*Hey there Weekend Watchers, I’m just getting back from vacation and missed a bunch of screenings, but was fortunate enough before I left to see the gripping, thriller “Searching.” David Kim (John Cho) is the bereft father searching for his daughter who has vanished. This is not the first time the consummate actor Cho has played a father. In the TV series “The Exorcist,” Cho cared for his foster kids like any adoring parent.
I interviewed Cho for his role in “The Exorcist” last year at New York Comic Con, and he was very open about the roles of Asian Americans. “You know,” he told me, “on a macro level I was pretty interested in putting an Asian face in American horror because American horror has been very white, monochromatic.” And it’s so apropos that “Searching” comes out a week after the #1 film, “Crazy Rich Asians.”
A parent’s worse nightmare is vicariously lived through Kim. After his 16-year-old daughter goes missing, a local investigation is opened and a detective is assigned to the case. But 37 hours later and without a single lead, Kim decides to search the one place no one has looked yet, where all secrets are kept today: his daughter’s laptop. In a hyper-modern thriller told via the technology devices we use every day to communicate, David must trace his daughter’s digital footprints in the hope she is still alive.
In this nail biting suspense story craftily created by Aneesh Chaganty (director) and Sev Ohanian (co-writer), they give new meaning to putting a finger on the pulse of today’s technology and social media. Parents will leave theaters wondering if they really know their children. Debra Messing, Joseph Lee, Michelle La and Sara Sohn also star in this mind-boggling tale with twists and turns.
Facebook.com/TheFilmStripTM Twitter: @thefilmstrip Instagram.com/thefilmstriptm
