The Post-Truth World is a Taiwanese crime mystery film that follows news anchor Liu Li-min who gets a fresh opportunity for popularity while being held captive by a convicted sports star. His investigation turns up far more than he had anticipated, though. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Zhang Zheng-Yi, a baseball star player, is jailed for murdering his girlfriend Wang Shi-Yun. The media exposes him as a very badly-tempered person who killed his own girlfriend.
After 7 years, Liu Li-min, a former prominent media figure, is taken captive by Zheng-Yi when he breaks out of jail. Liu starts to investigate the case of the ballpark murder on his own to achieve the popularity in his career that he once had.
Zheng-Yi makes a promise to Shi-Yun’s brother that he would discover the person who killed Shi-Yun while Liu seeks to prove Zheng-Yi’s innocence through his video postings.
Following Zheng-Yi’s revelation that her article blaming Zheng-Yi was on Shi-Yun’s secret phone, Liu begins looking into his wife Hsu Ya-Jing, who passed away from sickness years before.
Zheng-Yi and Liu learn that Shi-Yun’s father made Shi-Yun force Zheng-Yi to take drugs while consuming his nutrition drink, which caused him to test positive for drugs.
Someone tries to steal the evidence that Liu had preserved in his flat to establish Zheng-Yi’s innocence. Zheng-Yi and Liu chase the thief and obtains the box of documents.
Zheng-Yi attempts to question Fu Lin by striking him severely as he believes that Fu Lin had participated in Shi-Yun’s death and that it was he who dispatched people to loot Liu’s home.
The incident is captured on camera by Liu, who is then arrested by the authorities when the footage of it becomes viral on other media channels and paints Zheng-Yi, Shi-Yun, and her father as horrible people who harbored secrets.
As soon as the media begins to accuse Shi-Yun’s father of having a link to drugs and pushing his daughter into them, he takes his own life.
Later, Liu learns that Fu International provided funding for the TrueNews station where he and his wife had previously worked.
The chief editor plays an audio clip of Shi-Yun pleading with Ya-Jing not to release Zheng-Yi’s drug test results since doing so may ruin Zheng-Yi’s career.
In the middle of the night, Liu and Zheng-Yi visit the hospital to see the elderly woman who cleaned the baseball stadium and the person who identified Zheng-Yi as the killer.
Her grandson, Zeng Jing-An who was taking care of her at the hospital was caught by them as he admitted to killing Shi-Yun.
After strangling Liu and leaving him comatose in the car because Zheng-Yi was not persuaded by his explanation, he drives Jing-An to the stadium.
Shi-Yun was accidentally killed by Jing-An during a struggle between the two of them after Jing-An admitted to seeing the drug trade involving Fu Lin, Shi-Yun, and Ya-Jing.
Jing-An immediately alerts his grandmother, who helps him get rid of the evidence. When Zheng-Yi reaches Shi-Yun, she has already passed away.
Even though Liu attempted to stop Zheng-Yi, Zheng-Yi kills Jing-An by stabbing him.
Jing-An and his grandmother were convicted of the murder of the Shi-Yun and Zheng-Yi were cleared of all accusations. Liu’s life is completely altered by the case, and he is once again a well-known media personality.
The Post-Truth World ending explained in detail:
Why did Liu start investigating his wife’s work?
Zheng-Yi discovered news that had been published by Liu’s wife Hsu Ya-Jing when he began examining Shi-Yun’s secret phone, which had been given to him by her brother. Zheng-Yi was charged with using narcotics while playing, in the article.
He held Liu’s daughter captive and questioned Liu about his wife’s motivations for penning an entirely false article.
Liu made an effort to convince Zheng-Yi that his wife would never write anything untrue, but Zheng-Yi remained unconvinced.
This prompted Liu to read Ya-Jing’s journal entries and articles, through which he learned that she was somehow involved in the incident that had occurred at the ballpark stadium.
Why did Shi-Yun’s father hate Zheng-Yi?
Shi-yun’s father, Mr. Wang was a wealthy businessman who disapproved of his daughter dating a baseball star. He believed that Zheng-Yi’s upbringing, education, and morals were not suitable for his daughter.
To add medicines to the sports nutrition drink created for Zheng-Yi, Mr. Wang instructs Shi-Yun to mix a powder. Zheng-Yi was forced to consume the beverages every time after his baseball practice by Shi-Yun, was unaware of this.
After learning this, Zheng-Yi accused Mr. Wang of being a horrible parent and stormed out of his home.
What did Fu Lin try to rob Liu’s house?
Fu Lin, the son of a wealthy man, desired to lead Fu International School, which would eventually pass to him. Drug addict Fu Lin didn’t want anyone to know that he took drugs.
He believed that the documents in Liu’s residence would reveal him, causing him to lose control of Fu International School. Additionally, he revealed to Liu that on the evening of Shin-Yun’s murder, she had presented Ya-Jing as her cousin.
He also adds that he gave them some cocaine when they requested it and departed the area since they wanted to get high that night.
Why did Ya-Jing decide to drop the news against Zheng-Yi?
Shi-Yun requests Ya-Jing to withdraw the drug-related accusations against Zheng-Yi during her chat with Ya-Jing. Shi-Yun claims that Fu Lin sells narcotics to the children at Fu International School after Ya-Jing refuses to trust her.
She discloses that Zheng-Yi and the rest of the world, including Fu Lin, are unaware that she is a member of the drug cartel Fu Lin runs.
How did Zheng-Yi find out the truth?
Under duress, Zheng-Yi drags Jing-An to the stadium and demands that he tell Shi-Yun what occurred the night she was killed. That night Fu Lin wanted Jing-Yan to test the narcotics he meant to sell Shi-Yun and Ya-Jing during their drug transaction.
As soon as Shi-Yun takes the drug to divert Fu Lin, Ya-Jing, who was there to investigate the drug syndicate, panics. Following pledging to withdraw her request to proceed with Zheng-Yi’s drug test, Ya-Jing later departs the area after Fu Lin.
Jing-An tries to assist Shi-Yun as she begins to feel faint and calls for assistance. He is told to keep his mouth shut by Shi-Yun, who then seizes his phone.
She labels him a pervert and calls the police when he attempts to get his phone back. Jing-An pulls her away and attempts to escape the area, but Shi-Yun prevents him from doing so.
They both pull against one another as she tries to beat him with an iron rod, murdering Shi-Yun in the process.
What happens when Liu eventually solves the mystery?
When Liu regains consciousness, a loud gunshot can be heard coming from the stadium complex. He quickly exits the car to investigate what just occurred.
He hears Jing-An say that he killed Shi-Yun accidentally and asks Zheng-Yi to put down his gun since they have found the true murderer. When Zheng-Yi pulls the trigger on Jing-An, Liu pushes him away.
Zheng-Yi repeatedly stabs Jing-An till he passes away because of his notion that people would always view him as a murderer.
But a few days later, when Jing-An was eventually found guilty of the murder, Liu finally speaks up about what occurred that night in an interview while promoting his new channel.
He explains to the audience that Zheng-Yi murdered Jing-An to protect Liu from Jing-An’s attack. Finally, once his video becomes viral, he regains his previous level of media fame and gains a large following on his new channel.
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