The Midnight After

The Midnight After is a 2014 Hong Kong satirical horror comedy film directed by Fruit Chan and starring Wong You-nam, Janice Man, Simon Yam, Kara Hui, Lam Suet, Chui Tien-you, Cheuk Wan-chi, Lee Sheung-ching, Sam Lee and Jan Curious. The film is based on the web-novel, Lost on a Red Mini Bus to Taipo by the 25-year-old Hong Kong writer nicknamed "Mr. Pizza" from the Internet forum HKGolden. It was first serialized online from February to July 2012 and then published in book form in July 2012. The film had its world premiere at the Panorama section of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival on 7 February 2014. Plot Seventeen people board a Hong Kong minibus which is going from Mong Kok to Tai Po. The driver Suet, Yau Tsi-chi and Yuki, who are visiting their respective dates; Fat, an aging gangster; Mook Sau-ying, a fortune-telling insurance salesperson; Shun, a computer technician; Pat and Bobby, a married couple; Blind Fai, a drug addict; Au Yeung Wai, a music store salesperson; Lavina, a quiet, buck-toothed woman; Airplane and Glu-Stick, rowdy boys; and university students Tsing, Peter, Dawg, and Hung. As the minibus enters Lion Rock Tunnel, Fat notices the traffic seemingly disappear, and several other passengers remark upon how quiet the streets have become. The university students leave on the first stop, and one of them immediately becomes ill. By the second stop, the passengers come to believe they are the only people remaining in Hong Kong. They propose various explanations, though Mook insists destiny has brought them together to experience a paranormal event. Before leaving, the passengers exchange phone numbers. Yau and Yuki leave together, and as Yuki talks about missing her boyfriend, Yau sees a man in a gas mask, though he keeps this from Yuki. After she leaves, Yau encounters the university students, all of whom have now become ill. They beg him for help as they melt before him. Yau swerves to avoid them on his bicycle as he speeds past, and the last remaining student curses him as he dies. Yau crosses the tunnel to return home but finds nobody there.