The film’s setting looks to showcase a time in the future where two monetization formats run the social media space, Survey and Mukbang. Often, people would go out of their way to obtain an immense follower count because flowers, a type of in-game currency, are all that matters. In this cutthroat environment, Truc would do absolutely anything in her power to get to the top, like consuming copious amounts of unappetizing dishes, which eventually led her to the hospital. Emi, a popular Mukbang idol, used to look down on Truc, but all of that would change the moment Truc discovered an appetite stimulant pill that made her insatiable. Their mutual hatred soon developed into an intense rivalry.
In the second story, pretty significant and well known Reviewer, Hoang, ends up getting involved in a death hoax which eventually makes him to seem like the primary trigger for it all.
Gradually, he lost everything people held in value concerning him, commendations as well as respect, and a day came when he was completely without any aid or money and was surrounded by colleagues burning him from all sides.
On the other hand, Khuong Ngoc was able to deliver two seemingly entirely unidentical yet relatable stories. Together with the narratives of social media, internet and brainless desire for fame that most people in this era struggle with, they do in a very entertaining manner. In that sense, the appraisals offered by the film go hand in hand with the underlying problems of cyberspace, and cut across to the image of human beings. One of the overriding themes of the first story is to do with how sex, and human suffering in all other variants, sells, on the web, which Ngoc fierce and dramatic, at times even ghastly highlighted his remark. This is both a critical statement that helps to reinforce the plot rich in context of the film that people want to be pleased by them whether the producers of that content are its exhibitors who create it or the audience who pay to see them all get humiliated.
And in the first half, the aesthetics are so beautiful that it’s as if one has to be deliberate in order to understand the essence here.
Not only the sheer volume of different scenes that flit in front of the screen, sometimes at breakneck speed, but also the color, the props and the music, all along setting that begins embracing the nonsensical and evolves into diabolical as the time progresses, especially the final transmission. In particular, the last broadcast is even more brutal than it has to be, with Ngoc more or less deriding his protagonists, an attitude which makes his messages seem clear while making the viewer (with the big heart) laugh.
The reviewer’s downfall also includes the disreality of that world, which is realistic in that it portrays the cynical state of affairs from the start. For the third time, Ngoc berates both parties for being extreme in their actions, both the content creators and the viewers who are ready to easily throw away everything they had once revered. According to Ngoc, this is not a problem of two parties but a vicious cycle where both parts are causing destruction.
The fact also emerges as rather interesting here that the two protagonists are travelling in completely opposite directions, outwards from the core of a respective closing envelope and inwards from the surface, which I find rather fascinating when seeking occurrings that together constitute the functioning of that world.
Ngoc has great expectations from his protagonists and these are met to the fullest. Not only does El endure the longing but also convincingly portrays his character, Truc, as someone who becomes increasingly obsessive and starts to lose her sense of reality.
Ngân 98’s Emi contrasts quite a bit with Ngân in that you can see that she starts off from the top and then is pulled back away with her goals of fame. Hoang played by Quốc Khánh demonstrates his downfall, as well as his unsuccessful attempt to thwart it rather convincingly, adding up to the overall superb acting aspect here.
The movie “LIVE (Phat Truc Tiep)” is an excellent film which manages to clearly portray its plethora of comments while speaking out through the vents of comedy whilst still retaining action and drama.
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