When thinking about film, many people believe that
international movies cannot properly be compared to movies that exist within their
own culture. What those people fail to realize is the closeminded-ness of that
perspective— that the world is smaller than people think. Many people around
the world lead similar lives. Even though Kwon Oh-Seung’s Midnight
wasn’t produced in the same country as Mike Flanagan’s Hush, the two
films still employ similar cinematic elements and are in the same vein
thematically.
Hush follows a young deaf woman, Maddie, who lives
basically in the middle of nowhere. She has immediate neighbors, but besides
that, she is not at the forefront of civilization. Ever since Maddie contracted
Meningitis when she was thirteen, her hearing became impaired, her voice going
with it. The film opens up explaining these details while also showing Maddie
conversing with her neighbor Sarah. Sarah eventually leaves and Maddie is later
seen on a FaceTime call with her probable sister. This is the moment things
begin falling apart. A masked man has breached Maddie’s apartment, but since
she is deaf, she is completely unaware of the threat. When she finally gets
control of the situation and locks the man outside, she has now cornered
herself in her home with no way out.
Midnight varies from Hush in the sense that
importance is placed on two people— Kyung-Mi, a young deaf woman who works as a
sign language counselor— and her deaf mother. In Midnight, the situation
is a bit different. Kyung-Mi accidentally witnesses a stabbing while meeting up
with her mother, so she becomes a target for serial killer Do-Shik in a twisted
game of fate. Midnight works a bit differently than Hush in the
way the story is executed though. In Hush the main protagonist is
confined to her home, but in Midnight the antagonist follows the hero
around everywhere.
Both films feature young vulnerable deaf women who are
about to fall prey to serial killers. Implementing deaf protagonists is an
interesting creative choice since that changes the way films would typically
operate. The sound design for both films is a lot different than other movies due
to the main characters being mute. Both protagonists interact in the world
using sign language. Having a film that is completely silent though would bore
audiences, so the directors found an interesting way to utilize sound design. Midnight
leans heavily on an intense score along with diegetic sound. The noises that do
belong in the universe are intentionally loud, so they contrast the main
protagonist’s world. The score increases the intensity of certain scenes. Hush
however leans more on contrapuntal sound and utilizes an intense score.
Diegetic sound is used for things like banging and tapping which counteracts
some of the silence. Contrapuntal sound is used for emphasis— for example, when
Maddie saw Sarah’s dead body, she screamed and sobbed, but all the audience
could hear was silence.
Both Midnight and Hush express the theme of
solitude, however, Hush depends on it more. Having both main heroes be
deaf already isolates them from the world they’re living in. Both protagonists
also must face the struggles that comes with being deaf— being unable to call
for help, judgement, people not taking them seriously, etc.
Midnight has a wider variety of characters than Hush
and isn’t confined to a single space. The main protagonist gets help from
several different kinds of people; this isn’t the case in Hush. Maddie
only has herself the whole film. So, she is the perfect representation of what
solitude and isolation might feel like to a deaf person.
Midnight’s composition greatly differs from Hush
which already sets the tone of the films. In Midnight, the colors
are dull but appear to have a brightness filter over them. Most of the scenes
in the film are shot at night so they’re understandably dark, but they aren’t
obnoxiously so. The darkness could symbolize what Kyung-Mi’s life of isolation
is like due to being alienated because of her impairment, while the brightness
could symbolize the people around her keeping her grounded. The colors look
like a night in the city. However, the scenes involving Do-Shik’s murders and
van do not comply with the typical composition. When murder is involved, the
colors are a rich neon. When Seo-Jun was stabbed, she was laying in luminous
red light. When the audience saw inside of Do-Shik’s van, it was a neon purple.
Hush’s composition color-wise was almost opposite
of Midnight. In Hush, the electric goes out early on, so the
majority of the film is carried out in complete darkness. By plunging Maddie
into darkness, the tone of the film really shifts. Not only does the darkness
instill fear, but it also makes the audience wonder if it’s a representation of
loneliness.
Both films have notable home invasion scenes. Both Midnight
and Hush used the same technique in terms of fully utilizing the
protagonist’s impairment to add drama. Both films have a scene where the serial
killer comes up behind the hero while she is unaware since she obviously can’t
hear. This creates tension and keeps the audience at the edge of their seats.
Both movies were received very well by their audiences
which isn’t surprising since they are made for the same demographic. But they
do have significant differences. Hush is considered a horror/thriller
movie while Midnight is just a thriller. Horror movies are created
specifically to elicit fear or disgust from an audience. Hush showed
some gore which could explain the disgust; however, Midnight was violent
too. It’s safe to say that Hush is considered more of a horror film
since the main protagonist is completely alone, boxed inside a single space.
Many people have the fear of being alone, so Hush could heighten
viewers’ anxiety. Kyung-Mi isn’t completely alone in Midnight and can go
places. She never is truly alone— she always has somebody to fall back on, even
if that’s by phone call. That might make all the difference of why the films
are categorized differently.
Midnight has what most people would consider a
happy ending. There is a time skip and Kyung-Mi is shown with her mother in
Jeju, where both women discussed wanting to visit throughout the entire
duration of the film. Seo-Jeong and her brother Jong-Tak meet up with them.
Seo-Jeong is alive and kicking, even after nearly sleeping with the fishes. The
ending of Midnight shows Seo-Jeong and Jong-Tak learning sign language and
taking a picture with Kyung-Mi and her mother at the beach.
Hush did not have the happiest of endings. At the
end of Hush, Maddie finally bonded with her cat she implied she didn’t like
earlier on as she waited for the cops. The movie ended without fully knowing
Maddie’s fate though, so it might not be considered a happy ending.
Although Midnight and Hush contain many
differences, they contain many similarities as well. An audience member could
likely enjoy both films. The films don’t specifically have many cultural differences
region-wise, but they do both focus on the differences that a hearing/speaking
impairment may cause for an individual. These films zeroing in on similar elements
proves that some issues are universal, and that people may not be so different
after all.