Is Steven Soderbergh's new movie 'KIMI' a new 'mysterious movie'?

"Steven Soderbergh sometimes makes very mysterious films." Film critic Roger Ebert said in 2002 of Soderbergh's film Full Frontal: Ebert is sadly dead, so instead, I'm here to declare that the latest "mysterious Soderbergh movie" is out.

That said, this is good news, not shocking news. Because even when you're feeling lazy, you'll find that the talented and eccentric Soderbergh directs the film far from boring.

Soderbergh's latest work "KIMI", which was released on the distribution service "HBO Max" in the United States, is a difficult work to understand. However, by choosing an unusual narrative, it is finished as a light and dynamic thriller.

The finished film is an out-of-tune update to Hitchcock's "Rear Window." In "Rear Window," a cameraman (James Stewart), who has broken his leg, uses a telephoto lens to peer through a window at people. On the other hand, this work tells the story of Zoe Kravitz, who suffers from trauma-induced agoraphobia, listening to audio recorded on a smart home device.

Compared to Soderbergh's previous film, "The Crime Game," which smacks of truth with betrayal after betrayal, the plot of this film is simple enough. It's pretty obvious who's the villain and who's the hero.

The main character, Angela Childs (Zoe Kravitz), works for a tech company called Amygdala. Amygdala is selling a device "KIMI" equipped with a voice assistant that competes with Siri and Alexa, and is about to go public.

Angela spends her days shutting herself up in a neat room in a converted warehouse in Seattle, analyzing fragmented voices collected by KIMI. She also jokes occasionally with a technical support person who lives in Romania. Outside of work hours, he brushes his teeth too carefully while riding his fitness bike, makes video calls with his mother and psychiatrist, and invites Terry (Byron Bowers), who lives across the street, to have sex.

One day, Angela finds evidence of a violent crime in a voice she needs to analyze at work. When she tries to report it to her company, she ends up being targeted by those in power who fear leaking her voice.

The general plot is a common chasing game. But basically, the details are oozing out of unnaturalness.

First, Angela has severe agoraphobia, to the point where she can't leave her room even when she's in pain from an infected tooth. Yet her Angela's hair is electric blue and her bangs are cut above her brows.

This may sound like a nitty gritty, but a hairstyle like this is incredibly difficult to maintain and extremely difficult to recreate at home on your own. There is no haircut that makes you want to scream, "You should have a five-hour appointment at the beauty salon and regular maintenance!"