Search: WWW (2019)
7/10
Traditionalists/romantic at heart will not like - those for women power might
15 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
7.5/10 is my rating. What has become apparent in the modern world is how information can be manipulated to suit the agenda of powerful businesses and political figures. Bae Ta Mi (Im Soo Jung) finds herself caught between the ethics of a free public domain and the pressures brought to bear on the companies that provide Internet search services. After dedicating her youth to a company she helped to build to the top search engine, she is chosen as the fall person in a high stakes political inroad. She ouththinks/outsmarts the political players only to lose her job.

Distraught over being stabbed in the back by someone she thought of as a friend and mentor she goes to play a video game to burn off some steam. She is very competitive and used to winning at everything so when she loses the game to Park Mo Gun/Park Morgan (Jang Ki Yong), she finds the younger man intersting enough that their encounter develops into a one night stand. Park Morgan sees things differently, he has for once encountered someone he find unforgettable and decides to pursue this elusive woman whose life focus is on her career.

Park Morgan is the CEO of a company that composes music for Video Games, a part of the industry Tae Mi is involved in, so they encounter each other frequently. Meanwhile, the top competitior knows that Bae Ta Mi has the skills they need to beat Bae Ta Mi's former copany in ranking, after all she is the one that has kept the edge over them all these years. Theyg recruit her to help their company surpass and finally come out on top. This is a slice of life in the high stakes world of internet search engines with three women determined to make their mark in the industry. Can modern women really have it all?

Spoilers* I liked this but did not love it. I learned a lof in the slice of life of internet search engine industry - things I had never thought of. I really enjoyed that aspect. What I was watching it for though was the romance and that fell a bit flat. I thought the Park Morgan character was literally the perfect boyfriend/romantic partner but Bae Ta Mi was somewhat flat and cold as a character. He showered her with love and affection and I felt like she spent more time closing herself off emotionally than returning the love he so freely gave her. Others have commented, and I have to agree, that her constant emotional distancing became tiresome and it made me feel sorry for Park Morgan and feel he might be better off without her. I might have felt more sympathy for her character if they had revealed what happened to make her emotionally distant but they never did - she just was. I found the side romances more interesting than the main romance. But even those would get irritating at times. Scarlet (Lee Da Hee) was so insistant she was only a fan of Sul Ji Hwan (Lee Jae Wook) who was a rising actor, but that luckily turned the corner before it became annoying. However, when they finally came together and it turned out he was up for mandatory military service her fatalistic attitude about their relationtship was excessive. Bae Ta Mi's former mentor and major rival, Song Ga Kyung (Jeon Hye Jin), was living a miserable life in an arranged marriage under the thumb of her "evil" mother-in-law. It was apparent though, that her husband, Oh Jin Woo (Ji Seung Hyun), was in love with her and that she was with him. They were actually well suited for each other. He took responsibility for all the heartbreak and bad treatment she suffered and was willing to do nearly anything for her. I really wanted to see the two of them figure it out and reconcile sooner. None of the relationships resolved in anything that was long term. The main leads basically agreed to disagree and just let's see what happens in the future. But they broke up over that before so there was no feeling that anything resolved. Scarlet's boyfriend was still in the military and there were no promises made that she would wait for him. And CEO Song divorced her husband and was traveling and had "disappeared" from public life. There was a Thelma and Louis type ending where all three ride off into the sunset together in a show of strong women/solidarity so I suppose if you were more for the strong business woman element you might find that ending satisfying. I am a more traditional romance/happily ever after ending so I did not find that rah rah go women moment rewarding.
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