Midnight (2021)

People only believe what they see

Great Movie, If you want a thriller and intense scenes then this is for you.

Story: The girl is a very strong and smart girl despite being deaf. She made decisions that actually helped her in the end. One wrong choice could lead to her death. Why is it thrilling? because the deaf girl cannot hear anything from her surroundings and a psychopathic killer is chasing her. If she was in your place then imagine the amount of fear she can get without the ability to hear or speak. She manages to keep calm all the time that's why she managed to get away from him. Not only the deaf girl but also the psycho is incredibly wise and smart that he can manage to turn what was happening and manipulate the people from his lies. The ending where he can't change the situation was the best thing ever. It also shows that people only believe what they see. The people think she was crazy but she was just trying to ask for help.

Acting: The acting was great, Jin Ki Joo did a great job portraying a deaf girl especially the scene where she tried to speak to him begging for her life. Wi Ha Joon acting did show the dark and creepiness in his face. Other cast was great too.

Music: The music was great, every beat makes my heart jump. The intensity of the music is like I was the one who is being chased.

Rewatch Value : I watched this alone, so I am sure I will recommend my cousins and friends to watched this movie with them in a movie night.

Overall : A GREAT MOVIE WITH AN INTENSE AMOUNT OF THRILLER.

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One of the most frustrating thrillers I've ever seen

Midnight is basically a really draggy cat and mouse chase film with all the mice sharing one brain cell.

At first I thought this film would be similar to Blind, an iconic thriller which was also about a disabled female lead being chased by a psychopath after witnessing a murder. But I realized after watching that comparing the two was an insult to Blind.

Every single character was dumb and had almost 0 common sense (especially the cops). I had hopes for the female lead's mom as she was good at reading people but in the end, she disappointed me as well.

Overall, Midnight felt like it was written by a thriller rookie who did not do their research on crime and just decided to recycle bits and pieces of movies of similar concept.

**SPOILERS**

what kind of person thinks that telling a psychopath your dreams and goals in life would actually make him feel bad and not kill you lol also PTSD doesn't exist here apparently.

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The idea it's great, as well the atmosphere. The acting was also amazing. However there's so many little stupid mistakes.

1. Like when she was screaming to call him (to save the other girl), how did no one heard her? There were so many houses near by.
2. The last fight in the alley, how did no one saw it?? There were so many noise and so many people!!!
3. The police officer didn't deserve that happy ending, sorry, I get it that you are worried about your sister, but you didn't need him to find her, the deaf girl knew where she was, you could just search that area, since this is all in one night, the killer couldn't move. (and it was also inhuman). Also why didn't he ask for backup?
4. The mother could have done better in the police station, like push the suitcase to make noise and show the tools (but well she was too shocked to do something, what is understandable) , but how tf there's no cameras there?? And the police just saw a fight and let everyone go home??? bruh
5. And yeah lets let two people (covered in blood) running by the road.

But I'm not going to say, that I hated it. I love this fast thrillers movies. So I enjoy it for it.

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IT'S A MOVIE DUH??

This movie is really great. the plot is written very well. For those who said that this movie is unrealistic, how do you know it's not real? maybe some people has been through this situation where people don't hear what they say and make an assumption that the killer is somewhat your brother or father. and for the police who need to make decision whether his sister or that lady, if in real life the police also probably be scared and want to save both but who didn't want to save their own siblings. some even said that this movie is non-sense. OMG this is a freaking movie and even it's not happening to you, maybe it's already happened to everyone else. you don't know their stories. there's this one person said that the leading lady wasted so much time sign in front of people that can't understand signing and she could've just type in the phone. um excuse me, maybe she's VERYY scared.. do you think she's calm enough to take out her phone and type everything. and even said hopeless movie, hopeless cop, hopeless citizen !? YES THAT'S RIGHT BECAUSE THIS MOVIE WANT TO TEACH US IF YOU EVER SEE THIS SITUATION HAPPENS IN REAL LIFE, you should help that person. YOU GUYS THAT GIVE 1 STAR, IS TRULY DOESN'T UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF THIS MOVIE. EVEN IF SOME SAID THERE'S NO MEANING, YOU NEED TO SEARCH BY YOURSELF THE MEANING !! try understand more. the frustration of the lady because she can't speak. the author shown a mean world so that we can take a lesson and don't be like them .. overall both chemistry is great and I hope they have romance drama together ???

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I’m annoyed

It was a thrilling movie, but I’ve simply watched the entire film feeling frustrated. I was annoyed at everything from the FL to the side characters.

Points that annoyed the hell out of me:
- EVERYONE IS SO STUPID.
I’m sure this movie wanted to display the insensitivity of society when it came to disabilities- However surely people can’t be that STUPID right?? the girl is hurt and afraid, with a man covered in blood pursuing her- but since she’s deaf and cannot talk properly, therefore, it means she’s just crazy right? Smh
- WHY DOESN'T ANYONE HELP HER. I hate how they undermine her and her mother simply because she's handicapped. Everything she seems to say is invalidated and she doesn't seem to push her points across. Her mother senses that there's something wrong but just seems to ignore it
- EVERYONE IS EASILY FOOLED. Anyone can say that they're my brother and people will believe it. ??‍♀️
- THE MOTHER COULD'VE ENDED IT ALL. The mother had a chance to end it all at the police station of she simply thought. She could've made a sound, chuck the contents of his bag onto the floor etc how can he kill them all in the police station.
- You’re telling me, she can’t sense when someone is directly behind her?? Deaf or not deaf, everyone has that sense when someone is practically breathing down their neck.
- stupid thought. BUT DONT CARS STOP WHEN THERES PEOPLE JUMPING ONTO THE ROAD?? Don’t Korean cars have a breaking system?

The actor who played the physcopath was scarily good. He was just fun to watch.

I apologise if this ‘review’ doesn’t make any sense. I'm too irritated to properly get my feeling across.

Ps. If you want to watch a good film with a similar premise, pls watch HUSH.

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Needlessly Frustrating

This was a frustratingly stupid mess. This could have literally been solved within the first hour if it weren't for the absolutely idiotic behaviour of nearly everyone. The police were asinine and so were many of the core characters. The mother leaving out after the first encounter was face palming silly and a whole assortment of other ridiculous foolishness this movies gets up to that I'll spare you due to spoilers.
Perhaps the worst part of this movie was it's attempts at supposed messaging and social commentary. Primarily as it set up some of the silliest and most unbelievable scenarios to comment on the treatment of the disabled. A woman frantically running, screaming and being pursued by a man with blood all over him would set off literally everybody's red flags.
But oh no she can't speak so clearly she's deranged and we won't give her the time of day. THIS WOULD LITERALLY NEVER HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE.

The acting was fine, the music reasonably forgettable but I expected nothing less. This movie should have just been in the Door Lock, Blind school of inoffensive thriller that is just tightly written and done but some how they managed to make an absolute mess of it.

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This movie's first half excited and fascinated me with it's chase scenes, the serial killer manipulating everyone and the abduction of Kim hye yoon's character. I loved the family part of this movie, especially the mother-daughter relationship. But the last half was extremely disappointing to me. The serial killer's actions were impulsive, but the police were oblivious to them. The police's potrayal, to the very end, was very badly done. For most of the parts in the last half, they showed some chase scenes and some action scenes between the serial killer and the female lead.

The casting was perfect and everyone in their character did an awesome job, especially, Jin ki joo and Wi ha joon. Even though Wi ha joon's character's only job was to swear, hit people, manipulate everyone and getting away after doing some very impulsive actions that explicts shows that he is the serial killer. Honestly, I feel that the latter half could have been better if they didn't try to stretch the movie by showing a lot of unnecessary chase scenes and very predictable plots.

I didn't even notice that the movie had any music because I was just staring at the movie for the sake of finishing it. I really expected something better after watching the trailer and the teasers. I thought it was going to be an intense mystery and a psychological battle between the female lead and a serial killer as there aren't many K-movies that shows something like a mental fight with a female lead. But what happened was that they revealed the serial killer to everyone too soon. They should have gone for some more manipulation from Wi ha joon's character, instead of those impulsive actions. It would have created a fear in the viewer's heart(?).

I am not someone who like action scenes in thriller or mystery movies. So, it might not be for me. But if you are someone who likes action scenes and mystery, then it might be a good movie for you. I would recommend it. But the story didn't seem that interesting to me.

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A movie that had great potential and wasted it all

NO SPOILER FOR THE FIRST PART OF THIS REVIEW

The fact that some people are rating this movie higher than a 6.5 is honestly baffling to me. I don't write reviews that often but I had the urge to do it for Midnight because of how big of a letdown it was. So, here's my review of a movie that had amazing potential and could've been a really good thriller, but unfortunately ended up being a barely decent enough movie.

Midnight starts out well with its promising plot and heavy atmosphere efficiently set thanks to the scenography and brilliant acting. Many good stress-inducing mechanics are introduced to make us feel the anxiety and distress caused by the main character's, Kim Kyung Mi, deafness (e.g. audio detection devices, lights reacting to sound).
However, despite the potential and innovative ideas, it all crumbles down very early on. Sure, I was quite excited when I started watching Midnight, and was even truly enjoying it. But if you have a good time during the first twenty minutes or so of the movie, you'll slowly become too frustrated to think about anything except how dumb these characters all are, completely ruining the thrill.

Every stressful situation is built upon questionable/idiotic decisions that no human being would ever make, even under that kind of pressure, because it simply goes against what survival instinct and common sense dictate. I'm sure there were ways to have the characters be gifted with intelligence and keep an interesting story still.

Overall, the movie is not completely bad and still enjoyable to a degree, simply thanks to the fact that it is entertaining enough to watch until the end. Still, it doesn't mean it's a good movie. The beginning is great, the ending is fine and everything in-between is... sort of a mess. If you were curious about it, I'd still advise you watch it, but be aware that your expectations will probably not be met, and if you won't be bored, you'll definitely be annoyed.


SECOND PART OF THE REVIEW, BEWARE OF SPOILERS BELOW

First of all, I'd like to mention that I'm usually not particularly nitpicky. I'll accept a lot of things when watching TV shows and movies, I won't necessarily notice every single detail or plot hole. That being said, even taking this into account and letting my suspension of disbelief play its part, it wasn't enough. This review is not me exaggerating for the sake of it. So let's now dive into it and detail the things that bothered me.

Let's start with the outsiders.
Okay, fine. I'll accept that the police might have some prejudice against disabled people and that they can be utterly incompetent. It honestly wouldn't be that surprising or unheard of. It is frustrating, but not in a 100% unrealistic way.
Fine, I won't argue that it is possible for a crowd to not help someone in distress. Bystander effect, confusion, fear or simply not knowing what to do/how to react can all factor in on this. These people don't have the full story like we do, they just see a panicked girl who is not explaining what the problem is.
Sure, the military personnel bringing back Kyung Mi to Do Shik, thinking they're helping her "brother"... that's barely acceptable, but you know what? Now we're reaching but I'll let it slide because similar things can happen in a very unfortunate turn of events (e.g. Konerak Sinthasomphone).
Since all these characters are outsiders to the story and only get snippets of what we see, with which they have to piece everything together, I'll be lenient. It's all exaggerated for the sake of the plot anyway.

I won't even mention Do Shik's irrational and erratic behavior too much, for the obvious reason that he is a killer with, more likely than not, many many issues. Him being overconfident, thinking he can outsmart everyone (not like they're making it hard) even when being so careless, and get away with it scot free, is actually not that crazy or unbelievable.

But Jong Tak, this dude! My brother in christ, give me a break. He is by far the most frustrating and dumbest character in this entire movie. Here you have a grown man who has the ability to communicate freely, who knows exactly what's happening, but decides that calling the police is apparently overrated. Granted, they have proved they were dumb and incompetent, but still?
Or maybe that poor guy suffers from a disorder preventing him from doing two things at the same time and I'm just being very mean, who knows? Or well, maybe he can't use his brain, my two cents. I mean, seriously. Why can't he just run to Kyung Mi's house AND call the police at the same time? Same thing when he gives up on her after Do Shik "reveals" where his sister is.
And for the love of god, why does he take narrow little streets when trying to catch up with Do Shik, risking to lose his track, instead of properly following him? How is he even able to not lose sight of him that way? Or maybe he knows the area so well he has a mental map stuck in his head and can predict exactly where the killer and his victim will run to, even without seeing them. But you won't have me actually believe that lol.

Then towards the end of the movie, he fights Do Shik in a back alley but looks away from him TWICE despite having been tricked into thinking he had fainted the first time already (after a 2 seconds chokehold, that is). Brilliant. You might also wonder why he doesn't try to scream/get back to the main avenue to draw people's attention? Well no one knows. It's not as though Kyung Mi can do it for him. If I were that poor girl, I'd rather be stabbed in that alley and just end it already instead of having to be "saved" by someone so useless.

Also, why does no one ever stay together? I lost count of how many times that happened but it was way too much. I don't really get why Kyung Mi and Jong Tak's sister had to split. They were right next to the place where they can press a button that turns on every light in existence and blasts an alarm waking up the entire neighborhood, then puts them in direct communication with the police!
Later Kyung Mi's mother and Jong Tak also split up, and after that him and her daughter did too. And for what? You tell me because I have no damn clue. Could've been a running gag if it wasn't just poor writing.

There are other details I'll skim over because this review is already too long:
-Right at the beginning of the movie, a woman (completely alone outside, at night) is approached by a guy being weirdly insistent about her getting in his car. Nevertheless, she walks to his suspiciously "deserted" van, that totally does not look like a set-up, a few minutes after? I assure you, no woman would ever behave like that. At least call someone at the same time, just to be safe;
-When Do Shik and Jong Tak were fighting in the police station, why did it take so long for Kim Kyung Mi and her mother to bring back the officers inside? It definitely shouldn't have taken this much time as they were standing quite literally 5 meters away from the entrance;
-How did said officers not hear the commotion inside?;
-After that incident, why were none of the characters kept under police protection, at least for the next 24 hours?;
-When Do Shik infiltrates Kyung Mi's house, he knocks many heavy things on the ground... that girl is deaf, not completely numb to the world. She would definitely feel the vibrations or something. I'm pretty sure your other senses are sharpened when you're lacking one;
-I believe most countries have a special number for deaf & mute people to contact the police through text messages. I might be wrong, but I doubt there's nothing like that in South Korea. Kyung Mi and her mother would definitely know about such a thing. Even when panicking, I'm sure that would still come to your mind.


There are still many things I could mention, or some criticism I don't necessarily agree with, but I think you got the rough idea already. Ultimately, I am angry not because of all the inconsistencies themselves. I spend my time watching shows that are full of them and still manage to have a good time. I am mad because this movie could have been something greater. It had so much potential, and seeing it all go to waste like that right in front of my eyes feels like betrayal. This movie has some good in it, but the bad easily overtakes it. Midnight would barely deserve a 5, if not for the atmosphere and acting. And if I'm being honest, I'm betting my life that if Wi Ha Joon wasn't in this movie (but was replaced by an equally talented yet less attractive actor), the ratings would be way lower.

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Promising Failure

Be warned, if you are expecting a movie similar to Hush (2016), turn around before you are disappointed.

I went into this movie with somewhat high expectations, only to end disappointed. Having seen the trailer and that Wi Ha Joon starred as main role I won't lie, it caught my attention straight away. It had so much potential but ended up being flat, not the thriller I was expecting

The beginning is decent, but it only goes down hill from there. Pointless running through the city, usless police officers that are smitten by the serial killer lies. Apparently no one at the city can think for themselves and actually do something when they see a girl running away in fear while being chased by a guy. Don't worry, he will just tell everybody that it is her sister and everyone will believe him straight away without batting an eye. Oh and also, did I mention how unrealistic it is that even if there are so many cameras on the street and South Korea having one of the best security systems, it all ends up being usless?

I did enjoy the acting, specially from Jin Ki Joo and Kil Hae Yeon. Wi Ha Joon had so much potential but was done dirty by the poor writing.

Kudos to the sound editing, I liked the contrast at the beginning between the silenced world that Kim Kyung Mi experienced opposed to the rest of the world.

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Frustrating!

The Story: The flow was good, it's a good thriller movie that makes you feel like you are the one getting chased. It keeps you on your toes. Although there are parts that made me exasperated because of the stupidity of almost all of the civilians or extra characters. In real life, the reactions of the civilians might not be possible at all.

Acting/Cast: The casts are superb, it's like the movie was tailored for the casts themselves. There are no parts were you feel like their emotions are lacking.

Music: I can't really remember any music being played during the movie. I don't know if it's because I'm too focused on the movie or if it's because the music isn't memorable at all.

Rewatch Value: Personally, I don't think I will watch this again. Movies like these are only good during the first time watching.

Overall: The movie is great, I get the frustration of the other viewers who reviewed and said it sucks because of the lack of realness when it comes to the reaction of the civilians but besides those, I still think this movie is worth to watch.

PS. I kinda don't like how it ended. It feels like the guy had an easy way out of what he did.

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Stressful

This movie requires a huge leap of faith to be taken seriously. There’s just so much of illogical reasoning which made the movie seem draggy and unrealistic. To me, that is a huge flaw for a thriller/psychopath kind of movie. It could’ve been way better had the writer put more thought-out ideas in the script.

If we look past the questionable writing, the only saving point is the acting. The actors did a wonderful job, portraying their characters. I loved watching the scenes, just because of their stunning acting. The leads were perfect and I would love to see them act together again.

The direction is good too. The scenes are well-shot, creating suspense and dread within the watchers. The concept on paper seems good too but the execution was poor.

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Let debunk slowly what happen actually.

Since there's lot of reviews but not all of it understanding. So here why, let see the first scene.

This movie the character is purely psychopath who just killing person right. The character shows he have kind of hunting the victim for fun, laughing and like mouse and cat.

I found a comment say ' why didn't the mother end the everything in Police Station? '. Yeah, that's right they can end everything on the spot. But not so fast 'he' know what is happening and try to control the situation. Even how much smart her mother is, she can't exposes that easily. Cause why? she doesn't want her daughter in danger. Her daughter is her priority.

'It doesn't make sense you can't realize there someone on your back'. Actually it possible you didn't realize, I didn't just talk. I can stand behind someone without they realize, breathing slowly and didn't make a big move. But you need to remember she deaf her world is quiet. It can possible when you to focus on phone you can't even realize your friend beside you.

'Why he run to the deaf woman house without calling a police first? '. In that situation you usually have two choices but the reflex usually kick first. He want find that bu*ted first, cause why? He think about her sister safety first that's why be became stupid to safe her with eagerly. He scared if he gonna lose her forever.

About the police, I just to frustrating to see them. So bad.

And at the street you can see Kyeong Mi eagerly need help, but no one is helping right. First you need to see the situation, all of the people there didn't understand what is happening. They make they own assumption by thought that girl might be crazy or something. Since you can just only see she holding knife and her shirt have a blood stain. They feel pity to her, that's why the 3 soldiers help Do Shik, without even realize they help the psychopath. Do Shik know how to act innocently in front of people, how can you know he psychopath when he can act that perfectly fine.

At the end you can see Kyeong Mi decided to act reverse, instead stab him she stab herself. Nothing can defeated him if you still act like naive to him. Cause he can flip that image easily.

I ready to talk if you want more explanation

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