The Berlin File: The Berlin File is a spy thriller written by South Korean author Ryoo Seung-wan. The Bourne Identity heavily influences the genre and style. The way the story is told is in the style of Le Carré. As the name suggests, the whole movie takes place in Berlin, and it’s about intelligence agencies and terrorist groups that are competing with each other underground in the German capital.
Espionage, secret weapons deals, and money laundering are at the heart of this story. South Korean Jung Jin-soo and North Korean Pyo Jong-song are trapped and racing against time to catch the real bad guy.
The Berlin File (2013) Recap
Many different foreign actors are at play, including the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS), the North Korean Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), an Arab terrorist organization known as the Anti-Imperialist Arab League, a Russian arms dealer, the Israeli Mossad, and the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
What Is Jung Jin-soo After?
Jung Jin-soo, a NIS agent, is in a tough situation in the South Korean camp. Internal politics are to blame for the fact that he couldn’t look into the Russian-Arab arms deal at first and lost the North Korean agent who was involved, Pyo Jong-seong.
He is interested in Jong-seong, but Jin-soo can’t find any information about the North Korean agent in any intelligence database. He calls him a “ghost” and tries to get hold of him. But in addition to trying to find Jong-seong, his team is also trying to find Kim Jong-secret il’s account, which is thought to be worth $4 billion and to have been moved from Macau to Europe before he died.
Why Does North Korea Target Pyo Jong-seong’s Wife?
The security officials in Pyongyang think there is a traitor in their Berlin office, so they send one of their loyal officers, a ruthless fixer named Dong Myung-soo (Ryoo Seung-bum), to Berlin to find out. He beats up a German informant who says that Jong-wife, seong’s Ryun Jung-hee (Jung Ji-hyun), who was the North Korean ambassador’s translator, is involved. Jong-seong has 48 hours to find out what’s going on.
Jung-hee and Jong-seong had grown apart after the death of their baby daughter and the regime’s order that Jung-hee work as a prostitute to help the government. But when he asks her why she lied about where she was, he is shocked to find out that she is pregnant. She had gone to the area near the US Embassy to see her obstetrician, not to betray him.
Even though she worries that he might not believe her, Jung-hee tells him that it is his child. She also says that she had no choice but to do what their government told her to do, even though it made her sick and miserable. Jong-seong changes his mind and decides to help save her.
How Does Jong-seong Realise That Myung-soo Is The Mastermind?
Jong-seong has no choice but to help Myung-soo catch Ambassador Ri Hak-soo in the subway tunnel after he kills a CIA agent. The Ambassador is being questioned, and when he finds Jong-seong alone, he tries to convince him that Myung-father soo’s is trying to take over the Berlin office. Before he dies, he also tells Jong-seong a secret line that has a code to get into Kim Jong-secret il’s billion-dollar account.
Jong-seong gets a call from Myung-soo right after Jung-hee tells him she’s pregnant. He says with a laugh that having Jong-seong tell on his wife was a test to see how loyal he was. He is told to go back to Pyongyang, where he will be rewarded for his loyalty and moved up in the ranks.
But Jong-seong never told anyone about Jung-hee. He realizes that Myung-soo is trying to kill them by setting a trap. Myung-soo sends North Korean agents to Jong-house seong’s to kill him and Jung-hee. Jong-seong kills them and runs away with Jung-hee.
Who Is Myung-soo And What Was His Plan?
Dong Myung-soo is a psychopath who kills without mercy. He also knows Jong-seong from a long time ago. The latter was Myung-senior soo’s and mentor, and there was an unspoken rivalry between them. Myung-soo is also the son of Dong Jung-ho, a high-ranking Party official who was close to Kim Jong-il when he was leader.
Everyone wants to know what happened to the $4 billion fund that Jong-il left behind and that the Ambassador kept hidden on a card. After the dictator dies, the money has to be given to the new leader, Kim Jong-un, and the people in charge of the account have to be changed.
But neither Pyongyang nor the Ambassador could trust the other. When it comes to the new people in Pyongyang, it’s not clear how loyal the old diplomatic offices are to the new leader. So, they decide to replace everyone, including Pyo Jong-seong, who was Jong-man, il’s with people they trust.
The government doesn’t want to get rid of Jong-seong and Jong-men, il’s though. In reality, Dong Jung-ho and his friends are in charge of the secret account. Jung-ho stays in power after Kim Jong-un takes over by giving the new leader’s friends money from the secret account fund and making money from the illegal weapons trade.
When the Americans found the Macau account, the Dongs had to clean up the mess to stay in the game. So, father and son came up with the plan to get rid of the current functionaries, make an alliance with Jong-men, un’s and take over the Berlin office.
Why Do Jong-seong And Jin-soo Team Up?
When Myung-soo finds out that Jong-seong killed his agents and ran away with his wife, he gets in touch with Abdul from the Arab group and asks for his help to catch the rebels. They track down the couple and catch them at a small hotel nearby. Jin-soo, who was looking for Jong-seong and had tracked them down, gets there just as they are leaving. There is a gun battle, and Jong-seong gets away from the Arabs, but Jung-hee is taken away.
Jin-soo had found and talked to Dagan Zamir, the Mossad agent who had stopped the arms deal. He learned about the secret account plot from a recording of a phone call between Zamir and Myung-soo. When Jin-soo finally catches Jong-seong, he is hurt, on his knees, and completely worn out because he was unable to save his wife. Jin-soo sees that Jong-seong is a victim of party politics even though he is a good patriot and feels bad for his rival.
Jong-seong begs his worst enemy for help to save his pregnant wife. He says he will go to the South and give him information about the secret billion-dollar account if he helps him. Jin-soo sees a chance to make a lot of money and, out of kindness, agrees to help. Unfortunately, his NIS colleagues won’t send help, so it’s up to the two men to fight Myung-soo and his army in a safe house in the middle of nowhere.
What Really Went Down During The Arms Deal?
Just before dawn, Jong-seong gives up and offers to trade his recorded confession of treason for their lives. Myung-soo can’t help but brag about how well he has done.
He starts playing the recording, but instead of the confession, it’s a recording of his phone conversation with Mossad, where he plans to give Assim, the Arab agent, and Yuri, the Russian broker, to the Israelis in exchange for a failed arms deal that will give Pyongyang a reason to clean out the Berlin office. From the start, the arms deal was supposed to fail, and Jong-seong was to take the blame.
How Is Myung-soo Defeated?
The Arabs figure out that Myung-soo is the one who killed Assim. His game is over, and the guns come out. Myung-men soo’s and the Arabs start shooting at each other, and Jin-soo joins in as a sniper from the woods. Jong-seong and his wife get out of the safe house just in time before it blows up. And everyone except Myung-soo is dead.
The battle comes down to a scary duel between him and Jong-seong, where Jong-seong kills the psychopathic killer with a pen injection, which was the killer’s own medicine.
The Berlin File (2013) Ending Explained
There is no happy ending, though. Jung-hee bleeds to death in her husband’s arms after being hit by a stray bullet as they tried to escape Myung-gunfire. soo’s
South Koreans later turned their backs on Jong-seong. Instead, the senior NIS Inspector tells Jin-soo that as part of talks with Pyongyang about a new gas pipe project, Seoul has agreed to give North Korea information about the secret funds account and Jong-seong.
When Jin-soo finds out that Dong Jung-ho is one of the people behind the North-South deal, he is even more shocked. He knows that the North Korean who left is going to die. Jin-soo is angry about how things have turned out, so he lets Jong-seong go and tells him to run. Later, Jong-seong calls Dong Jung-ho from Latvia and tells him that he’s coming for him. Then we see him buy a one-way ticket to Vladivostok, where the old man is expected to be.
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