Korean cinematography in the last twenty years has delighted us with a series of exceptional, often high-concept thrillers, many of which were incredibly bloody and cruel. Thrillers continue to be popular in South Korea, all those great young and old filmmakers try to repeat the success of cult favorites such as “Oldboy”, “Chaser” or “I Saw the Devil”, but often it turns into complete chaos and nonsense like this movie was. “Midnight” was the screenwriting and directing debut of a certain Oh-Seung Kwon, and although his idea may have been interesting, it all turned into a rather stupid action thriller with very little sense and logic. Again we have a serial killer, another young child-faced sociopath who, for a completely unknown reason, stalks girls and women at night and tortures and kills them for some sick reasons.
This is how this maniacal killer, who is a somewhat caricatured and ridiculous version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Do-sika (Wi Ha-joon) is on his way to meet a deaf-mute girl Kyeong-mi (Jin Ki-joo) and her also deaf-mute mother. They will witness the moment when he kidnaps another girl and “Midnigh” will turn into a midnight race through the deserted streets of the city, in which the kidnapped girl’s brother, a burly security guard who knows how to fight, will join. And from the first moments it was quite silly, because even though the whole neighborhood is buzzing about a serial killer, there is no one anywhere on the streets, even after the chaos in the police station. And while that part of the city is deserted as if there is a curfew in effect and there is not only a person, but not even a dog, not even a rat, when the chase brings the characters to the center of Seoul, everything there will be crowded with people. Kwon resorted to some simple and completely illogical solutions that are usually resorted to in similar American films and this was unfortunately below average, disappointing and pointless.