“Missing”: A thriller Teaches How to Find Useful Information Online Efficiently

By Maggie Ma

If you are a fan of “Searching” in 2018, a tech-savvy unpredictable thriller, then you can’t miss this sequel “Missing” releasing on Jan 20th .  Still written by Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian, this time directed by “Searching”’s editors Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick, the sequel serves the same purpose and gives the same excitement the previous movie did.  Besides keep guessing the ending, audiences may really learn many useful techniques to find the information they need online and may be even find a “missing “ person.

Like “Searching” focus on a father and daughter relationship, “Missing” centers on a single mom and her daughter.  The daughter, June Allen (Storm Reid) is a rebellious but tech-savvy teenage girl whose mother, Grace (Nia Long) went on a trip to Colombia with her boyfriend, Kevin (Ken Leung). But on the last day, June didn’t see her mom and Kevin at the airport.  After reporting to police, June started looking for information online by herself. She tried to track Kevin and her mom’s phone and got to know more about their secrets.  To June’s surprise, there are a lot of things she never knew.

Just like the previous film, “Missing”  showed the entire screen of June’s laptop on the screen so that audiences can see everything she does. Her text message, phone calls, video cam, websits and even the door cams will all show up on her screen, sometimes at the same time. All the tasks done on one screen. The multitasking teenage girl showed the rapid and busy life of young people in modern society. When audiences are busying following June’s online behaviors, we also got to see her skills of online searching, and what kind of apps or cams that can help people track down someone. We once again realized that there are cameras everywhere and people will definitely leave traces.  By tracking people’s social networks can also find out a lot of information about them and their pattern of behaviors. It’s simply very hard to just “disappear “nowadays, no matter in day light or online.

There are many things that introduced to the audience could be new and cool to most of the audiences. Although Colombia is far away, the real-time contents recorded by local cameras can still be viewed remotely, which has greatly helped the search. Even sitting in front of a computer at home in the United States, June has a lot of information in a short amount of time. However, all the discovering keep surprising her at the same time.

Like the previous one, this film does not have many live-action shots, and the audience mainly sees the development of the plot through mobile phones, computer screens and cameras. The audience’s perspective is exactly the same as June. You may feel overwhelmed sometimes just like her but also can learn some useful searching skills. Afterall, the film is about how technology can threaten us but also protect us at the same time.

The success of “Searching “ is because the way the movie shot and present is very unique and effective. The sequel successfully rivals its predecessor. There is really no break. The story will keep you guessing from the first minute to the last and there are many surprising turns.

Rookie Storm Reid who stared in “The Invisible Man”and “Euphoria” plays the heroine June, a girl that has master of various Internet skills. The handsome Korean actor Daniel Henney plays the FBI agent. And Hong Kong actor Ken Leung, who has starred in Hollywood movies such as “Rush Hour” and “X-Men”, plays Kevin,  the boyfriend of the missing mother. He often portrayed villainous roles before, but is he the villain again this time? The story is not as simple as imagined, and the ending may surprise everyone.

“Missing” is one of the rare sequels that can still feel refresh and designed for modern audiences. At the same time, the mother-daughter relationship also reminds people that while we may do everything in front of a screen now, don’t forget to interact and communicate with people around you, which is the best way to build mutual understanding and trust.

“Missing 2” will be released in America on January 20th  and has received very positive reviews so far.

 

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