WARNING: There are some SPOILERS ahead for the opening scene of Searching. So please only read ahead if you have seen the psychological thriller.
“Searching’s” opening scene masterfully depicts the life of David Kim (John Cho) and Pamela Nam Kim (Sara Sohn) from the birth of their daughter all the way to up to Pamela’s death from cancer some 16-years later.
Of course that makes it both tragic and emotional, but in the midst of these scenes there’s also humor and pathos, as those watching immediately get caught up in the whirlwind storytelling.
But this isn’t the first time an opening scene has provoked a tidal wave of emotions. In fact, as “Searching’s” opening scene unfolded I was immediately reminded of the Pixar classic “Up,” which told Carl and Ellie’s love story from when they first met all the way up to her death.
During my recent interview with “Searching’s” John Cho I asked him whether that was intentional, and he confirmed, “That was definitely an explicit reference point.”
“I was so happy when I saw how well that worked,” Cho continued. “That leapt off the page. Even in written form I knew it would be critical.”
“If people were in at that point we had them for the rest of the movie. If they weren’t we were never going to get them. To that end, for me, when we were shooting I just wanted to make all of these memories feels authentic.”
“I brought my experiences to bare, and we all collaborated with those wonderful actors to make it feel like real memories. That was probably the most fun, working the children, and making, what is now, the family photo album, which is Quicktime videos from your computer.”
During our discussion, Cho admitted that another movie played a key part in his journey with “Searching,” because it was only after watching “Unfriended” that he knew the device of an entire film unfolding on a computer would work.
However, Cho was adamant, “I didn’t want to make that movie.”
“That movie was static shot on a computer screen and then it was on six webcams. It all took place over an hour and a half in real time. That’s not an acting exercise that I wanted to do.”
Cho quickly realized that wasn’t “Searching” co-writer and director Aneesh Chaganty’s ambition, either.
“It was really him differentiating how different those films would be. Which was him explaining the camera movements and the different events that would take place so that it would feel cinematic. Some of it was him telling me what the camera would feel like.”
“Definitely it was a man to man talk. ‘Listen we are not going to let this overwhelm the storytelling. It has to be about a man and his daughter. That has to be the most important thing.’ He gave the assurances that he he was committed to telling that story.”
For both Chaganty and Cho, it was also integral that “Searching” was released on the big-screen, too, rather than being sold to Netflix.
“I believe they felt it was important that it was seen on the big-screen and I agreed. What is happening today is that we are having these human exchanges, rather than face to face, we are having them increasingly online.”
“So those exchanges become shrunk into our devices. We felt like in order to tell this story we had to blow it up on a screen to make those exchanges online as big as they feel.”
“Searching” is now in cinemas.
