But, Aneesh Chaganty’s Searching film looks different. Made in great detail. Almost the frame is a laptop or cellphone screen. Yes, that’s how our life is today. We prefer to mingle with laptop and cellphone screens, rather than socializing with neighbors or friends with intense meetings, exciting conversations, and booming laughter.
When I watched this film, I felt like I was part of this film. What is shown in this film feels so close to our daily lives. What are the mirrors of our lives in this film? Check this out!
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A relationship that is not too close between parents and children
The film tells of David Kim’s attempt to find his daughter, Margot Kim, who suddenly disappeared. The effort was carried out by David with Margot’s laptop capital. He broke into Margot’s social media password, searched for his daughter’s browsing history, short messages, and various folders on Margot’s laptop.
At the time of that search, David realized that he did not know any of his daughter’s friends. With the help of sophisticated internet technology, David traced the telephone numbers of Margot’s friends. Contacting them one by one, and there were no significant results that could help investigate his daughter’s case. In other words, David realized that Margot did not have close friends.
Some scenes also display the awkward communication between father and child when they meet directly. This is inversely proportional to the smoothness of their communication through telephone or video calls. David even learned the fact that his daughter had never taken piano lessons, after contacting her daughter’s tutoring place, even though every month David always gave piano lessons to her daughter. At this point, we realize that this father and son are not too close.
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We have more friends in cyberspace than in the real world
Margot Kim can be a reflection of our daily lives. In the real world, we don’t have many friends, we don’t have the confidence to ‘appear’ in public, especially in front of an environment that is unfamiliar to us. On the contrary, we are so confident of ‘appearing’ through social media, and we feel more able to be accepted by cyber friends, even though we have never met them directly.
Technology separates closeness between human beings with one another. Often we make appointments together, but after meeting, we are busy with our respective gadgets. We create our own world, wherever we are.
On the other hand, technology is the savior of lonely souls. Technology gives ‘friends’ that make us feel there, even means in this world. Margot Kim also has the same story. Margot feels happy, and wants to be meaningful to his virtual friends. But unfortunately, this virtual friend named Hannah has a fake identity. Hannah turned out to be the disguise of Robert, Margot’s childhood friend who (once again) did not have the confidence to become a close friend of Margot in the real world.