Synopsis

So-dan comes to the Ghost Theater in search of her grandmother, who disappeared while watching a movie. The run-down Ghost Theater, built during the Japanese colonial era, is screening a double feature: a horror film titled A Cursed Wreck and an erotic film titled One Night on Laps. In this time-transcending theater, four employees turn into ghosts at night. By day, they work as seemingly ‘normal’ staff, looking utterly bored, but by night, they dress up and revel in music and dance. Meanwhile, the theater’s owner isolates himself in a room, repeatedly attempting suicide. So-dan befriends the ghosts and takes a job at the box office. She soon discovers that the ghosts were actors in a film made with her grandmother 60 years ago—and the theater owner was its director. Midnight Ballad of Ghost Theater is a musical fantasy made on a modest budget of USD 800,000—a rarity in Korean cinema, where both musical and fantasy genres are uncommon. In this Tim Burton-esque film, ghosts inhabiting a grotesque space exude both humor and warmth through rock opera-style songs with unique pitch and rhythm. The black-and-white silent film-within-a-film, Minos the Bull-headed Man, made 60 years earlier, is a retro adaptation of the Greek myth of the Minotaur. Various hybrid motifs and icons are artfully blended, delivering a classical catharsis through a fantastical narrative. The choreography and music enhance the film beautifully, making it a groundbreaking work in the realm of Korean musical cinema. (Lim Bum)

Director

Jeon Kye-soo

Born in 1972, Jeon Kye-soo graduated from the Department of Philosophy at Sogang University. He has experience in screenwriting, directing, and acting across theater, film, and musicals. While working in Japan, he continued to write screenplays and stage plays. He participated in independent film projects through groups such as the Hankyoreh Culture School and directed short films including Cat’s Dream (2001). After working as an assistant director on Singles (2003), he made his directorial debut with Midnight Ballad of Ghost Theater, for which he won Best New Director at the 43rd Baeksang Arts Awards.