NOW ON NETFLIX! This suspense thriller centers on a man who buys an apartment but then learns all the trials and tribulations that come with becoming a homeowner and the conspiracy of the building he moves into.
It’s 2021, and with surging apartment rentals, Woo-sung (Kang Ha-Neul) maxes out a loan to become a first-time homeowner. Fast forward to three years later, and the market has dropped, and he is now strapped for cash. To save money, he conservatively saves on the electric bill with the lights and air conditioner off, leaving him hot and sweaty. To make matters worse, he has upstairs neighbors who keep him up at night with noise.
One night, Woo-sung gets a visit from his downstairs neighbor, who repeatedly has left him post-it notes complaining about the noise coming from his apartment. As he protests that it’s coming from above, he finally goes and investigates and meets Jin-ho (Seo Hyun-woo), a menacing-looking man who tells him that the neighbors above him are the culprits. As Woo-sung visits each floor and each tenant, all of them claim it’s their upstairs neighbor. This eventually leads to the “resident representative”, Eun-hwa (Yeom Hye-ran) in the penthouse, who is sympathetic but also explains that the issue is a load-bearing wall carrying sound throughout the building and that it could be anyone.
As the situation starts to become unbearable, Woo-sung is at an impasse because he can’t just sell his place during a bad market, and there’s the upside of a high-speed commuter rail network about to be approved in the neighborhood to raise property value. A co-worker alerts him to an insider trader investment scam with an 800 percent return on investment. All he needs to do is come up with the cash, with the only solution being to sell his place.
A tense standoff as neighbors confront each other in a suspenseful moment from Wall to Wall
“…each tenant, all of them claim it’s their upstairs neighbor.”
Woo-sung manages to leverage his place for the initial investment. All he has to do now is watch the stock climb and sell when the time is right. As he’s watching the stock carefully, another disturbance at the complex causes a physical brawl with one of his neighbors, and ends up with Woo-sung arrested and missing the sale of the stock.
Eun-hwa comes to the police station and explains that the whole thing was a misunderstanding. Now out of jail and back home, the noise still continues, which leads Jin-ho from upstairs to come down and confront Woo-sung, only to realize the sound isn’t coming from his place. As Woo-sung and Jin-ho now become allies, they discover the noise is a part of a nefarious plot surrounding the building and its property value.
I had no idea what to expect when I first turned this on. I thought it was going to be a horror movie, but it turned out more in the vein of Parasite about social class issues. The basic idea behind Wall To Wall is relatable to anyone who’s ever rented or owned a place where you had to share wall or ceiling space. Just like in the film, I’ve found myself in similar situations, listening to which neighbor might be making noise or accusing the wrong neighbor, or even realizing later that the sound was coming from the least likely of places.
This is what I thought director Kim Tae-joon did well, taking the character of Woo-sung and seeing the maddening effect of noise and his living space take a toll on him and adversely affect his state of mind. It also highlighted the caste division between renters and owners, where owners have a real stake. This one building is a microcosm for the world, showing the haves, have-nots, greed, and the desire to live in peace and quiet.
If you’re looking for an on-the-edge-of-your-seat thriller, this is it, but you also might find yourself very agitated if you’ve been in a similar situation.
"…relatable to anyone who’s ever rented or owned a place where you had to share a wall..."
