One of my favorite part about watching a movie is to learn about actors who are new to me. In Searching, the one who caught my eye was definitely John Cho, who played David Kim.
From the perspective of screen times, Searching is very much a one-man show for John Cho. His acting skill was closely examined, literally, through the numerous close-up shots of his face. The panic, despair, and anger felt by a dad losing touch of his daughter, were so vividly showed by his nuanced facial expressions.
Searching was my first chance getting to see John’s acting , but before that I’ve seen his face so many times already. The first encounter was a poster of the movie Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, where he apparently played a main role.
I saw the poster from a listicle titled “10 Movies Starring Talented Asian Actors” or something. This poster…well, didn’t interest me at all. The long and emotionless title, the goofy faces of the two characters, I could almost immediately picture in my mind the story of two dumb kids getting in dumb trouble at the restaurant, so I chose to pass. But it turns out I might be wrong about at least two things. First, according to Rotten Tomatoes, the movie was actually not bad (74% is considered pretty fresh). Second, they were not kids…John Cho was already 32 years old when he played in this movie!
So that’s your 32-year old face. Good for you John.
Later, I saw John again in another poster for the TV series Selfie (where he finally looked like someone his age):
Huh that is a very interesting pair. As a big fan of Guardians of the Galaxy, I immediately recognized that girl in front of him…
it’s her!!
The creepy blue-skin bad-tempered villain Nebula whose face gave me goosebumps. As soon as I recognized her I felt sorry for John. He’s definitely gonna get bullied…I mean look at him in the poster getting half of his face blocked and looking all helpless. Geez, tough. This show had a rotten tomato rating of 56% (nah), and never really became popular, so I didn’t watch either.
I saw John’s face a few more times here and there, but was never really drawn to any of the shows he played. I always felt like there’s something about him that made me feel sympathy. Maybe it’s his brows. They are always slightly frowned, which led me to believe he must be living a kind of sad life. And sure enough, he lost his daughter in Searching!
Since I’ve grown extremely familiar with John’s face, when I first saw the Searching trailer, I got so excited. I pointed to him and said to my boyfriend, “ah I know this guy!!” Even though I honestly didn’t. But I knew immediately that I didn’t want to miss this movie of his, because he’s playing a role that I thought was so perfect for his face–a miserable father! Yes! That’s what I’ve always been waiting to see him play! (Wow sometimes you just don’t realize how evil yourself are until you read your own inner thought.)
Anyways, so I watched Searching and John really NAILED his role. The movie got a 94% rotten tomato rating which proved I made a great choice. But now I feel guilty, because John’s figure as a miserable father is so engraved in my head I can’t see anything else in him (shout out to his acting again)… Therefore, I have decided that I’m going to follow John’s every movie hereafter, especially if it’s a HAPPY one.
Finishing of with a fun fact–John Cho is actually the person who popularized the term “MILF,” while he played in American Pie.
Man, that’s some big achievement.
Talk Spoilers 