The Midnight After (2014)

[Drunk Monk]

Fruit Chan directed one of my favorite Jackie/Sammo films, Heart of the Dragon. TMA stars three of my fav HK actors, Lam Suet as the bus driver, Simon Yam as the gambler, and the incomparable Kara Hui as the new age nutjob. What if you were on a midnight bus full of strangers and everyone else disappeared?  It's a quirky surreal ride - the empty HK streets are spooky. And the plot is twisty and sentimental. It had me captivated until the very end when I realized where it was going. Not going to spoil it, but it's not entirely satisfying. It's artsy ultravi, irreverently black humor, ethical challenges, and some tightly woven back story arcs, plus some metropolitan cinematic shots. I enjoyed it but I can't predict if you all will. That's probably the highest praise I can give it. Give it a gander because I'm curious to know your thoughts. I'm uncertain of mine. I was really into it...but that ending. Feckin Fruit. WTH kind of name is Fruit anyway? Srsly Fruit wth. WTH!!

Netflixit.

[Drunk Monk]

Still chewing on some loose ends from this and DANG I realized I almost forget the most important part.  

This is part tease and part spoiler so read no further if you don't want it spoiled.






















It's all about Bowie.  

[cranefly]

Hmmm.  A little too loose and wordy for me to fully appreciate.  Lots of disparate elements, and some directors can pull it all together for a cohesive climax.  But early on I had a strong sense that Fruit Chan was just making it up as he went and was headed nowhere.  I had to force myself to finish it.

Checking wikipedia after watching it, I see that it's based on a web-novel -- so Fruit Chan did have a direction.  But he didn't include everything from the web-novel because he has a sequel in mind.  Not certain that makes me feel any more positive about this effort.

P.S. Interesting look for Simon Yam.  And yes, DM, the part tease/part spoiler you allude to was very intriguing and enjoyable.