Midnight Runners [2017] - Film

[stroppyse]

Midnight Runners

 

Director: Jason Kim
Screenplay: Jason Kim

Cast: Park Seo Joon, Kang Ha Neul, Park Ha Sun, Sung Dong Il

 

Genre: Action comedy

 

 

 

 

 

Midnight Runners was billed as an action comedy and there are many comedic parts, but it’s really also a coming of age movie. Park Ki Joon (Park Seo Joon) and Kang Hee Yeol (Kang Ha Neul) are two freshmen at the Korean National Police University. From the day they are inducted into the class, the two find themselves to be very different from each other, and don’t get along, mostly because of Hee Yeol.

Ki Joon is a cheerful, light-hearted guy who is friendly towards everyone. He’s very athletic and physical, and so tends to act first and think later since he’s more reliant on his strength while he struggles with his studies. He’s the best fighter of their class, though not the best student. He makes his usual friendly overtures to Hee Yeol when they first meet only to be rebuffed by him.

Hee Yeol is presented as being very book smart. Having done well in his studies, he could have attended KAIST (formerly the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, basically Korea’s version of Caltech, MIT, and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton all rolled into one), but had chosen to attend the Korean National Police University because he wanted to do something different from his friends and they were all headed towards KAIST. However, HY is not the most physically gifted in his class.

Thus the two keep a wary distance from each other, until the day that they have to do their timed final run to pass their physical fitness test. In order to pass, they have to run a cross country course through a mountain and make it back to campus by a set time. HY trips and twists his ankle during the run, but none of his classmates want to help him since failing the run would mean being dropped from the program. KJ is the only one who even stops to see if HY is okay, and HY is able to get KJ to carry him the rest of the way on his back by promising to buy him beef for dinner.

KJ piggybacks HY all the way back to the school where they explain what happened and asks that they be passed anyway and not be dropped from the course. The instructor, played by Park Ha Sun, asks who else saw HY down, and at seeing that everyone else had passed HY by, she yells at the students in disgust that they are supposed to protect the citizens, but how could they do that when they won’t even stop to help an injured mate. She punishes everyone else, but sends KJ and HY to the infirmary after passing them on the course. Thus, KJ and HY finally become friends.

Being friends, when KJ and HY have a day off, they go together to a trendy, swanky club hoping to meet women who might want to be their girlfriends, but they are rejected as potential partners for not being rich playboys basically. They both decide they have had enough and go to an arcade instead.

As they are calling it quits for the evening, they see a pretty girl walk by and become curious about her. When they go to catch up with her, they realize that she's being kidnapped. Witnessing the kidnapping leads KJ and HY to first report it, but when that fails to get any action, they decide to do the investigation themselves, and are able to catch up to the kidnappers and also find more female victims. However, rather than rescuing the girls, they end up being beaten and locked up. After escaping, they return with reinforcements to find the kidnappers gone and girls gone.

Being students still rather than active police, they are told to let it go. However, they come up with a plan to continue the investigation themselves, getting some help from their former drill instructor while preparing themselves for the eventual fight.

One of the consequences of their actions, though, is that KJ and HY ultimately have to face a disciplinary committee. However, it’s their desire to save the girls that cause them to affirm that being policemen is what they really want to do. Rather than going to the Police University because he couldn’t think of anything else to do as KJ did, or because he wanted to be different from his friends as HY did, they both realize that being a police officer is a profession and a calling that they both want and respect.

This drama is pretty much a two hander that asks for a lot from Park Seo Joon and Kang Ha Neul, and succeeds based on their chemistry in their opposites-attract bromance. Fortunately, both PSJ and KHN have charm and more to spare. They make a classic odd couple pairing as they struggle with this environment of the Korean National Police University that they’ve chosen to be in, but aren’t quite convinced of their desire to be police officers for most of this movie. The screenplay isn’t terribly novel nor the dialogue that profound or fresh, however, PSJ and KHN make the most of what they are given with and manage to flesh out characters who are given minimal back stories so that we viewers stay interested in what they get up to.

The screenwriter is also the director, and this was his directorial debut. So some of the pacing is uneven, and the cinematography is pretty obvious. For instance, in the scenes where KJ and HY are trying to find the kidnappers, it tries for a dark, jaded landscape to contrast against KJ and HY’s still young and idealistic doings. It also felt as if there were a lot of tight shots being used. And the comedy which takes up a lot of the first part of the movie is more physical comedy without much subtlety. Having said all that, it is an excellent cast, with a strong if minimal supporting cast. This was also Park Seo Joon’s first leading role in a film.

The acting was definitely the highlight of this drama, and the reason to watch is to see PSJ and KHN becoming buddies.

Plot/Story 7
Cast/Acting 9
Production  6
Re-Watch 10 if you’re a fan of PSJ and/or KHN. Otherwise a 4.

Overall  7

 

 

Ending spoiler for anyone who really wants to know

Spoiler

KJ and HY catch the bad guys, but end up having to call in the full-time policeman. Since they are only students, they face a disciplinary committee. They ultimately face a punishment of having to repeat their freshman year as well as doing some community service.

 

[stroppyse]

A trailer for the movie

 

 

And a clip from the movie that shows how the bromance actually started despite the rocky start.

 

 

 

[mademoiselle]

As a whole, I enjoyed the movie and there were some funny bits. My ultimate favourite and memorable bit was Sung Dong Il giving a lecure on doing the right thing (or something along the line), which is the very thing he advised these two against, and they both glared at him. 

 

It's not something special or novel, but entertainment wise, I believe it did its job because I was very entertained and felt good after watching it. And it's a movie I'd recommend to others too, for its lightness and some comedy.

[stroppyse]

8 hours ago, mademoisellesia said:

As a whole, I enjoyed the movie and there were some funny bits. My ultimate favourite and memorable bit was Sung Dong Il giving a lecure on doing the right thing (or something along the line), which is the very thing he advised these two against, and they both glared at him. 

 

That was a good scene, and it highlighted the sometimes differences between what they are taught at uni and what can really happen in RL on the job. Though, of course, I am glad that our heroes chose to pursue what they thought was the right thing even at their own possible personal expense. Sung Dong Il's character was also ultimately on their side, spoke in their defense about the passions of youth not being quenched and wanting people who cared about justice rather than positioning as part of the police force.

 

8 hours ago, mademoisellesia said:

t's not something special or novel, but entertainment wise, I believe it did its job because I was very entertained and felt good after watching it. And it's a movie I'd recommend to others too, for its lightness and some comedy.

 

Fair comment. I enjoyed watching it as well. Though, I'm a big fan of both Park Seo Joon and Kang Ha Neul, so I figured that I would like this drama no matter what it turned out to be.

 

Also, I was happy to see that the kidnappers were not about black market organ harvesting which a lot of Kmovies had been addressing. shiver. Not to say that the bad guys weren't nefarious and evil, just that at least it was a slightly different topic of evil.