Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Lim Jung-eun
Starring: Lee Seung-hun, Park Seo-eun, Lim Young-woo
Drawing heavily on the "walk and talk" format of '90s American indies -
along with a dash of the comic melancholy of her compatriot Hong
Sang-soo and a smidgeon of Truffaut's Antoine Doinel series - is
writer/director Lim Jung-eun with her hazy yet charming feature
debut Our Midnight.
Shot in crisp black and white, the film sees two disparate souls
brought together by fate. Struggling actor Ji-hoon (Lee Seung-hun) lives a happy go lucky existence, content to struggle financially if
it means he gets to follow his dreams. His girlfriend makes more in a
month than he brings in a year, and the strain of this economic dynamic
finally snaps, leaving Ji-hoon single. Possibly with the ultimate goal
of winning her back, Ji-hoon accepts a job which sees him patrolling
notorious suicide hotspots at night with the intention of talking down
anyone who appears ready to take a leap off a bridge.
This brings him into contact with Eun-yeong (Park Seo-eun), whom
he finds in a teary state on one such infamous bridge. Whether or not
Eun-yeong is planning to jump is unclear, but she faints in the presence
of Ji-hoon, who takes her to a hospital. The following night, Ji-hoon
finds Eun-yeong at the same spot, and the two strike up a conversation,
spending the night roaming the empty streets of Seoul together.
Much of what follows resembles a Korean take on
Before Sunrise, as Ji-hoon and Eun-yeong bond over the course of a couple of nights
in each other's company. The dialogue is more naturalistic than that
found in Linklater's film, with our protagonists here engaging in
relatably mundane discussions. Ji-hoon employs his acting skills to coax
Eun-yeong into verbalising her woes, and we learn that she is in danger
of being fired after reporting a work colleague for an assault while
they were dating, something forbidden by her employers.
As the breezy Ji-hoon and the insular yet adorable Eun-yeong, Lee and
Park make for an engaging couple, and while any potential romance is
left ambiguous, we're rooting for two souls who feel left behind by a
world that places more value on material gains than on happiness and
personal contentment.
Our Midnight has the slapdash feel of a very accomplished
student film. That's part of its innocent charm, but its shabby
storytelling can be frustrating in parts. Perhaps this is my cultural
ignorance showing, but I couldn't quite wrap my head around why
Ji-hoon's employer (Lim Young-woo) was so concerned with
preventing suicides. I'm assuming it's for some sort of corporate reason
rather any sort of altruism, but the movie never elaborates on this.
Perhaps it's something Korean audiences will automatically understand,
but for the rest of us it's a bit of a head-scratcher.
While her storytelling skills may require honing over future features,
Lim Jung-eun proves with her debut that she may eventually prove the
successor to Hong Sang-soo. Like that Korean master, she appears to
possess the ability to create characters so identifiably human that we
sense they might continue to exist after the credits have rolled.
