Wonderland follows the lives of those who try to hold on to their deceased loved ones through an A.I. service. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
The film’s events take place in a world where a service called Wonderland exists, allowing people to keep their deceased loved ones alive in a virtual world.
The deceased are unaware that they are dead and live the life of their choice in this virtual world, where they can follow their dreams or live in comfort.
A woman named Bai Li signs up for the service before her death. In Wonderland, she chooses to be an archaeologist, which was always her dream.
Upon activation, Bai Li finds herself at an airport, heading to a desert for her archaeological work. At the airport, she meets a man named Sung-joon.
Sung-joon shares his contact details and asks her to stay in touch. It turns out that he is a Wonderland employee checking up on Bai Li because her functioning is unstable.
Bai Li enjoys her life in the desert and frequently talks to her daughter, Jia, who is unaware that her mother is dead. Bai Li’s mother disapproves of Jia’s attachment to the virtual Bai Li.
As the line between virtual reality and reality blurs for Jia, Bai Li’s mother decides to move to China with Jia and discontinue the Wonderland service.
Like Bai Li, a flight attendant named Jung-in had signed up for the service to stay close to her comatose boyfriend, Tae-ju.
As she feels that Tae-ju is somewhere far away from her, she decides to send the Wonderland version of Tae-ju to space, the furthest place she can think of.
The Wonderland Tae-ju contacts Jung-in frequently and knows every detail of her life, as if he is truly living with her. Miraculously, the real Tae-ju wakes up in the hospital, and Jung-in happily takes him home.
However, Tae-ju is still recovering and adjusting to the world around him. Jung-in struggles to reconcile the virtual-life Tae-ju with the real-life one.
The film also follows two Wonderland employees, Hae-ri and Hyun-soo. Hae-ri’s parents, who have both passed away, live in Wonderland but remain an important part of her life.
While helping a man named Yong-sik sign up for Wonderland, Hae-ri and Hyun-soo suspect that Yong-sik might be Hyun-soo’s father.
Before Hyun-soo can confirm this, Yong-sik passes away. Hyun-soo then starts contacting Yong-sik in Wonderland to find out if they are related.
Hae-ri and Hyun-soo also meet an old woman who has signed up her deceased grandson, Jin-gu, for the service. Like many others, she struggles to differentiate between reality and Wonderland.
She works two jobs to provide every luxury for her grandson in Wonderland, spoiling him in the process. Eventually, she collapses from overexertion and passes away.
Hae-ri then deactivates Jin-gu, but not without saving his records, in case someone requests to reactivate him in the future.
Ending explained:
The impact of virtual illusions
Jung-in starts growing distant from Tae-ju, despite his attempts to make her happy. She resumes using the Wonderland service to be close to the Wonderland Tae-ju.
Tae-ju senses that she is hiding something from him. When she finally reveals whom she keeps talking to on the phone, Tae-ju understands why Jung-in insists he is not back to normal.
Tae-ju is aware that he might never be the person Jung-in expects him to become, leading to him walking away from her.
At the same time, Bai Li’s mother opts to discontinue the Wonderland service and tell Jia the truth about her mother’s death after moving to China.
However, Jia is reluctant to leave the country without her mother, so she runs away from her grandmother at the airport, leaving her grandmother frantically searching for her.
Jia’s disappearance is the last thing Bai Li hears from her mother before the service is deactivated and Bai Li is put to sleep in Wonderland.
The collapse of Wonderland
Even though Bai Li is asleep in the virtual world, she keeps worrying about her daughter. She has dreams about Jia, causing her to wake up on her own.
Bai Li’s flashbacks from her real life cause confusion and threaten the whole system. Hyun-soo’s attempts to deactivate Bai Li fail.
Bai Li tries to leave the desert to reach her daughter and starts approaching the operating system. Sung-joon once again meets Bai Li to stop her.
He makes her understand that everything is real in Wonderland only if she believes it is, leading Bai Li to the realization that she died in real life and is now living in a virtual world.
This realization causes the system to shut down. Hae-ri prevents Hyun-soo from erasing Bai Li’s data, fearing that Bai Li will not be the same if she is recreated and the illusion of reality will be broken for her family.
Hae-ri believes that Bai Li wants something, so she instructs Hyun-soo to open the network for Bai Li, allowing her to reach the airport where Jia has gone missing, only Bai Li is still in Wonderland.
Bai Li’s attempt to call someone near her daughter connects her to Tae-ju. She asks Tae-ju to keep Jia safe until she arrives.
Tae-ju finds Jia and saves her from an accident. He then contacts her grandmother and gives Jia Bai Li’s message, asking her to wait for Bai Li.
Accepting reality
Bai Li’s mother finally finds Jia, who refuses to leave until her grandmother allows her to talk to her mother. Bai Li’s mother reluctantly calls Bai Li.
Bai Li explains to Jia that she is dead but promises to keep in touch like she has been doing. Bai Li also says goodbye to her mother while she is still aware of her reality.
Bai Li will soon go back to forgetting that she is dead. After her conversation with her daughter and mother, the system goes back online.
Bai Li and Sung-joon meet at the airport once again, and this meeting is exactly like their first one, except this time, Sung-joon does not ask to keep in touch, now that Bai Li is no longer unstable.
Meanwhile, Jung-in cancels her services. She asks Hae-ri to make the Wonderland Tae-ju believe that he is returning to Earth before deactivating him.
Jung-in and Tae-ju meet to say goodbye, but it does not end up being their last meeting, as Jung-in embraces the real Tae-ju.
The film ends with Hyun-soo introducing his mother to Yong-sik and discovering that Yong-sik is indeed his father, highlighting the benefits of Wonderland, which allows people to even get answers from the dead.
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