The Midnight After
was a film which premiered in February 2014. Directed by Fruit Chan (陳果), the film was an adaptation of the
web-novel, Lost on a Red Mini Bus to Taipo, written by Mr. Pizza. The story was about the characters, after they boarded
a Taipo bound red mini bus, found that everyone disappeared after they passed
through the Lion Rock Tunnel. The story developed as the characters themselves
died one after another leaving the survivors a sense of terror and a task of
resolving a terrifying as well as confusing situation.
Director Fruit Chan
is known for producing works that exhibit local Hong Kong characteristics. He himself
grew up in a grass-root family, many of his early works such as Made in Hong
Kong (香港製造) and Little Cheung
(細路祥) signified various
social groups and social problems in Hong Kong. In the production of the
Midnight After, Chan persisted in his personal style and included many local
characteristics in the film. The characters themselves represented various
social groups in Hong Kong. For example, the appearance of the male protagonist
Yau Tsi-chi (游梓池)
was similar to that of the real life MK boys. Lavina, nicknamed LV girl, owned
a designer bag and was greedy to steal money. She represented Kong girls who
are often seen as materialistic. The bus driver who habitually uttered foul
words is very similar to those minibus drivers in real life.
The display of
local characteristics leads to discussions of the various problems that Hong
Kong people are currently facing. The film addressed social and political
problems alike. In recent years the conflict between Mainland China and Hong
Kong has been a hot topic. One of the issues derived from that is the scarcity of
educational resources. This is embodied by the university students who spoke
Mandarin-accented Cantonese. Thus, this gives an impression that Mainland students
are increasingly taking up places in universities. Director Chan also added
some scenes in addition to the original novel to display sarcasm. Some dialogues
were explicit in being ironic about the political future. When talking about
2018, Shun, one of the characters, said that there probably will be a new Chief
Executive in 2018, but Yuki immediately responded “does that make a difference?”
The dialogue implied that the lack of democracy will continue even after the
2017 universal suffrage.
The film was
categorized as a satirical horror comedy. Horror elements were added into the
film by displaying a number of corpses and the terrifying process of how people
died. For example, showing Auyeung Wai suddenly caught on fire and was burned
to death. Those are common iconographies used in horror films. In the film the
characters discovered the problems (everyone disappeared and they themselves
dying one by one), but were clueless about how the problems could be resolved. This
brings out the emotional tone of the film and conveyed a sense of horror. From
the moment the characters boarded the mini bus, they were destined to go
through a terrifying situation and had no choice but to seek a solution while terrified.
The act of boarding the mini bus, a common vehicle used by commuters, implies
that Hong Kong people were destined to meet the current problems and had to
resolve them.
The reason that the
film won appraisal at home and abroad is that it resonates to the thoughts of
many Hong Kong people. It indicates that the Hong Kong people are facing
various problems and that they are anxious about the future while resolving the
problems.
Chow Sik Sik
10518749
Word count: 604
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