So-dan visits Ghost Theater in search of her grandmother, who went to see a movie but never returned. There, she discovers that the theater staff turn into ghosts at night. As she grows close to them and starts working at the theater, So-dan learns that the ghosts were once actors in a film her grandmother starred in, and the theater owner was the film's director.

Midnight Ballad for Ghost Theater is a low-budget musical fantasy made for just $800 million, a rarity in the Korean film industry where musicals and fantasies are scarce. In this Burtonesque tale, ghosts haunting a grotesque theater exude humor and warmth through rock opera songs with distinctive pitch and rhythm. The B&W silent film-within-a-film, made 60 years earlier, is an old-fashioned take on the Greek Minotaur myth. Hybrid motifs and icons blend to deliver a classical catharsis through its fantastic narrative. The choreography and music enhance the experience, making it a unique achievement in Korean musical cinema. (Lim Bum)