[yasr_overall_rating]
A group of passengers in Hong Kong climb aboard a minibus but when it emerges from a tunnel, the streets and buildings are all empty and there’s not a soul to be seen; it’s as if everyone has suddenly been swallowed by the earth. Only the millions of neon lights continue to blink, as if nothing has happened and then the eclectic group of passengers make a horrific discovery.
Sometimes, the premise of a movie is all you need to get excited about seeing it. That’s what good marketing can achieve and that is exactly the case with “The Midnight After,” a new sci-fi thriller from Chinese filmmaker Fruit Chan. When a diverse group of people on the streets of Hong Kong board a minibus in Mongkok with a final destination of Tai Po, things don’t quite go according to plan. After emerging from a tunnel, they begin to notice something strange about the city: there are no other people around, no animals, no cars, no life whatsoever, just the continuing blinking of millions of neon lights. Most of them just brush it off but very quickly, they realize they are the only humans left.
Seeking refuge in a deserted café, they talk amongst themselves, trying to figure out exactly what is going on. When one of them sees a man in a long trenchcoat and a gas mask standing outside the restaurant, he and two others give chase and quickly capture him. He states that he wants to help them all and then manages to escape. Once back in the café, one of the characters emerges from the kitchen engulfed in flames and soon after, another character disintegrates in front of everybody. With no explanation, the entire group receives a strange and cryptic phone call from an unknown source but with the help of a laptop, they are able to decipher some of the message, which ends up referencing David Bowie’s song, “Ground Control to Major Tom.” Everyone begins to think of alien conspiracies and this could have been a great idea had the story chosen to go this route but unfortunately, it does not.
The problem here is that the filmmakers set up so many contrasting and diverse potential plotlines, the movie eventually collapses under its own weight, a victim of its own overly-ambitious intentions. Instead of sticking with one conceivable outcome and following it through to its intended conclusion, many options are given but the film does not finish with any one of them, rather, it just abruptly ends. I have no problem with a movie that leaves its finale open to interpretation, did the bad guy live or did he die? Did the good guy make it or not? Under these circumstances, the audience themselves can draw their own conclusions but here, the filmmakers never actually tell you what happened. One character thinks they might all be dead, and that idea could have been great in and of itself but like every other idea tossed around, including aliens, zombies, and possible virus outbreaks, we are meant to dissect the entire movie, from beginning to end, and draw our own conclusions. That is not inspired filmmaking, it is lazy. And that is a pity because any one of those aforementioned ideas, could have turned this film into a masterpiece.
Available on DVD June 21st
