South Korean film “Following” is a darkly amusing thriller about one creepy dude suddenly finding himself framed for what he did not commit just like many Hitchcockian heroes. While it is rather hard to care about its deeply unlikable hero, the movie still works thanks to its taut and efficient storytelling coupled with several good performances, and you may have some naughty fun from his increasingly desperate circumstance.

At first, we get to know a bit about the hidden lifestyle of a young man named Jeong-tae (Byun Ho-han). On the surface, he is a fairly successful model real estate agent who have received good words from many of his clients, but he has been hiding something quite creepy behind his back. Using the advantages from his occupation, he can easily sneak into the houses of the clients he dealt with, and he gladly tells us how much he enjoys peeping into the lives of those clients. As a matter of fact, he always collects a sort of souvenir whenever he sneaks into his latest target, and he even has a little private place where he prides over heaps of such items he has collected for a long time.

On one day, someone quite interesting happens to draw Jeong-tae’s attention. She is a young social media influencer named So-ra (Shin Hye-sun), and Jeong-tae finds himself attracted to not only her beauty but also her ongoing duplicity. On her Instagram account, she looks like a popular chic girl who has often flaunted her cool lifestyle coupled with some notable acts of philanthropy, but she actually lives in some shabby neighborhood of Seoul, and Jeong-tae cannot help but wonder more about whatever she is hiding behind her supposedly chic façade.

Although he closely watches on her during next several months, So-ra remains rather elusive, and that certainly frustrates Jeong-tae a lot, but, what do you know, there comes an unexpected opportunity later. So-ra visits Jeong-tae’s office because she wants to move to somewhere, and this surely makes Jeong-tae’s private mission all the easier than before. She gladly hands him the key card of her residence, and Jeong-tae soon embarks on watching and absorbing a lot from her private life.

However, of course, this supposedly lucky chance is subsequently followed by another unexpected happening. When he sneaks into So-ra’s house again, Jeong-tae is startled to discover her bloodied body in the living room, and he quickly leaves for the fear of becoming wrongfully accused and then getting his naughty hobby fully exposed in public.

Not so surprisingly, the situation becomes more confusing and frightening for Jeong-tae. When he later comes to So-ra’s residence along with his two clients who are going to be his witness, her body is gone without any trace. In addition, somebody seems to know everything about what he has been doing around So-ra, and this mysterious figure in question looks like quite determined to ruin his life once for all.

As Jeong-tae tries to find any possible way out in addition to attempting to identify his hidden opponent, the screenplay by director/writer Kim Se-hwi delves deeper into the very unpleasant aspects of social media. It goes without saying that So-ra was hiding a lot more than she seemed at first, and what she and a few associates of hers have done just for more attention and some benefit is quite nasty and deplorable to say the least.

Meanwhile, the movie provides a welcoming voice of reason and morality via a young female detective named Yeong-joo (Lee El), who instantly senses something quite fishy about So-ra as well as Jeong-tae as she starts the investigation on So-ra’s missing. Even though being often disregarded by her male supervisor, Yeong-joo eventually becomes more determined to the get to the bottom of her latest case, and that certainly causes more headache for Jeong-tae.

While we usually observe his character’s plight from the distance, Byun Ho-han, who has been more prominent since his breakthrough turn in “Socialphobia” (2014), keeps holding our attention to the end, and we come to pay more attention to whether his utterly disagreeable character will finally realize what the hell is really going on around him. Although her role seems rather thankless in comparison, Shin Hye-sun, who was terrific in “Innocence” (202), fills her part with enough presence, and we are more surprised and amazed by her character’s pathological narcissism to be revealed along the story. As the no-nonsense female cop who will not be fooled that easily, Lee El holds her own place well around the story, and you will certainly agree to her character’s sobering moral viewpoint on the case.

On the whole, “Following”, which should not be confused with Christopher Nolan’s debut feature film “Following” (1997), is a solid genre product which entertains us as much as intended. Although I think it delivers its eventual resolution a bit too easily, the movie is still satisfying for ably handling its story and characters, and you may also come to have some more critical view on social media and those numerous superficial influencers out there. Sure, I have used a number of social media applications for many years, but I have not given a damn about such banal and uninteresting figures nonetheless, and that will probably be continued for the rest of my life even if I become quite old-fashioned because of that.