Midnight Ballad for Ghost Theater
Encyclopedia
Midnight Ballad for Ghost Theater (Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...

: 삼거리극장; Samgeori geukjang) is a 2006 South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

n musical comedy film.

Plot

The plot follows a young girl, Seong So-dan as she searches for her Grandmother who disappears at the beginning of the film after announcing that she wanted to go and see "her film". So-dan goes to the movie theatre to look for her and stops the suicidal manager from hanging himself, he gives her a job working in the box office so she can wait and see if her Grandmother will show up. One night, while she is working late at the theater, four ghosts appear to her; Wanda, a bulimic ex-kisaeng
Kisaeng
Kisaeng , sometimes called ginyeo , were female Korean official prostitute or entertainers. Kisaeng are artists who work to entertain others, such as the yangbans and kings....

 who obsessively counts her own hair; Elisa, a Joseon Dynasty
Joseon Dynasty
Joseon , was a Korean state founded by Taejo Yi Seong-gye that lasted for approximately five centuries. It was founded in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Goryeo at what is today the city of Kaesong. Early on, Korea was retitled and the capital was relocated to modern-day Seoul...

 princess; Ijawa Hiroshi, a Japanese soldier stationed in Korea and Mosquito. Each of the ghosts is identical to a member of the theater staff working during the day.

So-dan overcomes her fear of the ghosts and joins them as they perform in the theatre at night. She eventually discovers that they were part of an acting troupe, which also included her grandmother and the manager. The four of them were killed at the premier of their debut film "Minosu: The Bull-headed Man" and have decided to haunt the theatre until the film is shown again.

Reception

Although the film performed only moderately at the box office and had only a limited DVD release, it is gaining reputation as a cult film and has been compared to the work of Tim Burton
Tim Burton
Timothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...

 and to The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show, written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940s through early 1970s. Director Jim Sharman collaborated on the...

 thanks to its surreal edge. The film has not be admired by all critics however, and is generally criticised for the lack of character development.

Cast

  • Kim Kkot-bi
    Kim Kkot-Bi
    Kim Kkot-Bi is a South Korean actress. In the movie Breathless she played troubled schoolgirl, a role for which she won the Best New Actress award at the 46th Daejong Film Awards.-Filmography:*Saving My Hubby...

     as So-Dan
  • Cheon Ho-Jin as Woo Gi-Nam
  • Park Jun-Myeon as Elisa
  • Park Yeong-Su as Mosquito
  • Han Ae-Ri as Wanda
  • Jo Hie-Bong as Hiroshi

External Links

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