Heracin

This thriller follow up the investigation process of Woo Sang, a popular online streamer, while he is gathering clues on unresolved murders and streaming it live for his audience. While focusing on the mystery, the scenario let the viewer see the behind the veil of the streamer life, the need for likes and the rush to get viral, stay on top, in a very competitive world.

While I liked the approach of the story and the way that it was filmed, I am a bit more doubtful on the substance of the story and the ending itself which felt abrupt and would have benefited from a longer epilogue. The morale of the outcome is left voluntarily ambiguous but I feel that there was a lot more that could have been exploited given the topic and its voyeuristic nature. It is quite a short movie but I feel the pacing could have been better as well and that some of the twists (if not all) were very predictable.

Casting-wise, Kang Ha Neul does a solid job. His character becoming more and more unhinged until a critical point was quite fascinating to watch. The remainder of the cast is good as well, without any weak link. Production-wise, the camera work was quite well done with the way it allows the viewer to feel like the direct audience of the stream. Whileit sometimes may feel a bit too neat and easy to be realistic live-stream but overall, it really does the trick in immersing the viewer into the "live" investigation.

I would recommend this to people looking for a different kind of thriller. The twists are not super astonishing but the way it is filmed, making the viewer follow a "live-stream" of an investigation is pretty interesting. In addition to a better pacing and a longer epilogue, I wish they would have gone deeper on the streaming topic and all its consequences. More than the mystery, this is the aspect I found the most fascinating with all its inherent psychological and social elements.