Mikes Film Talk

Apartment 1303 (2007) is about a deadly apartment in Japan. In fact, it’s a killer. This downright creepy horror film came out five years after Takashi Shimizu‘s Grudge world. It is not too dissimilar to the “ahhhhhh” spirit in the scarier franchise. This spirit is causing young women to die. Most of them jumping off the balcony of a high rise flat.

Apartment 1303 Story

The apartment 1303 has a violent and terrifying history. A mother/child murder/suicide and several unexplained deaths of young women renting the place. Sayaki, little sister of Mariko, is the latest to die. Mariko goes to settle her younger sister’s affairs. Soon, she too is caught up in the flat’s curse.

The Main Cast

Noriko Nakagoshi is Mariko Midorikawa.

Aki Fukada is Sayaki Midorikawa.

Arata Furuta is Detective Sakurai.

Eriko Hatsune is Yukiyo Sugiuchi.

Yuka Itaya woman next door.

Naoko Ôtani is Midorikawa san.

Shion Machida is Yukiyo’s mother.

Let’s Talk Apartment 1303

Director and co-Writer Ataru Oikawa takes us through the paces of this The Grudge “wanna be.” Oikawa was already well known for his film versions of Tomie. *For those not in the know, Tomie was the ghost/spirit who could not die. Pretty creepy stuff alright.*

The backstory, aka;the reason for all these deaths, comes out in fits and starts. Served up piecemeal for us to understand where all this anger and tragedy comes from. It’s done betwixt and between the current events. We learn all of this as Mariko does. She reads one of the books written about the crime committed in the apartment year ago.

Apartment 1303 may not have the scare factor that The Grudge, or even Ringu has. It does, however, have one scene that has me leaping from my chair. Every time I watch it. About three quarters through the film, Mariko gets a phone call from her dead sister. We’ll leave it at that. I have to retire to bed soon. We don’t need nightmares, do we.

*Referring to scary movies, Ringu (1998) earns the honor of being the film that scared the pants off me. I caught it on an obscure BT (British Telecom) streaming service. After watching it, this (At that time.) 43 year old man turned every light on in the house.*

J-Horror

J-Horror was king, or queen if you like, of Asian horror from 2004 to 2006. By 2007 things were slowing down. Other Asian filmmakers, like South Korea were jumping into the lead. Meanwhile Thai films were dipping their big toe into the water. Taiwanese cinema had the Pang Bros and were also racing to be number one.

Apartment 1303 is a straggler. It works well and does what it says on the tin. Not, perhaps as spectacular as other earlier J-Horror films on offer. But. It’ll do.

High Body Count

The unhappy spirit in Apartment 1303 manages to dispatch six innocents. This is on top of the original murder/suicide for a total body count of 8. Pretty impressive, no?

Spoiler alert: Skip this next paragraph if you’ve not seen the movie. Kay?

There is no final girl. Nope. No one gets out of this one alive. The spirit wins hands down. It is the one annoying thing about the film.

It Works

There are a few moments of comedy. Albeit, very few. This helps tone down the tragedy occurring elsewhere. Mother Midorikawa is horrid to her oldest daughter and we feel for the kid. Sure she lost the “baby” but her grief makes her ugly and mean. Somewhat amazingly, this works in the film’s favour.

The interactions of Mariko and the cop work very well, these manage to give a feeling of normalcy. In a world where someone crawls on all fours and eats dog food. After this the same person then leaps off a high rise Balcony. This is pretty loony tunes. Oh, and the same person put on a motorbike helmet to, “Protect my face.”

Be advised. This runs for 94 minutes. The long run time is necessary for a lot of things, backstory being one.

The Verdict

Apartment 1303 is a solid 4 star horror film. Heck, it earns one full star for that mobile phone scare 3/4’s through the film. This one is full of jarring moments and a sinister foreboding tone throughout. Sadly, this one is not available to stream. Amazon does have it to rent though. As we leave the trailer below, we leave you with this one thought. 13 is an unlucky number for a reason. Enjoy!

The Trailer