Also known as Eden, Abduction of Eden is 2012 indie film that serves as a dramatized account of real life Chong Kim's time spent in the clutches of a highly organized Human Trafficking ring. 18 year old Korean-American Hyun Jae (Jamie Chung of Once Upon a Time) is kidnapped at a bar and forced into a life of prostitution and manipulation. Now bearing the name "Eden", the girl finds herself moving up the ranks of the organization, and sidling close to underling Vaughan as she earns their trust in order to ensure her survival.
Abduction of Eden provides examples of the following tropes:
- Affably Evil: Bob treats the girls he "recruits" with politeness, and even gives each of them a pet kitten during Eden's first day. This doesn't make him any less of a bastard, of course.
- Asian Hooker Stereotype: For some of her clients, Eden is degradingly forced to play up her "Asian shtick", and throw on a stereotypical heavy Chinese accent while wearing a bastardized qipao costume— despite the fact that she is Korean and speaks perfect English.
- Based on a Great Big Lie: Two years after the film was released, investigation into Chong Kim's story revealed
that it was completely made up. Many of those who had supported or praised it on release, including some of the filmmakers, distanced themselves from it. - Big Bad Duumvirate: Bob, ringleader of the sex-trafficking circle, and Vaughan, his second-in-command.
- Bittersweet Ending: Both Bob and Vaughan are killed in the end, and Hyun Jae manages to make a clean escape with Priscilla, ending the movie with an emotional phone call with her mother. Sadly, the numerous girls who were also held captive are moved to a different facility, and it's left ambiguous as to whether or not they'll be freed.
- Black Market: Drugs, babies, underage prostitution, among others.
- Chekhov's Gun: The cleaning supplies, and the crack pipe that Vaughan uses throughout the film. At the end, Eden uses both to poison Vaughan to death.
- Cute Kitten: Bob gives every girl in the facility a new pet kitten, claiming that it's part of some sort of exercise. Vaughan gets increasingly frustrated with the animals, and eventually orders his men to get rid of them all (the only girl who gets to keep her cat is Svetlana, since she's secretly one of Vaughan's trustees).
- Dirty Cop: Bob, the corrupt deputy who runs the prostitution ring. He guns down two fellow cops when they investigate the body of one of his girls.
- Even Evil Has Standards: For Vaughan, selling babies or being confronted with what Eden has to do with her clients is too far— not that it makes him consider stopping.
- Foster Kid: Vaughan.
- Go-Go Enslavement: Eden and her fellow captives are forced to put on tasteless outfits whenever they're "on the job".
- Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Eden is Korean and is made to pretend she's Chinese.
- Groin Attack: A particularly bloody example. Eden attempts to escape after biting her client's groin until he bleeds. When she's punished afterwards, she still has his blood on her lips.
- Kick the Dog: When Bob gives out kittens to each of the girls, he goes up to one young lady (who looks no more than thirteen) and practically rubs in the fact that her friend was just found dead in the desert.
- The Starscream: It's heavily implied early on that Vaughan really doesn't like his boss, and it's made even worse when Eden tells him that Bob and the others belittle him behind his back. This ultimately proves to be Bob's undoing, as he's brutally beaten to death by an enraged Vaughan near the end of the film.
- Sympathy for the Devil: When Vaughan assigns Eden to clean his entire abode, she finds a small handful of old pictures in his room. Said pictures show a much younger and happier Vaughan before he got mixed up in the sex slave business. Just looking at the man that he used to be is enough to make Eden crack a warm smile.
- Tattooed Crook: Mario, the man who runs the child-selling operation, has a right shoulder full of tattoos.
- Teen Pregnancy: A particularly disturbing use of this trope. Priscilla is revealed to have been taken to a site that specializes in selling babies, and by the time Eden reunites with her, she's already several months pregnant. Eventually she gives birth offscreen, and when Eden comes back to rescue her, she's heartbroken to hear that her child had just been sold.
- Tragic Keepsake: The ring that Hyun Jae's father gave her the day she was abducted. She cherishes it so much that she's willing to pick it out of the toilet after Vaughan forces her to swallow it whole.
- Up Through the Ranks: A variation. Eden starts off as a regular prostitute but is promoted to Vaughan's secretary and assistant halfway through the film.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- The dominatrix at the BDSM site shows no qualms in lashing 14-year-old Priscilla. It's just part of the job to her, after all.
- Later in the film, one of Bob's thugs whacks Priscilla in the back of the head before forcibly taking her to Mario's.
