang Gung to demand his money back from the real Young-tak.
Se-beom had been conned by Young-tak after he booked an apartment in a similar complex. The altercation between the two men ends with Se-beom killing Young-tak minutes before the disaster. Se-beom is forced to assume the identity of Young-tak in order to survive and devotes himself to taking care of the real Young-tak’s mother and living in the apartment complex in the midst of this tragedy.
What does Young-tak do to the outsiders?
Young-tak (Se-beom) notices that a few residents are hiding the survivors from other apartment complexes in their houses. He forces the men to attack these houses and kick the outsiders out. Much to Myeong-hwa’s surprise, Min-seong complies with Young-tak’s orders, leaving the old and young out to die in the freezing cold.
The men go out on a hunt for resources when a sudden rumble due to an earthquake injures the men and kills the teen boy Ji-hyuk after debris from the damaged buildings falls on them.
At the same time, Hye-won tells Myeong-hwa that she was sure the man delegating the residents was not the real Young-tak. She recalls seeing Young-tak in the past and is sure that the man who is present with them is hiding something.
What happens when Myeong-hwa finds out who Young-tak really is?
With the men away, Myeong-hwa sneaks into Young-tak’s apartment and tries to force his bedridden mother to reveal the truth. The old woman only asks for more food leaving Myeong-hwa heartbroken. She looks around the house and finds a freezer inside which she finds the dead body of the real Young-tak.
Myeong-hwa brings the freezer out and shows the residents how Young-tak himself was an outsider when he was the one to have other survivors kicked out. Myeong-hwa asks the man to be kicked out of the apartment but Young-tak (Se-beom) escapes and furiously throws Hye-won out of the debris for ousting him.
What happens to Young-tak/Se-beom?
Min-seong tries to shoot Young-tak when scavengers and survivors from neighbouring settlements show up outside Hwang Gung Apartments. They try to wage war against the citizens, trying to kill them. Young-tak defends the apartment complex with all his might while Min-seong and Myeong-hwa flee to their apartment.
The scavengers show up at their apartment causing Min-seong to fight them off to save his wife. Min-seong ends up injured but the couple flee to a nearby church where they take refuge during the ongoing chaos. Meanwhile, Young-tak does his best to protect Hwang Gung and its residents.
After a makeshift bomb is thrown at the apartment complex, Young-tak intercepts it and manages to throw it back towards the scavengers. The residents are injured due to the bomb but it manages to kill/threaten the scavengers away from the apartment complex. Young-tak tells the residents he is tired and goes to his apartment where he passes out due to his injuries.
Does Min-seong die?
Min-seong and Myeong-hwa sleep arm in arm inside the church however Min-seong succumbs to his injuries the morning after. Myeong-hwa is shattered by this and tries her best to process the death of her husband.
How does Concrete Utopia end?
A group of people find Myeong-hwa and invite her to join their settlement. They offer her food and shelter which leaves her shocked. The film ends with Myeong-hwa trying to come to terms with the contrast between the survival instincts of the people in Hwang Gung and this new settlement she was willingly accepted into.
Read More: Concrete Utopia (2023) Story Recap