[Slate] Dopamine Overload Era, 'Streaming' Highlights Harms of Solo Internet Broadcasting

Movie 'Streaming' still. Provided by Lotte Entertainment

A man dressed in a suit and tie sits at a desk, staring intently into the camera. His meticulous analysis of the criminal activities in an unsolved case makes him look like a detective. However, he is not an investigator. He is Usang (Kang Ha-neul), a streamer (one-person internet broadcaster) who broadcasts crimes in real time. Running the number one crime channel by subscriber count, he tracks crime scenes, streams them live, and collects donations.

To track down the culprit of a female serial murder case, Usang heads to the club where the actual crime occurred, reenacts the crime on site, and gradually gets closer to the perpetrator. During this time, a female streamer who was broadcasting with him goes missing, and sensing that an incident has occurred, he immediately sets out to track the criminal, broadcasting the entire process without hesitation.

Even inside the car on the way to the missing woman’s house, and when trespassing into the suspected criminal’s home, he remains conscious of the camera. After a fierce struggle, he tidies his disheveled hair and adjusts his clothes, then asks the cameraman, “Are you filming?” His prioritization of the broadcast even in tense moments evokes a bitter smile.

Descending into a dark basement where the criminal might be hiding, he never stops communicating with his subscribers. He readily complies with somewhat unreasonable viewer requests. The more sensational the scene, the more subscribers and donations (balloons) pour in. Murder is a crime, but in the world of internet broadcasting, it is just ‘content that makes money.’

Movie 'Streaming' still. Provided by Lotte Entertainment

The film Streaming captures the reality of the recently emerging social issue of ‘Cyber Wreckers.’ The problem of cyber wreckers?who defame celebrities and highlight sensational issues to increase views?has even led to related bills being proposed in the political arena. The film raises various questions intertwined with this reality.

However, the directing style is somewhat disappointing. The screen is designed like an internet broadcast interface, and the one-take format enhances the urgency of live streaming, but this approach lacks freshness as it has already been adopted in films like Search (2018) in the ‘screen life’ genre. There are also shortcomings in terms of gender sensitivity. Only women wearing red dresses become targets of crime, and the setting where the perpetrator cuts part of the victim’s dress as a trophy makes it difficult to avoid criticism that female victims are being consumed in a sensationalized manner.

Nevertheless, Kang Ha-neul, who plays Usang, carries the tension of the film to the end with his dense performance. Director Cho, who waited two years for Kang Ha-neul to complete his military service to cast him, said, “The core of the film is the actor. The key was whether the actor could hold the audience’s attention for a long time, and Kang Ha-neul was cast because he was full of passion and energy.”

Kang Ha-neul said, “It is unfortunate that the negative aspects of one-person media are being revealed these days. But I hope people also remember that positive energy can be gained through good content.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.