The Midnight After
2014; directed by Fruit Chan

One of the more interesting film-makers working in Hong Kong, Fruit Chan returns to the director's chair with The Midnight After, a black comedy tinged with horror and suspense that is based on a popular web novel. As more and more Hong Kong film-makers create their works with Mainland Chinese and international audiences in mind, Chan unabashedly helms this as a true Hong Kong picture, in concept, content, and execution.

The story takes place over one late night, as a diverse group of passengers board a minibus to head from the urban center of Mongkok to the outlying area of Tai Po. After going through the famous Lion Rock tunnel, the passengers emerge to find themselves seemingly all alone in the usually crowded area. As they try to figure out their situation, tensions come to a head and may threaten to kill them before the mystery can be solved.

That last sentence may be a bit of a misnomer, as The Midnight After is not a film that deals in absolutes story-wise. The cause of the populace's disappearance is never explained -- is it zombies, solar flares, or nuclear fallout? -- nor are the fates of most of the passengers, as the ending is intentionally ambiguous. Fruit Chan uses the film more as an allegory for a region (Hong Kong) that seems to be losing its way in the wake of being more and more under the thumb of the Mainland Chinese government and just society changing as a whole due to the shifting values and social mores of today's youth.

It is probably not by mistake that Chan's cast is roughly divided among age groups, with veterans like Simon Yam, Lam Suet, and Kara Hui butting heads with younger performers such as Kelvin Chan, Ronny Yuen, Jan Curious. It is this conflict and Chan's deft direction and effective employment of no-budget filmmaking (along with an incredibly dark sense of comedy) that sets The Midnight After apart from similar apocalyptical cinematic fare and shows that there is still a pulse left in the heart of Hong Kong film-making.

RATING: 7

The Midnight After has been released uncut and in the original Cantonese language in North America by Well Go USA. It is available on DVD from Amazon. Extras on the disc include trailers for the movie and other Well Go releases.