Simya-ui FM

I heard and read a lot of good reviews about this movie, so it grabs my attention. But after watching this movie, I realized, it is not as good as it was said or reviewed. Some plots don't make any sense. I excepted much from a Korean thriller, maybe it wasn't the right one. And at the end it ruined everything with it's irrelevant plots.

Plot Popular TV anchorwoman & late night DJ Ko Sun-young set to host her final radio program. During the show, she receives a startling text message instructing her to follow specific directions or endanger the lives of her family.

My thoughts: Midnight FM had me locked in from the start. The real-time format gives it a steady rhythm that rarely eases up once things kick off. I especially liked that it was set mostly inside a radio station. Having spent a good chunk of my life in similar studio settings, there was something oddly personal about watching the story unfold in that environment.

Soo Ae is great in the lead, juggling a wide range of emotions without ever going overboard. Yoo Ji-Tae brings a cold, focused energy to his role that reminded me why he stands out so much in films like Oldboy and Lady Vengeance. Ma Dong-seok even makes a brief appearance, which is always a welcome surprise.

What stood out most was how steady everything felt. The pacing stayed sharp throughout, gradually raising the stakes without ever going too far. It's not the kind of film trying to flip the genre on its head, but it plays to its strengths and lands exactly where it should.

Review written by artist jayakumar jrain.

The momentum for Korean Thrillers is picking up slowly but surely, with recent films like The Chaser and Man From Nowhere getting critical acclaim and scoring at their home box office with their very edgy treatment and storytelling, putting the audience at the edge of their seats with aplomb. The next such film to hit the screens here is Midnight FM, and director Kim Sang-Man had proved that this film belongs to the same echelons as the films mentioned, where a celebrity DJ has to deal with a violent, psychotic stalker.

Soo-Ae of Once in a Summer fame plays Ko Sun-Young, a highly popular DJ whose shift in the graveyard hours is coming to an end soon. On her final day, she finds herself being blackmailed by an unknown person who had gained an upper hand at being inside her home and holding her loved one hostage, before demonstrating that he's a huge deranged fan of hers, posing questions based on her show's past to play a sick game where every wrong answer would mean that something violent and gruesome got to be inflicted on the hostages.

In some ways this film seemed to have two separate phases, with the first phase taking place in very confined spaces, such as the DJ's booth and console, and that of Sun-Young's house where you have children and her teenage sister having to hide from a home invader. It's almost like David Fincher's Panic Room with a cat and mouse game of hide and seek gets played out in a swanky apartment, which makes for some nice touches of suspense and thrills, given the claustrophobic space in which to play a deadly quiz. It's like a ping pong game of desperately trying to gain and regain the upper hand from each side, knowing that with that comes bargaining power.

Then there's the utilization of space, as the narrative takes place outside of the confined spaces, shaking you out of your comfort zone just as you thought everything will shuttle back and forth between the locations, and becoming a full fledged action film complete with car chases to boot. A number of support characters got introduced here, from bland, ineffective cops to fellow co-workers now into the scheme of things to assist Sun-Young, although their presence do not distract you from the main players, offering only slight support to fulfill their one role function before disappearing into the background again. More obnoxious characters enter the scene such as various levels of bureaucracy at the radio station to come disrupt proceedings since Sun-Yong had veered really off course in her programme, which adds another layer of complexity for Sun-Young to battle against.

Soo-Ae cuts a confident figure on the top of her game as Sun-Young, before the threat turned her into quite the nervous wreck hell bent on rescuing her daughter at any expense. Like a chameleon, Soo-Ae handles both sides to her character with skill, making you root for her along the way even though she mercilessly rejects the advances and help of yet another stalker who decides to stake out at her office since it's after all, her final day there. As the antagonist, Yoo Ji-Tae is the man you'd love to hate, personifying pure evil in his dastardly plan that comes with layers and enough Plan Bs to keep him off the law enforcement radar and long arm of the law. His Han Dong-Su is the ultimate stalker complete with shrine and audio recordings at his hideout, and Ji-Tae's creepy portrayal makes the character someone not to be messed with for his penchant for violence. A nice little backstory to link up seemingly disparate events to debunk the myth of randomness was a nice touch, but could be done without.

With the bulk of the film taking place within two hours of Sun-Young's final shift at work, Midnight FM is by and large one of the better thrillers out there this year, being intense and edgy from the time the antagonist enters the picture to begin his deadly game. Kim Sang- Man crafted a film that is paced expertly, knowing when to speed things up with high octane action, and slowing things down yet keeping a pulse on the frenzied state of mind of its characters, making this film way above average thrillers and is well worth experiencing on the big screen. Highly recommended!

A thriller just for the sake of it. You are going to like it, if you don't dig deeper into the logic. Yes, there are plenty of questions you might ask throughout the film, it may affect the viewing experience. Korean films are awesome in making thrillers, but this is not the perfect one.

Okay, so I was in the mood for some good thriller movie from Asia and decided to check this movie out, plus it has Su-Ae in it who is a pretty and yet elegant actress. So I thought it wasn't going to be a big waste of time, in fact by watching the trailer I thought this movie was going to be similar to the movie "P2". Which is another thriller and has a smart female protagonist that uses her wits without going overboard to try and survive the nightmare from a crazy stalker. Anyways I thought it was going to be like that movie. And from the trailer it looked pretty intriguing although nothing much happens in the trailer, which is for the most part a good thing in this case. This movie has suspenseful scenes but unlike "P2" a lot of the parts takes place outside of the building the protagonist resides in. Su-Ae played her role in a very balanced way where it didn't come off like a annoying victim in a movie. Although there are annoying characters in this movie but it's intentional, and yet very annoying, luckily she isn't one of them. Yoo Ji-Tae also does a fine job playing the villain, he always seemed to play the psychotic character pretty well and it's the same for this movie as well. Although this movie is full of incompetent and annoying characters that constantly get in the way, I did like the stalker helping fight another stalker aspect of it. Overall this was a pretty good Korean thriller that is put together really well near the end.

8/10