Synopsis

So-dan comes to the Ghost Theater to search for her grandma who disappeared while at the movies. The run-down Ghost Theater, which was built during the Japanese colonial period, is showing a double feature; a horror called A Cursed Wreck and an erotic film, One night on Laps. In this theater that transcends time, four employees turn into ghosts at night. They work as ‘normal’ employees by day looking extremely bored, but when night falls, they dress up and enjoy dance and music. However, the theater owner isolates himself in his room and constantly tries suicide. So-dan becomes friends with these ghosts and finds herself a job at the box office. Soon she discovers that these ghosts were actors who shot a film with her grandma 60 years ago and the owner was the director of the film. Midnight Ballad of Ghost Theater is a musical fantasy made on a low budget of US$800 000; a rare breed in the Korean film industry where both musicals and fantasies are scarce. In this Tim Burton-esque film, ghosts living in a grotesque place give off humor and warmth with rock opera style songs that have a distinctive pitch and rhythm. The b&w silent film-within-a-film, Minos the Bull-headed Man, which was made 60 years earlier is an old-fashioned adaptation of the Minotaur story in Greek mythology. Various hybrid motifs and icons are well-blended to give the film a classical catharsis induced by a fantastic story. Moreover, the choreography and music supplement the film exceptionally well, culminating in an achievement unprecedented in Korean musical films. (Lim Bum)

감독

전계수

1972년생. 서강대 철학과 졸업. 연극, 영화, 뮤지컬 다방면에서 각본, 연출, 연기 등의 경험을 가졌으며 일본에서 직장생활을 하며 시나리오와 연극 각본을 집필했다. 영화창작 모임, 한겨레문화학교 등에서 영화를 만들었고 단편 작품으로는 <고양이꿈>(2001) 등이 있다. <싱글즈>(2003) 조감독을 거쳐 <삼거리 극장>으로 감독 데뷔. 제43회 백상예술대상 신인 감독상을 수상하기도 했다.