This article contains major spoilers for the Night in Paradise ending.
All throughout Night In Paradise, there’s never any suggestion that there’s going to be a happy ending. Likewise, you never get the sense that there might be an understated, low-key climax, either. As all the main characters make their way towards the same location, it becomes clear that bloodshed is coming, but even with that in mind, it’s a surprise quite how high the finale’s body count gets. But who kills who? And why? Well, let’s get to the bottom of that.
It all starts to get nuts when Jae-yeon is taken by Chief Ma and his goons, including Yang, mostly as a lure for Tae-gu. This is really a crystalization of the film’s theme. After spending the entire runtime trying to save his own life, and despite the fact that Jae-yeon is terminally ill anyway, Tae-gu nonetheless answers the summons so that they can be together in what will likely be their final moments. This is true for one of them, at least. Things don’t look good for Tae-gu when he arrives and is immediately battered within an inch of his life, and it only gets worse.
For one thing, when Ma learns that Yang arranged for the death of Jin-sung, he goes ballistic at him. To try and recover some of his lost pride, Yang turns on Tae-gu and beats him even more, almost to death, until Ma intervenes. To cause even more carnage, Ma reveals to Tae-gu that it was actually Yang who responsible for the deaths of his sister and niece since he was worried Tae-gu would leave and take his men with him, which sends Tae-gu into a frenzy, despite his injuries. Ma allows this to happen, but he also slips Yang a knife, but him stabbing Tae-gu barely slows him down. Eventually, an enraged Tae-gu starts headbutting Yang to death, so Ma is forced to get one of his guys to stab Tae-gu as well. They give him the Jon Snow “for the Watch” treatment and he eventually collapses on the ground in a heap, close to death.
Jae-yeon is distraught by this point. She tearfully says her goodbyes to Tae-gu and Yang finishes him off by sticking the knife in his neck. Yang wants to kill Jae-yeon too but Ma won’t let him on the grounds that she’s dying anyway. This turns out to be a mistake.
After being allowed to leave, Jae-yeon later heads to the restaurant full of Bukseong goons, who immediately start harassing her, but little do they know she’s armed and dangerous. In a tremendous scene, she guns down everyone, including Ma and Yang, making a real point of shooting the latter until the gun runs dry. Having got her revenge, she heads to the beach, and as the police sirens blare behind her and the officers flood towards her, she puts the gun to her head and pulls the trigger.
