The Midnight After

Hong Kong-based filmmaker Fruit Chan here serves up a memorable adaptation of the 2012 Internet novel Lost on a Red Minibus to Tai Po written by the pseudonymous Mr. Pizza. A slovenly minibus driver (Lam Suet) is called away from a gambling spree as a last-minute replacement for a late-night shift. Over the course of his route, he picks up 16 passengers representing a diverse stretch of society that ranges from none-too-serious college students to a would-be gangster. Nothing seems out of the ordinary until the minibus enters a tunnel: when it comes out the other end, all traffic has vanished, along with any evidence of human life. Telephone and Internet service has also disappeared, leaving the baffled passengers and their astonished driver with no clue as to what happened. While some students of contemporary Chinese history might see the film as a nasty-funny allegory regarding Hong Kong's uneasy union with the Communist mainland, those more interested in Twilight Zone-style storytelling than Asian politics will appreciate this as a fine sinister film. Highly recommended. (P. Hall)