Se-jin Oh lives a nice, but lonely life. She starts to notice strange things going on with the apartments across from her. Every night at the same time the lights flicker in an odd way, and someone commits suicide. She then has a strange meeting with a woman who follows her in the subway station, and then tries to drag her in front of the train while committing suicide. Due to the trauma she begins to have trouble sleeping, and starts to have some ghost encounters. After meeting Yu-yeon, a young crippled woman who happens to live in the apartments across from her, she begins to observe the apartments through binoculars to see if she can figure out what's going on.

Ah, another ghost girl movie to add to the collection. I went into this movie not really knowing much about it. It's fun to do that sometimes. Never read the back of it, never look it up on IMDB (the hard part), just watch it without any expectations. Well... I can't say that I didn't have any opinion. Before the movie started I figured it wouldn't be that great. Now whether it was entertaining or not, I didn't know, but I did not have high hopes for it at all. I knew before I watched it that it was yet another ghost girl movie. It would probably have the same setup as every other ghost girl movie: Someone dies in the beginning, then you meet the protagonist who starts to see strange things, more people might die, the protagonist starts trying to solve the mystery while more spooky stuff happens, more people might die, protagonist finds out the mystery which probably involves a terrible tragedy, protagonist tries to right the wrong and either wins, loses, or thinks they won but realizes no one ever wins. You might throw in a 'giving the ghost's body a proper burial' scene, or maybe a 'you think you figured out the mystery and ended it but JUST KIDDING! There's more to it, dumbass, and your still being haunted' scene to spice it up a bit. If you haven't realized already, like slashers the ghost girl movies follow a pattern which can be done well, or done very poorly. Apartment did it pretty well, a lot better than I expected, which is probably why I liked it.

Apartment is directed by Byeong-ki Ahn who directed Phone, Bunshinsaba, and Nightmare. He was most of the reason I decided to see Apartment. I don't know why because he's not the greatest director, but something about him interests me. Either way, he did a pretty good job with Apartment. The movie had a nice sad feel to it (oxymoron?), very gloomy... very blue and lonely. It's best viewed while it's raining. Nothing about it really stands out as fantastic, but it was a good watch. I was worried about it being filled with dumb jump scares every 5 seconds, and the first few scares made me believe they were going that direction. But after watching it more I started feeling creeped out. They throw in some alternate angles of the ghost girl that intrigued me. For some reason I liked the side view, it made the ghost seem more... gangly? I can't think of a word, but they did add in a little bit of change. When the ghost girl moved she made this weird creaking sound, kind of like the crushed throat sound from Ju-on except for more wood-creaking-like. That drove me nuts at first, until later it gave me the creeps. Not enough to be revolutionary, but enough to not get too bored. I was also interested in the reverse Rear Window theme to it.

The flow of the movie felt a bit disjointed, but the mystery to Apartment was very interesting. That was probably one of the reasons why I liked the movie. The tragic story behind the mystery was very good and I found myself becoming emotionally involved, but at the same time I was disconnected with most everything else. There could have been better character development. Seems like the only character that had much development was Yu-yeon. They could have done so much more with Se-jin Oh. I liked how her apartment reflected her personality. It was very pretty and well decorated, but not homely. It seemed very cold and depressing. I wanted them to go more into her character, and it seemed like they were going to, but it never went through.

The actors were pretty good. I liked So-young Ko (Se-jin Oh). I don't know what it is, just something about her. I thought she was gorgeous, but that really has nothing to do with acting. She seemed to under act maybe a little bit too much, but it wasn't bad. I liked something about her, I just can't quite put my finger on it. I think it's because she just fit with the calm sadness feel of the movie. But she didn't really do too much to stand out. Hie-jin Jang (Yu-yeon), on the other hand, was great. I was impressed. Her eyes seemed to pierced through me. Her emotions were very powerful. Seong-jin Kang (Detective Yang Na-sun) didn't do anything outstanding. He just seemed like your typical detective.

A lot of people may disagree, but I thought Byeong-ki Ahn did a pretty good job directing Apartment. I thought the cinematography was great, the score was fitting, and I loved the atmosphere of the movie, it just need to be polished more overall. I did notice many times when it would jump from one scene to another and your wondering what just happened. He did it a lot with Phone. Once Se-jin Oh was doing something, then popped into this meeting with her boss. Not even a minute later she was back in her apartment doing something else. A little to random for my tastes.

I liked Apartment. Could it have been better? Sure it could have. It's not the best, and it is a typical ghost girl movie, but it's still a good watch. I loved the atmosphere and the mystery behind everything, I just wished it could have been more solid overall. If you pass it up your not missing much. But if your bored and/or just want to watch a ghost girl movie, preferably when it's raining, then I think you should go for it. As I keep on repeating over and over again, it's not good, but it's not bad. I enjoyed watching it.

What I liked: The atmosphere; the story behind everything; Hie-jin Jang as Yu-yeon; the cinematography; the side view ghost girl; the reverse Rear Window theme.

What I didn't like: The flow; needed more character development with the protagonist; the jumpiness; just could have been polished a bit more.

What I've learned: I guess it's illegal to look through your apartment window with binoculars; I don't want people taking care of me if I'm crippled... *shudder*; stay away from the woman in red.

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