Overview of Midnight

A chilling thriller movie, released on June 30, 2021, ‘Midnight’ draws the story of a deaf woman and an obnoxious serial killer. Being the debut work of the director Kwon Oh-seung, the movie topped box-office sales and harnessed the appreciation of the global audience. This TVING production film stars Jin Ki-joo and Wi Ha-joon in the lead roles.

Profile

• Movie: Midnight
• Genre: Thriller
• Director: Kwon Oh-seung
• Writer: Kwon Oh-seung
• Producers: Lee Seung-ryong, Kim Sung-nyun
• Cinematographer: Cha Taek-gyun
• Release Date: June 30, 2021
• Runtime: 103 minutes
• Distributor: TVING, CJ Entertainment
• Production Companies: Peppermint & Company, CJ Entertainment
• Language: Korean
• Country: South Korea

Cast

Main

• Jin Ki-joo as Kim Kyung-mi as a deaf person working at a call centre
• Wi Ha-joon as Do-shik as a serial killer
• Park Hoon as Jong-tak, brother of Choi Seo-jung
• Kim Hye-yoon as Choi Seo-jung, Jong-tak’s younger sister
• Gil Hae-yeon as Kyung-mi’s mother

Supporting

• Kang In-seo as male employee 1
• Noh Su-min as couple man
• Na Eun-saem as couple woman
• Lee Jae-seok as Employee 5
• Park Ji-hoon
• Song Yoo-hyun as section chief

Special appearance

• Bae Eun-woo as Police
• Kwon Young-min
• Jung Wo Chang as Police 2

Synopsis

A female factory worker, departing from work misses her taxi. She is approached by a young man with a van, who offers her a lift. Blatantly refusing it, she moves ahead. After some time, she turns back hearing a cry for help and notices a van with fancy lights and lots of outfits. Once she gets inside it, the same young man attacks her and stabs her to death. Later on, he calls the police posing as a stranger and reports a crime.

He nonchalantly gives a false report, accusing three foreign men of murder of the lady. Without a shadow of a doubt, he flees the place, smoking a cigarette. Kim Kyung-mi is deaf-mute. She works as a sign language agent in a call centre and deals with customer grievances. She lives with her mother, who is also deaf and mute. They are comfortable in their abode and plan on going for a pleasure trip to Jeju Island with their savings.

Alternatively, Choi Seo-jung lives with her conservative brother Jong-tak, who is an ex-marine cop currently working for a security agency. Seo-jung is ready for a blind date and the curfew time set by her brother to get back home is 10 pm. As usual, Kyung-mi signs off from the day’s work and is waiting to pick up her mother, who works as a tailor. That day, having received the monthly pay, her mother is in a frenzy of delight and incautiously rushes towards Kyung-mi to share the news.

However, an audio sensor set up in her car indicates a red alert, signalling a speeding bike. Somehow, Kyung-mi manages to save her mother from a potential accident. After having a chit-chat, they drove off to their house. On reaching the parking lot, Kyung-mi drops her mother at the entrance and asks her to wait till she parks the car and returns. Meanwhile, Jong-tak is worried about his sister and dials her to check up on her safety.

As Kyung-mi’s mother is abiding near a headlamp, waiting, the young man, seen at the beginning of the movie, comes out of a van with a knife and proceeds towards her. Just at the same time, Seo-jung passes him, talking to her brother over the phone. The young man forsakes Kyung-mi’s mother and follows her instead. It seems that his name is Do-shik and he is a serial killer with psychotic tendencies.

He roams around the city at dark hours in his well-equipped black van and preys upon men and women. At the same time, despite his numerous attempts at reaching his sister, Jong-tak sets on to find her but accidentally collides with Kyung-mi’s mother. He enquires about his sister to her and apologises for being careless.

Pacing towards her mother, Kyung-mi’s steps are halted by a pair of white heels. It was thrown out from a pitch-dark passageway. A little scared, she moves in the same direction and finds Seo-jung in a corner wounded by a deep stab in her underbelly. She begged Kyung-mi for help and told her about the abuser. Do-shik was monitoring all this sitting inside his van and marked her as his next target. He pounces upon Kyung-mi to harm her, but Seo-jung’s timely interference blocked him.

Kyung-mi sprints from there, not towards her mother, but away from where she is standing, to save her from the hands of the psycho killer, who is following her with a knife. Eventually, she reaches the parking area and, after a series of near-death happenstances, she manages to get inside her car. However, noticing the fluctuations in the audio sensor, she understands that the killer is with her, inside the car. Kyung-mi, with her brilliant tactics, once again evades him and runs towards her mother.

She activates the security system, placed near the headlamp, below which her mother was standing. This alerts the police department and turns on CCTV cameras in the area. Foreseeing the hazards, Do-shik disguised himself as a gentleman, with the outfits he had in his van and approached Kyung-mi and her mother and deluded them with a fake story about his missing sister. Kyung-mi detailed the whole situation to him, but her mother was not easy in her mind.

Since he wore a mask earlier, he was given the benefit of doubt. Nonetheless, his wicked scheme to get done with Seo-jung and the two of them was blown up by the sudden intervention of the police.

At the police station, Kyung-mi tried her best to narrate the whole situation to the police officers, but her efforts were futile. Silently rejoicing his win, Do-shik accompanies them all along the procedure. However, Kyung-mi’s mother felt apprehensive about his impassive behaviour given the circumstances of his missing sister. Understanding this, he convinces them that his sister reached him over the phone and that she is safe. Even though her mother still has her fair share of doubts, Kyung-mi hushes her.

The police officer further takes down Kyung-mi’s statement about the description of the attacker and other possible details. As she replies to his questions, Do-shik seated next to Kyung-mi’s mother and a drunken man, gets in between and starts talking. However, he was shut down by the officer and his behaviour offended the drunken man. So, he picks up a fight with Do-shik and creates a ruckus. The police officers take him outside leaving the three of them behind.

In between this, Kyung-mi’s mother comes across a white phone, with the wallpaper of a girl, which in fact is Seo-Jung. Hurriedly, Do-shik snatches it from her and walks towards Kyung-mi, asking her for the fact sheet. While memorising her address, Do-shik saw them having a conversation through sign language which he couldn’t decipher. Actually, Kyung-mi’s mother was letting her know about the suspicions about his white phone. Unexpectedly, Jang-tak dashes into the office to report his missing sister, but the police officers take no action.

However, before leaving outside to handle the drunken man, they ask him to show around the picture to the ones sitting there. Do-shik brushes him off remarking he does not know her but feared that Kyung-mi’s mother might recognize her. Kyung-mi recognized the picture of Seo-jung. As Kyung-mi was talking to Jang-tak and communicating the details, Do-shik came near her mother and threatened her with a knife.

As he walked towards Jang-tak to smash him from behind, Kyung-mi’s mother screams and saves him from the blow. The two men wrestle and upon the arrival of the officers, they see Jang-tak holding a knife to Do-shik’s neck. Grabbing the opportunity, Do-shik puts on a play and plays the victim. Kyung-mi and her mother are waiting outside the police office saw Do-shik casually leaving the station. Regardless of their chance at exposing the scenario, the officers let him go.

In the later part, the police felt apologetic about the rundown and started the lookout for Do-shik. Meanwhile, Jang-tak drops Kyung-mi and her mother back at home and leaves. Events take a turn when Kyung-mi’s mother is called by her boss to move some orders. Kyung-mi is left alone in the house and, as expected, Do-shik slides in and attacks her while she was sending a message to Jang-tak, enquiring about his sister. Using her prime senses and timely acts, she dodges him and runs away.

She is chased by Do-shik and Jang-tak flies into the scene. They finally reach the end of a cliff and Jang-tak is challenged to spare Kyung-mi’s life for his sister’s life. Half-mindedly, he heads to the location shared by Do-shik to rescue his sister. Apparently, it was Kyung-mi’s house and he understands that he was tricked by Do-shik. He also meets Kyung-mi’s mother there and together sets off to save their loved ones.

Meanwhile, Kyung-mi once again breaks away from her attacker and runs for her life. At one point, she passes Do-shik’s side-parked van and that is when she meets Seo-jung again. She takes Seo-Jung to a safe place and hands over the phone to inform Jang-tak about their location. She follows Kyung-mi’s instructions and contacted her brother. Kyung-mi diverts Do-shik’s attention and darts to the city centre with a knife. Do-shik also follows her amidst the traffic. Since most people failed to understand sign language and as she had a knife in her hand, Kyung-mi’s cry for help was unheeded.

Taking advantage of all this, Do-shik comes near and that is when she flashes the knife. This attracted public attention and people gathered around. As one among them dialled the police, Do-shik charges at him and declares that she is his mentally-ill sister. Kyung-mi takes this chance to run away but was later handed over to Do-shik by some army men. She pleaded for her life but all this triggered his ecstasy and he took her to a dim corner. Meanwhile, Kyung-mi’s mother and Jang-tak reached the same place after safely admitting Seo-jung to a hospital.

Jang-tak somehow finds them and starts to fight Do-shik. However, the psycho evades them and aims to kill Kyung-mi’s mother. To protect her mother from Do-shik, Kyung-mi dashes towards him and gets herself stabbed and makes it look like his fault. As the movie ends, the police fire their gun at a furious Do-shik who storms in to hurt her again. Later, Jang-tak, his sister Seo-jung, Kyung-mi and her mother happily pose for a photo in front of Jeju Beach.

Theme

The movie ‘Midnight’ portrays a night’s incidents in the life of a deaf-mute mother and her valiant daughter. It underlines the power of sheer brilliance of two women, despite their impairments. In a society, where women are often considered fragile and vulnerable, the director of the movie takes a contradictory stand.

In many scenes, we see how Kyung-mi deals with the killer, in the most pragmatic and diligent manner. Regardless of people’s inability to comprehend her language, she succeeded in dodging the barriers and saving many lives.

Awards

• 25th Fantasia International Film Festival 2021
  Silver Audience Award for Best Asian Film (2021)
• 13th UK Grimmfest Film Festival (2021)
  Best Feature Award

Interesting Facts about Midnight

1. The movie ‘Midnight’ was released in Theatres and Korean streaming platform TVING simultaneously.
2. Kwon Oh-seung’s debut as a Korean movie director and scriptwriter with the movie ‘Midnight’.
3. The screening of the movie was postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
4. The movie ‘Midnight’ was screened at the New York Asian Film Festival.

FAQs

1. Who is the director of ‘Midnight’?
   Kwon Oh-seung is the director of the movie.
2. What is the genre of the movie ‘Midnight’?
   Thriller
3. When was the movie ‘Midnight’ released?
   The movie was released on June 30, 2021.
4. What is the Instagram ID of Wi Ha-joon?

   wi__wi__wi is the Instagram ID of Wi Ha-joon.