The Chaser - Ending Explained

The film's most devastating twist is that Mi-jin, after miraculously escaping the killer's house, is murdered not in the torture chamber but in a local superette where she sought help. The police, having released Yeong-min due to lack of evidence, allow him to walk free. He stumbles upon Mi-jin at the store and brutally kills her and the shopkeeper. Joong-ho arrives too late, finding only her severed head in a fish tank. In a rage, he tracks Yeong-min to his hideout and beats him nearly to death with a hammer, but is stopped by the police before he can deliver the killing blow. The film ends with Joong-ho sitting silently in the hospital room of Mi-jin's daughter, Eun-ji, holding her hand, staring into a bleak future—a survivor burdened by the ghosts of those he failed to save.

Some critics view the ending not just as a tragedy, but as a religious allegory where Joong-ho's final silence represents the complete abandonment of faith. The killer, who worked on church sculptures, represents an 'anti-creator' destroying life under the nose of religion. Others interpret the film as a purely sociopolitical satire, where the incompetence of the police is the true antagonist, and the serial killer is merely a symptom of a sick society that lets evil fester in its blind spots.