Lead cast: Joo Won, Kwon Nara
Latest Nielsen rating: 2.5 per cent
Small photo studios are omnipresent on South Korea’s streets. Whether for family portraits, passport photos or actor headshots, there are many reasons someone might frequent such an establishment – but perhaps their most important function is to provide portraits that will eventually be used in funerals.
For mourners at a funeral, the funeral portrait serves as their final memory of whoever is being laid to rest. Even after death, people still want to look their best, not just for themselves but for those they leave behind.
The Midnight Studio begins with a voice-over that suggests that, whereas tigers leave behind their fur when they die, humans leave behind photographs.
7 of the best new Korean drama series to watch in March 2024
7 of the best new Korean drama series to watch in March 2024
For this reason, funeral portraits can be an effective dramatic device. They are at the heart of the 1990s classic romantic melodrama Christmas in August and also launch the fantastical narrative of the hit film Miss Granny.
In Miss Granny, the photo studio is a magical one which transports an elderly woman back to the body of her younger self. Similarly, The Midnight Studio features a fantastical photo studio which connects those left behind with their loved ones for one final photo before saying goodbye.
The Midnight Studio goes to great pains to explain the mythology behind its titular location; unfortunately it does so with a number of dodgy effects filled with ghosts and demons that look like the Lord of the Rings’ Ringwraiths, but done on a shoestring budget.
However, once those effects-heavy scenes of exposition are out of the way, what remains is the charming studio itself, which gives off a colourful and inviting atmosphere.
Seo Ki-joo (Joo) is the seventh operator of the studio, which employs an old-fashioned single-panel camera, is only open at night, and can only welcome ghosts as clients. These spirits wandered off the path to the afterlife as they have left something unresolved behind.
Each episode has ended with the living relatives entering the studio – any other time the living cannot gain access – to say emotional goodbyes to the recently departed and take one final memorial photo together.
Adding some tension to the set-up is the fact that Ki-joo, along with the men in his family before him, suffer from a curse. The six previous operators of the store died unnatural deaths when they were 35, and Ki-joo, who is well aware of this, only has a 100 days left before his turn.
Han Bom (Kwon) is a former prosecutor who now works part-time as a lawyer while looking for a permanent position. The most important thing for her is doing the right thing, so even when she lands a big interview, she forgoes it to take on a pro bono case.
This case involves a woman accused of murdering her husband, who happens to be Ki-joo’s current photo studio client. As Ki-joo helps to clear the woman’s name he crosses paths with Bom, but not for the first time.
The pair earlier met in a haunted elevator and they soon meet again once the show adds cohabitation romcom to its genre melee. Unable to pay the paltry rent, Bom is kicked out of her rooftop apartment and who should move in but Ki-joo.
Ki-joo also relocates his photo studio downstairs and he is shocked to meet Bom inside one day, as she should not be able to enter. Bom isn’t ready to give up on her house and starts camping outside.
While nothing new is added to the mix here, the gentle combination of its fantastical premise, emotional investigations and romantic comedy provide fitfully diverting entertainment, depending on how strong or weak the supernatural case featured in each episode is.
The Midnight Studio is streaming on Viu.