Apartment 1303 (2007) Reviews

• A Cut Price Version Of "The Grudge"

  Mr_Saxon2007-09-26

  When her sister apparently kills herself, Mariko refuses to believe that it was suicide and decides to investigate further. Her search for answers begins and ends at her sister's new apartment - number 1303 situated on the 13th floor of the building. It is here that Mariko discovers a dark history in which every female who moves into the apartment ends up throwing themselves from the balcony... The problem with "Apartment 1303" is that it's all so painfully derivative. The writer has obviously seen Shimizu's "The Grudge" movies and has attempted to pen his own version, but the resulting movie is nowhere near as good. Some of the scenes in "Apartment 1303" even fully replicate (or perhaps I should say 'steal from') "The Grudge" but are less effective in every way (for example, the scene in "The Grudge 2" where victims are attacked by the ghost's hair also appears here in much the same way). I'm actually amazed that the makers of "Apartment 1303" weren't sued when this film came out! Quite early in the movie, a character is telling a ghost story about a demonic woman with no eyes. As she tells it, you see flashes of the monster and I found myself hoping that this would be the evil spirit plaguing the apartment. Alas, once the telling of the story concluded we did not see this monster anymore. The reason I'm mentioning this is because the monster we saw for two or so minutes in this scene was far more interesting than the real ghosts of the movie (and, it seems that the people who packaged the DVD realised it too, because the monster appears on the back cover)! The tension of this movie is further decreased by the fact that every death follows the same pattern. The victim sees something horrible off-screen and then the next scene shows them falling off the balcony. At least with "The Grudge" you never quite knew how the next victim would perish. All in all, this is a mediocre movie. If you've never seen an Asian horror movie then you might find it interesting but most people will watch it whilst thinking "Haven't I already seen this before somewhere?"

• Another Good Japanese Ghost Story

  claudio_carvalho2009-03-10

  While celebrating with her friends her new apartment with balcony and view of the sea on the thirteenth floor of a building and rented in a very low price, the young Sayaka unexpectedly jumps off the balcony committing suicide. Her mother gets insane and her older sister, Mariko, decides to investigate the mysterious death of her sister and finds that there are many histories of suicide of young women in the apartment 1303. Further, she reads a book telling the tragic story of the Yukiyo and her mother, the first tenants of the apartment, and discovers that the evil spirit of Yukiyo is forcing the women to kill themselves. "Apartment 1303" is another good, but never outstanding, Japanese ghost story. The story is not totally original, but there is a poor and confused development of some characters and situations. For example, what happened to Mariko's mother? Who are the little girl and her mother? Are they Yukiyo and her mother when she was a young girl? Why Yukiyo's mother changed her relationship with her daughter from a cheerful mother when she was young to an alcoholic bitch when she was a teenager? Anyway, the movie is not bad and is entertaining for the fans like me of this genre. My vote is six. Title (Brazil): "Apartmento 1303" ("Apartment 1303")

• Lukewarm thrills

  paul_haakonsen2010-02-07

  This movie is not really all that scary. Sure it had a couple of moments where have you at the edge of the seat, but if just fails to bring you all the way over the edge. Being a traditional Asian horror movie in every way, this movie offers very little that haven't been seen in other movies in the same genre. Sure it provides adequate entertainment the first time you watch it, but this movie is not the kind you pick up to watch again a second time. The problem might be that there are numerous horror movies being pumped out of Asia, so they all struggle to stand out in the genre. Apartment 1303 certainly failed to stand out. The acting and cast in the movie is alright, though some of the dialogue is a bit weak. The setting? Well not overly scary, could have used some extra touches, but not a bottomscraper in any way though. If you want to be scared and have good thrills, you might want to pick up another title, as this one is just a lukewarm experience. You might want to go for titles like "Ringu", "Phone", "The Eye" and such titles. If you are a native Asian, you might just find the movie scary, but for westerners there is very little to scare us in this movie. I would recommend this movie for an early evening appetizer leading up for a better and scarier horror movie following after. Let this be a lead up to something more scare in its wake, no need to bring out the pillows while watching this one though.

• Nothing new.

  dark762007-08-26

  This is another ghost story from Japan. Mariko investigates about the suicide of her sister who lived in this Apartment 1303... and do you want to know all the rest? Everything in this movie is obvious and after 5 minutes from the begin, we easily know what it will happen in the rest of the movie. It doesn't scare too much, maybe because i begin to be tired of these ghost Japanese children... Innovation is finished some years ago and there is nothing much to save about this plot: maybe just the last minutes of the movie give some "scare" . At least, the actors are decent. My vote is 4 and as you can guess, I don't recommend it.

• Same old song and dance

  massaster7602007-12-04

  Sayaka is the new tenant of the fated Apartment 1303. After moving into her new apartment-which she got at a discounted price (sound familiar?), Sayaka kicks things off with a party. After visiting the "Tatami room," she entertains her guests by eating dog food off the floor and donning a motorcycle helmet(?), she then leaps off the thirteen floor, plunging to her death. Sayaka's sister Mariko (Noriko Nakagoshi), is puzzled by her sisters sudden suicide. After some extremely long grieving scenes, Mariko decides to do some detective work. She quickly finds out that Sayaka was the fifth woman to die in the apartment, all of who died under similar circumstances. Her journey leads her to the apartment as well as a detective (Arata Furuta) who-for once-believes Mariko's story. Independently, the two set out to unravel the mystery of Apartment 1303 while trying not to become it's next victims. After watching the first few opening scenes in this movie, I thought this might be good. It seemed as if the director was doing kind of a parody of J-Horror. The death of Sayaka seemed to be ringed with campy overtones. From the goofy faces the characters made to the way things were overacted just a bit, to the weird death scene. Alas, it was not to be, besides the opening and a few scenes toward the end (which kind of reminded of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2... in style only) 1303 then degenerates into the typical J-horror flick, riddled with genre cliché's. Yes, this film has them all; scary dreams, phone calls from dead girls, a grudge type curse, a long haired vengeful ghost, and of course, the obligatory creepy little girl. Everything in this film is a mix of previous Asian horror films as Director Ataru Oikawa brings nothing new to the genre. I wish he would have followed the goofy beginning to it's logical next step (A spoof movie of Asian horror would be great if done right) but Oikawa instead elects to follow paths already forged out in J-Horror. Bottom Line- For genre fans only. Same old song and dance.