I’m not sure what the age rating will be for this movie but just wanted to add a trigger warning – this movie includes a suicide scene which can be distressing for some people.

Streaming is a thriller film following Woo-sang (played by Kang Ha-neul), the number one live streamer on the online streaming platform “WAG”, who gains a strong following for his broadcasts about profiling crime cases and broadcasting the process of uncovering clues to an unsolved serial murder case in real time. One day, while broadcasting, he ends up getting involved in a kidnapping of another live streamer, with a one-hour time limit to save her life…

[WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD] 

If you’re a Kang Ha-neul fan, you’re in for a treat because you’re basically going to see him in pretty much 90% of the movie because he’s the central figure in the film, and it’s very close-up too since it mimics the whole live streaming format! But you don’t need to be a fan to enjoy the film because it was honestly quite a wild ride.

We begin the film with a rather pompous introduction to Woo-sang for being the top live streamer on “WAG” for weeks and weeks on end, and we see his arrogant self talking about an ongoing serial killer case, clues about how the murderer abducted his latest victim, and a re-enactment of the latest killing, done in collaboration with another streamer Matilda. Which ended up backfiring because she talks over him during the broadcasts and basically screws him over by taking over all his talking points and asking the viewers to join her on HER channel to hear more about the case.

I won’t spoil too much of the movie because it was genuinely fun to watch the plot twist after plot twist towards the end. It wasn’t completely unexpected but I think you get so engrossed in the film (it really felt like I was watching a live streaming broadcast!) that you don’t really have the time and head space to think about what was happening and suddenly, BAM! PLOT TWIST. I have to say, I didn’t hate being surprised.

Suddenly his popularity nosedives as he is seen as a pitiful loser for getting betrayed by Matilda, and even having his less-than-stellar past dug up to show him being a “loser” (failing to get into the police academy multiple times, doing embarrassing things on live streams…). That didn’t deter Woo-sang from continuing to live stream though. But while live streaming one day, a user keeps on asking him why Matilda hasn’t been live streaming and urged him to look for her… which is when the movie starts getting super stressful emotionally as you really end up getting sucked into the film, feeling all the emotions felt by Woo-sang as he tries to find out where the kidnapper was hiding Matilda before he kills her.

The movie is rather short at 90 minutes, but it was jam-packed throughout and it didn’t feel short at all actually. Maybe because you end up spending a lot of emotional energy watching it… Also, the ending is a little open-ended… but not in the way that you get annoyed because WHAT IS THE CONCLUSION?!

Anyway, the movie exposes all the terrible things about live streaming platforms – how people encourage toxic behaviour for views/likes/money, how online comments can push celebrities over the edge, faking incidents for views… It was distressing at one point to see viewers on the live broadcast keep sending in “points” to encourage the kidnapper to “cut” off something from Matilda’s body (thankfully it didn’t end up being gory because he just cut off her clothes but I was getting quite terrified for her). And as mentioned at the start of this review, the suicide scene. We don’t see the “aftermath” of the deed but hearing what happened off-screen was distressing enough for me.

All in all, it was a really fascinating and fun (albeit stressful) watch and I actually wouldn’t mind re-watching it because there was so much happening in each scene that I probably missed some interesting points here and there. Go watch it in cinemas when it’s out!