Midnight Fly (2001)

Tourists Michele (Mui) and Miki (Risa) meet on a coach trip through France. Hailing from Hong Kong and Japan, they're taking time away from troubled relationships with no intentions to hurry home. When the French tour ends, the new friends head off to Morocco together, revisiting Michele's honeymoon destination. But their stay is no idyllic escape, as the faraway land proves to be a bad destination for female visitors from Asia.

More plot description is best left unwritten and details here are suitably sketchy. Midnight Fly's plot is at times so predictable that its fleeting elements of surprise are best left for prospective viewers to sample.

Meandering along a rubble-strewn route of bonding and thriller themes, Midnight Fly fails to lay sufficient groundwork for the characters and their mutual support, ultimately diminishing the impact of the film's dramatic set pieces. Forced and distant dialogues to establish the characters early in the piece doesn't help, despite the fine spoken delivery by the lead actresses. Once the pair's moodier and drawn-out discussions sketch the premise, an unsettling alleyway scene heralds a shift to faster-paced action. Images on screen from the earthen-toned Moroccan surrounds and ornate interiors thereafter remain compelling and attractive to watch, with the tense atmosphere thickening gradually.

The lead actresses put in nice performances throughout, with their dialogue thankfully presented as it is spoken. Junna Risa was a particular eye-opener with a warm and emotive performance in her first big-screen role, and Anita Mui opens up her far colder character attractively. Newcomer Shaun Tam performs well but is dealt an odd fish out of water character, playing a Cantonese-speaking Chinese man staffing a market stall. With no mention of a Chinese community or his background story in the script, it seems odd a local actor wasn't picked for a more plausible role instead. Perhaps target viewers are expected not to question such triviality but it's still odd that filmmakers would travel so far and not use more local talent.

Above: Midnight Fly printed billboard at the South China Theatre.

Credits:

Produced and directed by Jacob Cheung
Written by Tang Tsz-chung
Cinematography by Wong Ping-hung
Edited by Cheung Ka-fai
Music by Shigeru Umebayashi
Starring Junna Risa, Anita Mui Yim-fong, Shaun Tam Chun-yin and Simon Yam Tat-wah