Ki-joon and Hee-yeol are students at the Korean National Police University. At around midnight one night, they witness a kidnapping on their way back from the club. The local police station's missing persons department, however, is busy with the kidnapping of a son of a business mogul at the time and is unable to investigate the case. Knowing that they are in the critical hours after a kidnapping, they embark on their own amateur investigation. When Ki-joon and Hee-yeol catch up with the kidnappers, it appears that the gang is running an unfertilized egg harvesting ring and there are many more girls locked up at their hideout. Ki-joon and Hee-yeol tries to save them but are instead beaten and locked up. After escaping their captors, they return the next day to an empty hideout and a cold trail. As they are not acting police officers, their professor tells them not to pursue the case any further. Unable to wait for the bureaucracy to resolve the case, they once again embark on their own investigation. They undergo heavy physical training and manage to track the kidnappers down, with the help of CCTV footage, to a fertility clinic. Armored up, the duo venture in to liberate the girls by themselves, this time much more prepared, successfully taking out all the kidnappers and the kidnapper's boss. Unable to arrest the kidnappers and rescue all the kidnapped girls themselves, they call the police in, knowing they might get expelled for their actions. However, due to some among the disciplinary committee believing that they had done the right thing morally, they are instead held back a year in their studies and sentenced to 500 hours of community service, leaving the two satisfied with the outcome. In a mid-credit scene, the girl kidnapped at the beginning of the film visits Ki-joon and Hee-yeol as they're serving their community service and thanks them.
Cast
Main
Park Seo-joon as Park Ki-joon
Ki-joon is a light-hearted, risk-taker who acts first and thinks later.
Kang Ha-neul as Kang Hee-yeol
Hee-yeol is the total opposite of Ki-joon. He is fairly nerdy and more of thinker than a doer.
Midnight Runners marks Park Seo-joon's first time playing a lead role in a film. Midnight Runners was sold to six countries at the Hong Kong International Film & TV Market. The rights to the film have been purchased by companies including Japan's The Klockworx, Taiwan's Long Shong, Hong Kong's Deltamac HK, Philippines' Viva Comm and Singapore's Purple Plan. Filming began on November 21, 2016 in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea and ended on February 23, 2017.
Release and reception
Local
The film was released on August 9, 2017. It was screened across South Korea in 1,058 theatres. The film placed second at the box office on the opening day and earned US$1.97 million with a total of 308,303 ticket sales. During the first five days of its release, the film attracted 1.9 million viewers and earned a total of. Within the first eight days after its release, the movie garnered 2.73 million admissions, earning a total of US$18.9 million, which exceeded the production budget of US$6.13 million. By August 20, less than two weeks after the movie was released, Midnight Runners had been watched by a total of 3,906,566 people. By August 21, within 13 days after its premiere, the movie surpassed 4 million ticket sales. As of August 24, the film has grossed US$30 million with a total of 4.3 million ticket sales. The total number of admissions increased to 4.83 million by August 27, 19 days after the movie was released, and the film earned a gross income of US$34.04 million. As of September 14, five weeks after its release, the film reached 5.61 million admissions mark with US$39 million gross, making it the 4th highest-grossing South Korean film in 2017.
