“I work as a realtor, and my hobby is peeping,” is how Koo Jung-tae (Byun Yo-han) introduces himself in voiceover. His status as narrator forces us into uneasy complicity with a voyeur and stalker – which, in a way, every viewer of a film is as well. This “good man” – with a double life – first encounters popular online influencer Han So-ra (Shin Hae-sun) biting into a meat sausage while posting about her veganism. A man who loves to spy on people’s secret selves, and a woman who craves attention for a fictive life, seem made for each other.
Yet Kim Se-hwi’s directorial debut is no romance, but a twisted thriller that radically shifts perspectives while exploring every variety of narcissist, creep, parasite and psycho – and viewers are never let off the hook for their own role at this game of image-making, self-concealment and vicarious, fickle judgement.
This is Rear Window (1954) for the social media generation.