My Daughter Is a Zombie (2025)

Lee Jung-hwan, a single father and keeper at Seoul Zoo, spends his days bickering with his teenage daughter Soo-ah, who is passionate about dancing. On Soo-ah's fifteenth birthday, a zombie virus, called the GAR Virus, sweeps across the world. The Lees flee the city, but as they drive away, Jung-hwan discovers that Soo-ah was bitten while waiting for him to fetch the car. She transforms before they can reach a hospital, and when she attacks Jung-hwan, he manages to subdue her.

Jung-hwan takes Soo-ah to his resolute mother Bam-sun, who still lives at his childhood home, the seaside village of Eunbong-ri. He plans to bring Soo-ah to a local hospital, but after he witnesses a special unit of the army killing an infected boy, he changes his mind, intending to mercy-kill her himself. While Bam-sun argues with him, Soo-ah slips away and goes to an old boathouse, where she used to play when she was a child. When she starts reacting to other cherished stimuli, Jung-hwan and Bam-sun realize that parts of her memory must still be intact. When Jo Dong-bae, Jung-hwan's childhood friend, comes by for an impromptu visit and discovers Soon-ah's condition, Jung-hwan swears him to secrecy.

Upon hearing a scientific report confirming that the infected indeed retain their old memories and that the virus can be weakened if these are re-stimulated, Jung-hwan decides to use his years of experience in tiger taming to restore Soo-ah. He and Dong-bae begin training Soo-ah, who gradually becomes docile around them. While the government reports that the outbreak has run its course, a substantial bounty has been placed for any report on new infections. While shopping in town, Jung-hwan meets his old crush Shin Yeon-hwa, a local schoolteacher who hates zombies after her fiancé got infected during the outbreak and she was forced to kill him; she has thus become a local celebrity for reporting infected to the government. After Yeon-hwa invites herself to Bam-sun's house for dinner and she gets awkwardly fended off, she begins to suspect that Soo-ah is infected.

After the village is declared zombie-free, the locals throw a festival. Jung-hwan and Dong-bae take the disguised Soo-ah there as part of her treatment, but her condition is noticed and recorded on film, which is then posted on social media. Meanwhile, Yeon-hwa confronts Bam-sun, who confesses the truth and also states that Soo-ah is actually Jung-hwan's niece and he took her in after her mother Jung-hye was killed in a traffic accident and her actual father, who was living off Jung-hye's money, abandoned Soo-ah. When Jung-hwan, Soon-a and Dong-bae return and Yeon-hwa prepares to kill the girl, Jung-hwan manages to pacify Soo-ah, thereby winning Yeon-hwa over to his cause.

However, more complications ensue when the village council decides to enroll all resident children, including Soo-ah, at the local middle school to prevent its closure, resulting in several very close calls. Additionally, that evening Soo-ah's father, who has noticed the video post, kidnaps his daughter to turn her in for the bounty. Jung-hwan intercepts him but is beaten to the ground. Seeíng Jung-hwan attacked, Soo-ah breaks her docility and bites her father, infecting him and forcing Jung-hwan to kill him. Now that the secret is out, Jung-hwan decides to leave with Soo-ah, but an army unit looking for her arrives and corners them at the boathouse. When Jung-hwan refuses to step aside, he is shot, but as he lies bleeding out, Soo-ah reacts with sadness, stalling the soldiers with her emotional display.

After getting rushed to the hospital, it is revealed that while training Soo-ah, Jung-hwan, who has gone into a coma, had sustained several bites from her which he immediately desinfected, thereby developing an immunity to the GAR Virus. The resulting anti-bodies were used to restore Soo-ah to full humanity, and his story has become a worldwide sensation, fostering hope for a quickly available cure. While waiting for Jung-hwan to recover, Soo-ah successfully participates in a dancing contest. When Yeon-hwa visits Jung-hwan and replays a video recording of her performance, his finger begins twitching to the music.