Following

Story: Gyoo Jeong-tae (Byun Yo-han) is a real estate agent and quite successful at that. However, he has a very unusual hobby. He secretly goes into the apartments entrusted to him and snoops around. He doesn't do much, though, apart from repairing a thing or two, or taking an unimportant object with him, which he then puts on display for himself in a secret basement room. He also occasionally stalks people who seem interesting to him, but without ever really approaching them. Lately, he took an interest in the influencer Han So-ra (Shin Hye-sun), but it turns out to be difficult to get into her apartment. Just as he is about to give up because the code on her door lock is too complex, So-ra appears at his real estate office. She wants to sell her apartment and since she is rarely at home, she gives him her key. Beside himself with joy, he can finally enter So-ra's apartment. When he visits the apartment again one day, though, he finds the young woman lying dead on the couch. In panic, he leaves the apartment and decides to "find" the body with some potential buyers in his official function as a real estate agent. But when he returns, the body is gone! Shortly afterwards, he receives an envelope with a photo of the dead woman and the question of whether it was him. Jeong-tae can't make sense of all this, but he knows that he will be the main suspect if authorities start to investigate. And indeed, Detective Oh Yeong-joo (Lee El) is soon assigned to So-ra's case, as the influencer has been reported missing ...

Review: "Following" is one of those mystery thrillers that seem very promising because it tries to blur the line between good and evil. In addition, there are twists and turns around every corner and you get some nice suspense up until the last minute. But at the latest when the credits start rolling, you realize that the movie was constructed very systematically and that it focused mainly on staying gripping at all times. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that, and "Following" is actually a decent movie, but you have to be able to live with a few plot holes and with the fact that the thriller isn't quite as sociocritical as it probably meant to be. For that, you would have had to slow down every now and then and dedicate a little more time to the characters. In the end, however, characters like So-ra are supposed to stay a bit mysterious, since the circumstances that led to her murder make up a huge part of the suspense. At the same time, you don't have any problems following Jeong-tae with his investigation, because his innocent appearance makes you forget that he's actually a pretty creepy guy.

Maybe it helps if you remind yourself of the fact that Jeong-tae has a secret basement room where he collects trophies from his clients' apartments. The question inevitably arises how long it will take until this thrill is not enough anymore and he moves on to more extreme actions. But then he is suddenly in the role of a victim because he has to somehow try not to be prosecuted for the murder, which he did not report immediately for obvious reasons. We root for him because we know that he is not responsible for the murder, and because Byun Yo-han ("On the Line") manages to make it impossible to believe that the real estate agent is actually a bad guy. This even goes so far that we have to be reminded at the end of how creepy the protagonist's stalking really is. But you can't help but feel like more should have been made out of this premise. Female director Kim Se-hwi is too focused on keeping things rolling and glueing the viewer to the screen. Of course, you never know to what extent the producers had their fingers in the pie, maybe "Following" was supposed to be a more profound work at one point or the other.

Among the topics that are tackled is, of course, the game with lies, which makes influencers so much money. Did So-ra really change from the superficial Instagrammer who holds expensive bags into the camera to a girl who wants to make the world a better place? What was the catalyst for that? On the search for the murderer, we find out that there were of course other stalkers besides Jeong-tae who could be potential murderers, and a fight between the different influencers also repeatedly escalated even though sometimes it may have just been fake. The web of lies can easily grow within the world of social media, and it keeps us guessing for a long time as to what might have really happened. But we soon get a big twist that makes us look at everything in a different light. Still, one point of criticism has to be made about the fact that there are flashbacks that take up a lot of space. The perspective - until then we followed Jeong-tae - changes a lot and you have problems finding your way back into the flow of the actual story. In addition, there is the story about the police detective who investigates the case. But actress Lee El ("The Call") is not allowed to do much with her role, even though she is actually the only morally righteous person.

Shin Hye-sun ("Brave Citizen") is allowed to play the role of the influencer with a great deal of mystery. There are moments when she seems helpless and nice, but sometimes she is also able to be frightening, and she unquestionably exploits others for her own needs. But that's exactly what "Following" is about. How much idiosyncrasy are you willing to accept, and when does it start to become unpleasant or dangerous? Right from the start, the movie plays with this, and that's also its real strength. Every now and then, the director seems to forget about this, though, specifically every time it comes to typical thriller twists. Overall, you have to be able to live with the fact that many of the "smart" plans are based on the premise that everything will run exactly as planned - and of course, conveniently that's always the case in "Following". Depending on how lenient you are, you might have to roll your eyes, or you might be able to overlook all this if it's just important to you to be entertained in a gripping way. I might have seen one too many thrillers of this kind, so I actually had a few problems with the various plot holes/logic errors.

If you are looking for a mystery thriller that isn't too complex, but sometimes considers itself to be quite smart, you can have fun with "Following". There are also enough action scenes, even though they don't deliver action in the classical sense. It can also be a bit annoying here and there that both So-ra and Jeong-tae don't seem to be able to defend themselves in any way whatsoever. Sure, this increases the suspense even more, because there is a lot at stake, but sometimes it even seems downright forced. However, right until the end of the movie, you are busy trying to unravel the mystery, and social media as an addon brings another interesting note to the story, even though nowadays there are already quite a few thrillers out there dealing with this topic. Towards the end, the director once more wants to make clear who is the villain in the story, or rather how "evil" could be defined. Unfortunately, this is exactly where we are left short for answers. In terms of its subject matter "Following" is too superficial to actually make us rack our brains over the topics it deals with. Nevertheless, viewers who are simply looking for a captivating thriller will definitely be satisfied here.

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