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“ Missing ” isn’t exactly a sequel to “ Searching ,” but rather another installment in what feels like a burgeoning Searching Cinematic Universe. It features a brief reference to the mystery within the 2018 hit film during a breathless, early montage, part of an amalgamation of sights and sounds that puts us on edge from the very start.

While “Searching” was about a father looking for his daughter entirely within the confines of screens – laptops, cell phones, surveillance footage – “Missing” finds a daughter looking for her mother through the same narrative structure. Catching lightning in a bottle twice is nearly impossible, though, and “Missing” lacks the novelty of its thrillingly clever predecessor. “Searching” may have sounded like a gimmick, but it worked because it was relatable within its unnerving premise. As John Cho ’s character desperately seeks clues to his daughter’s whereabouts by investigating her online activities, we tell ourselves in the audience that we’d have the same presence of mind to follow those logical steps. Cho was tremendous in the role, which featured his face in close up nearly the entire time. There was nowhere to hide, and he revealed every glimmer of fear and hope with great nuance.

The new film from the writing/directing duo of Nick Johnson and Will Merrick , based on a story by the original “Searching” team of Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian , takes the exact same approach. It pulls off the impressive narrative highwire act but includes a couple twists too many, eventually depleting it of much of the realism that makes it so gripping for so long. But “Missing” is also zippier in a lot of ways, because the character who’s front and center is an 18-year-old high school senior who’s interacted with this kind of technology her whole life, rather than a middle-aged dad who’s figuring it out as he goes along.

Storm Reid ’s June is a master multitasker, a wizard of the World Wide Web. It’s like watching Lydia Tár conduct the Berlin Philharmonic, only with FaceTime and Venmo and Spotify. Even before her widowed mom, Grace (a lovely Nia Long ), takes off on a Colombian vacation with her new boyfriend, Kevin ( Ken Leung ), we learn so much about the way June spends her days simply by watching her skip between tabs and tap away at her keyboard. She frequently leaves on the camera on her computer, allowing us a peek inside her bedroom and the way she interacts with people IRL. Reid has a likeable, engaging screen presence, and she establishes quickly that June is both smart and a smart-ass.

But once Grace and Kevin fail to show up at LAX as scheduled – which we also see because June has set up her cell phone to capture the moment she greets them at baggage claim – her instincts and years of experience online really kick into gear. We feel her increasing terror as she struggles to communicate with the front desk clerk at a Cartagena hotel, who only speaks Spanish. But she’s such a resourceful problem solver, she realizes she can navigate this city remotely with Google maps and the help of a Taskrabbit-style errand runner for hire named Javi (Joaquim de Almeida, who brings a welcome warmth and humor to this suspenseful scenario).

With each new password she cracks, website she visits and email she reads, June raises more questions than she answers, and “Missing” makes us question these characters again and again. Guessing what’s really going on here is a lot of fun, but as Grace’s disappearance becomes national news, it’s clear Johnson and Merrick have something to say about the ghoulish nature of glomming onto tragedy. One major way “Missing” has evolved from “Searching” is the way it features podcasters and TikTokers analyzing every little detail of the case, forming ill-founded opinions and spreading conspiracy theories for their own fame and gain. It’s at once amusing and dismaying. The directors also effectively employ Ring security video, which wasn’t as prevalent when the first film came out, as a source of tension; we see just enough to know there’s more we can’t see.

But if the delightfully nutty “ M3GAN ” was a cautionary tale about the perils of relying too heavily on technology, “Missing” ends up being a celebration of its possibilities. It’s also a good reminder that we should all be using passwords that don’t include our childhood dogs’ names and kids’ birthdays.

Now playing in theaters.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film credits.

Missing (2023)

Rated PG-13 for some strong violence, language, teen drinking, and thematic material.

111 minutes

Storm Reid as June Allen

Joaquim De Almeida as Javier

Ken Leung as Kevin Lin

Amy Landecker

Daniel Henney as Agent Elijah Park

Nia Long as Grace Allen

Megan Suri as Veena

Tim Griffin as James Allen

Thomas Barbusca as Cody

Nicholas D. Johnson
Will Merrick

Writer (story by)

Sev Ohanian
Aneesh Chaganty

Cinematographer

Steven Holleran
Austin Keeling
Arielle Zakowski
Julian Scherle

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Missing Reviews

Missing is worth a watch. It explores the complexity of Japanese society and how socioeconomics adds a layer to social commentary.

Full Review | Sep 8, 2023

Director and co-writer Shinzô Katayama served as Bong Joon-ho’s assistant on 2009's Mother, and his second feature has the feel of a slow-burn Bong thriller combined with the deadpan weirdness of a Kiyoshi Kurosawa murder mystery.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 18, 2023

With Missing, Shinzo Katayama delivers one of the most satisfying drama-thrillers this year.

Full Review | Jan 13, 2023

The indie approach and the aforementioned amalgam have resulted in a rather interesting movie that manages to stray away from the plethora of similar productions coming out of Japan.

Full Review | Original Score: 7 | Jan 2, 2023

It manages to meld these two stories pretty rationally, believe it or not, but to be frank I didn't need that serial killer movie. All its serves to do is interrupt a really great drama.

Full Review | Nov 30, 2022

Capable thriller filled with shocking revelations and strong storytelling, Always changing perspective ensures things stay fresh. Moves at a patient pace, but peppers in some cleverly placed twists.

Full Review | Nov 14, 2022

Nodding at classic movies, the filmmaking defies expectations at every turn, bristling with messy connections and wrenching emotions, plus situations that have a blackly comical edge to them.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 8, 2022

Against this troubling backdrop, the killer seems less a disruptive influence and more an expression of widespread despair.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 7, 2022

[Missing's] unfocused digressions are regrettable, but there is a lot of promise to Katayama's vision, and his second outing establishes him as a director who's worth keeping an eye on.

Full Review | Nov 4, 2022

A beautifully shot film about a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with a serial killer that makes for an incredibly rewarding, and ultimately heartbreaking mystery.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Nov 2, 2022

A serial killer thriller that trips you up, bounces you around and repels and entertains you all along the way.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 1, 2022

The film ties itself into many knots as it chases the superficial sugar high of a big reveal.

Full Review | Oct 31, 2022

There are powerful ideas, performances, and images present in Missing, but the film can never quite keep these elements synchronized long enough to pack a memorable punch.

Full Review | Oct 7, 2022

It’s an engrossing feature debut from a director who knows how to play you.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 4, 2022

With its twists and turns, fascinating themes, and depth, Missing is a strong first feature entry from Shinzô Katayama.

Missing is that film you rewatch to see if there were clues you missed; a mystery whodunit with a moral twist.

Full Review | Sep 27, 2022

Missing surprises at every turn, making for one of the best thrillers of 2022. With three great performances and excellent direction, it sneaks up on the audience.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Sep 25, 2022

'Missing' is a helluva debut for Shinzô Katayama. The film is a character-driven psychological thriller that gets you thinking and keeps you guessing. It’s a bit of a slow burn, but it pays off with the shocking ending.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 24, 2022

Shinzô Katayama‘s Missing retains the feeling of a J-horror, slowly building the intensity of its mystery while examining the potential compassion and deliverance of death

Full Review | Sep 24, 2022

Missing is mind-blowingly genre-bending and plays a brilliant game of cat and mouse with the audience.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 23, 2022

Action/Adventure
Children's/Family
Documentary/Reality
Amazon Prime Video

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Missing: The Lucie Blackman Case’ on Netflix, A True Crime Tale that Proves a Curious Case to Watch

Where to stream:.

Missing: The Lucie Blackman Case

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For some people, true crime functions as a kind of comfort food. However, that meal might not go down so easily in Missing: The Lucie Blackman Case (now streaming on Netflix). Her disappearance while working abroad and the wider ring of corruption that it helped expose unfurls in such a way that its resolution might not be so neat.

MISSING: THE LUCIE BLACKMAN CASE : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: The young British girl Lucie Blackman goes missing in Tokyo, where she worked as a hostess, in the summer of 2000. At the time, the prevailing image of Japan to Westerners was one of a safe, polite society. But that disguised a darker underbelly of exploitation and danger into which she fell at the club Roppongi. Her father, Tim, was willing to disrupt the system by using his showmanship to drive her discovery forward. Out of concern that Lucie would not receive a full police investigation because she was not a Japanese national, he begins involving the British tabloids … and even gets Prime Minister Tony Blair’s attention.

But all those spotlights won’t bring back his daughter. And, frankly, neither would the regular course of action for Tokyo’s police. It takes a dogged female investigator Nauryama to put the puzzle pieces together and realize a sexual predator has been on the loose at Roppongi. When they land on the suspect Jo Obara, the wealthy president of a property management firm, the case suddenly begins to look much different for all involved.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Foreigners getting in trouble abroad, either by their own making or simply catching an unlucky break, recalls other Netflix documentaries like Amanda Knox or The Disappearance of Madeline McCann .

Performance Worth Watching: There are no “performances,” per se, in a documentary. But the figure who comes across most sympathetically, even in spite of his flaws, is Superintendent Akira Mitsuzane. The way that he continues to live with the repercussions of the case and honor Lucy’s legacy provides a rare glimmer of light in an otherwise grim film.

Memorable Dialogue: “The fact that Lucie came from a foreign country to work and then became the victim of such a crime in our country has left a certain emotion in my heart,” Superintendent Katsuyoshi Abe confesses sincerely, “which is still there.”

Sex and Skin: Plenty of discussion around the heinous sex crimes of Jo Obara, and mercifully none of them are shown or even so much as hinted at. The static of a VHS tape, of which he possessed nearly 400 filming his defiling, says plenty.

Our Take: It’s legitimately shocking to see that the director of Missing: The Lucie Blackman Case is not a Westerner. Director Hyoe Yamamoto structures the story around the outsider’s perspective to a startling degree, which lends the documentary the feeling of a classic “white woman in danger” narrative. The narrative axis of the film revolves around Tim Blackman, even in spite of the actual groundwork to learn the truth was done almost entirely by Japanese police. Particularly with the peerless Nauryama, it feels like the film just leaves far too many narrative threads unfollowed and cultural contexts unexplained. Without examining these tensions more fully, this paint-by-numbers true crime documentary ends up feeling like it gawks at the country of its setting.

Our Call: SKIP IT. True crime aficionados who will soak up any content with a hint of intrigue might find Missing worth the watch. But even they might have to concede that the telling of this tale leaves a lot to be desired. Be it the skewed perspective or the lack of imagination beyond the immediate specifics of the case, this 82-minute doc misses the mark.

Marshall Shaffer is a New York-based freelance film journalist. In addition to Decider, his work has also appeared on Slashfilm, Slant, The Playlist and many other outlets. Some day soon, everyone will realize how right he is about Spring Breakers.

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IMAGES

Missing (2009)
The Missing (2003)
Missing Pictures
Missing
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Missing

COMMENTS

Missing movie review & film summary (2023)
A sequel to "Searching" that follows a teen girl's online search for her mother's whereabouts, "Missing" is a thriller about technology and the internet. Read Roger Ebert's review of the film, which features a brief reference to "Searching" and a critique of the media's coverage of tragedies.
Missing
Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Sep 25, 2022. Cassondra Feltus Black Girl Nerds. 'Missing' is a helluva debut for Shinzô Katayama. The film is a character-driven psychological thriller that ...
‘Missing’ Netflix Review: Stream It or Skip It?
Particularly with the peerless Nauryama, it feels like the film just leaves far too many narrative threads unfollowed and cultural contexts unexplained. Without examining these tensions more fully ...