Brief Story Line
Few year ago, Noh Woo-sung (Kang Ha-neul - Streaming, Tastefully Yours TV series etc) a normal working man decided to sell everything that he owned and borrowed money from the bank to purchase a new apartment unit in Seoul. However, the real estate market plummeted and he ended up doing double job and save on food & utilities just to pay his monthly instalments. His condition worsened with loud noise inside his unit that constantly disturbed his sleep.
Feeling annoyed by the person renting below his unit who suspected him as the source of the noise, Woo-sung started complaining to his neighbors who live above him, such as Yeong Jin-ho (Seo Hyun-woo - Escape, Seoul Busters TV series etc) and ultimately the Penthouse owner Jeon Eun-hwa (Yeom Hye-ran - Citizen of a Kind, The Glory TV series etc). But there was no proof of who or what made the disturbing noise.
So what was the source of the noise and what would happen to Woo-sung? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Watching this movie actually felt a little bit depressing for me. My wife also commented the same thing when she watched it earlier but she did enjoy the suspense and intensity which I concur. Though the early opening scene seemed cheerful but once the song finished, we were shown the harsh reality. Looking at the lead character Woo-sung trying to do whatever he could to survive financial crisis and tempted to do everything to improve his condition was something totally realistic and believable. However that's not even the main plot as the disturbing noise was what made this movie more interesting.
As the noise intensity increased, the story became more intriguing and we were getting more curious of the source of it all. After some comedic yet pitiful moments in the middle, the story became even darker and grew more suspenseful till the climax. While watching this movie, I did not try to guess the cause of the noise but when it was finally revealed, somehow it did not truly shocked me. As usual my wife was able to notice and deduced them easily which did not surprise me at all cause she had a knack for such thing. The only part that we were not really clear was the final scene which was a bit confusing. Nevertheless it did not make the movie less entertaining.
The story here was not exactly complicated. In fact it was pretty simple and did not require us to scratch our heads. The main cast did great job especially Kang Ha-neul who was very convincing in his role and seemed to be on a roll by appearing on several films and dramas during this and upcoming year. In addition to the names I mentioned above, there were few support cast such as Kim Hyun-jung & Jeon Jin-oh as unit 1301 residents, Jo Han-joon (Miss Fortune, The Witch TV series etc) as Woo-sung's colleague, Park Sung-il (Love in the Big City, High Cookie TV series etc) as apartment investor and several others. But the most surprising to me was the appearance of Kang Ae-sim (Concrete Utopia, Tell Me That You Love Me TV series etc) which set up a nice reunion with Kang Ha-neul from their time in Squid Games season 2 & 3.
The film was written and directed by Kim Tae-joon (Unlocked). It has a pretty long duration of almost 2 hours but without having any mid or post end credit scene. I read some comments that this movie had a lot of social messages, though my wife and I did not exactly view it as a plus point (yes you may call us shallow). But we enjoyed the film's intensity and thrilling moments plus the fact that it did not require too much imagination to understand the story. So if you are looking for an intense & not complicated thriller movie, I think you would enjoy this like me and my wife (whom I got to thank for recommending this).
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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