How 'Searching' becomes more than a desktop film?

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The advent of the Internet has not only blurred the lines of privacy, but also disrupted many industries.

The film industry is no exception.

The year's best suspense film, "Searching," is a thriller that takes place almost entirely in front of a computer screen. This departure from the conventions of the genre comes from director Aneesh Chaganty in his feature debut and the writers Sev Ohanian and Chaganty themselves. It is set to be released in the Chinese mainland on December 14.

Since its debut at the Sundance Film Festival, it has won the NEXT Audience Award and Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize in January and was named the best suspense film of the year.

The story

The screenshot via the trailer

The story centers on David Kim, played by John Cho, trying to find his missing 16-year-old daughter by searching online, piecing together tidbits of her life. Over the course of his search, he realizes he had never really got to know his daughter. Viewers are taken along for the ride as they experience confusion and plot twists through the father's eyes.

What is the desktop film?

“Searching” is first and foremost a traditional film. However, the film does not present a visual experience within a conventional camera perspective, giving it a brand-new significance.

The rise of the computer-screen film or desktop film, where the action takes place entirely on the screen of a computer or smartphone, has seen fascinating development in the past two years, used by films such as the 2014 horror movie "Unfriended" and its sequel "Unfriended: Dark Web."

Although “Searching” has a similar presentation, the film takes place on the screens of multiple computers and an iPhone.

Social media thriller

Unlike other suspense films, which hide all the clues until the end and then unveil them all at once, "Searching" offers clues to what really happened throughout its runtime as long as audiences pay close attention.

Chinese-version poster of "Searching" /Maoyan.com Photo

In the film, people are not what they seem to be, and children who are bright have different personas on the Internet, which is key to the plot.

The Straits Times stated in its review that the film taps into modern anxieties about parenting and technology, making it a movie of our time.

Though some netizens on Chinese movie review website Douban have criticized the logic of the story, the director notes that the film is “a very typical thriller, but it is presented in a very atypical way."