Online Review: The Midnight After(那夜凌晨，我坐上了旺角開往大埔的紅VAN)

The Midnight After is directed by Fruit Chan in 2014. The film is based on a web-novel posted on a forum, “HKGolden”. The story is started from 16 passengers getting into a minibus that takes them from Mongkok to Taipo. After they had passed the Lion Rock Tunnel, all the vehicles and people disappeared. The only things left were the minibus and 17 people who were in the minibus. The 17 people tried to escape from this situation.

The original text is science fiction novel containing many setting. However, we can say the initial setting is a thriller film. Chan use a lot of scenery shot that everything was disappeared to create the terrible attitude. Mei Foo Sun Chuen, Taipo and The Chinese University of Hong Kong were shown as a ghost town. However, it may not be suitable to say it is a horror film. When the film came to second half part, most of the scene is happen at the tea restaurant and talking about the plan of escape. Besides the heroine Yuki sometimes appear like a ghost, there are no more things that could be seen as a thriller element.

However, Chan use quite a big part in addressing the social problems in the film. Fredric Jameson suggest the concept of national allegories that the third world texts must project a political dimension in. After they realized there are only 17 people left in Hong Kong, the characters faced the situation with fear and anxiety. That emotion could be the metaphor of the feelings of Hong Kong people facing Hong Kong nowadays. The main theme of this film is that what the locals would do when they faced the different Hong Kong. And, it also signified the complicated situation in Hong Kong. Nowadays, the political power’s problem, the parallel goods trader’s problem and so on are affecting the Hong Kong. One day, Hong Kong may become a place you do not familiar with. To addressing the point, Chan has rearrange the characters to be some familiar locals who likely appear in Hong Kong, for instance, the “MK” teenagers and middle-aged man speaking foul language. 

Also, the use of dialogue is likely satirizing the political situation directly. For instance, the most popular phrase which also appears in the trailer, “we don’t pretend that the outside is still as normal. I think we need to face the reality now.” (大家無謂再呃自己話出面一切係正常，我諗，大家係時候停一停，面對我哋見到嘅現實), satire that people are not facing the political situation we have met and just pretending Hong Kong is still as normal. Besides, the scene happen in the tea restaurant touch different aspect on social and political problems, like the property price problem, universal suffrage issue, teenager’s future. The film is end with the good memories of what the characters see Hong Kong and a phrase of “ 如果我們即將陷入黑暗之中，是否還記得我們曾經也輝煌過！”. It is also a metaphor with a strong political meaning.

To address a genre for this film, it can not only say that is a horror or thriller film. The film is using many satirical element to point out the political problem and social problem in a comedy way. To determine the genre, it would be likely satirical thriller-comedy while it still tries to recall the concern on Hong Kong political problems.

Reference:
Ahmad, A. (1987). Jameson's Rhetoric of Otherness and the" National Allegory". Social Text, 3-25.


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Lee Sze Ming
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