Collective Memories – The Midnight After

“The Midnight After” is a second-in-hong-kong-history film originated from the first part of a story on Golden Forum. Thus, it has aroused public attention before its official date of release (10 April 2014). The film producer Fruit Chan shows a coherent style in all of his productions: to reveal the real side of society in his point of view with many political metaphors, though Chan claims it is still a science fiction film.

        The story is mainly about the 17 passengers on a red van from Mongkok to Taipo experiencing a series of mysterious events after passing through the Lion Rock Tunnel at midnight: they seemed to be the only people existed in the city and were disconnected from the others. The environment did not change that their homes, the shops and restaurants familiar with were there, but their family members and friends disappeared.  “Hong Kong” is “dead” … The film setting is creative.

       Besides, it shots in a third-person perspective with a lot of local features, such as the well-known Kwong Fuk Road, red van, Railway Museum, Golden Forum, highway, café and Candy Crush instead of pharmacies and jewelry shops, it helps audience to participate in the story and enhance the feeling of nervousness, especially the Taipo dwellers. The main characters are general grassroots like the young boys and girls, father and friends that everyone feels familiar. It is the use of mirror effect (Glanzer & Adams, 1985, 1990).

        The director expresses quite a number of political concerns and worries with the use of metaphors and subtitles, yet the capacity of a 124-min film is clearly not enough to carry so many details and story lines. The main line is blurred. But still, the discussion of human ethics is amazing.

       Being the only people in the city, the society is in a non-governmental status. A character (superstitious woman) said: “the laws and virtues no longer exist.” They could make their own laws and quickly decided to kill the passenger youth as he raped a dead girl. Though some passengers disagreed, they had to take the collective responsibility to punish the person together. It reveals the importance of having a legal system and procedures, instead of human ruling and violence.

      The film continues to explore the virtues of the characters: love. The characters missed their beloved ones in different space, like their daughter, father, boyfriend and girlfriend, by cutting in shots of present and past. It shows that they were good men though they killed the guy who raped. And at the end, with the strong belief and hope (the characteristics of Hongkongers), they found out the problem and rescue themselves.

References:

Glanzer, M., & Adams, J. K. (1985). The mirror effect in recognition memory. Memory & Cognition, 13, 8–20.

Glanzer, M., & Adams, J. K. (1990). The mirror effect in recognition memory. Memory & Cognition, 16, 5–16 .

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Sofia Choi 10558773