- Director: Kim Soo-jin
- Writer: Lee Je-hui
- Stars: Lee Sun-bin, Han Soo-a, Kim Min-Seok
REVIEW
Misophonia, noun (Mi-sō-fō-‘fō-nē-uh) a condition in which one or more common sounds, such as the ticking of a clock, the chewing or breathing of another person, cause an atypical emotional response (ie) disgust, distress, panic or anger in the person hearing the sound.
Korean horror film Noise, playing at the Fantasia International Film Festival, takes the very real affliction of misophonia and dials it up to an 11. In a nondescript apartment building, tenant Ju-hee is manically trying to soundproof her apartment while screaming at her neighbor to stop making so much noise. In an effort to prove that she isn’t going crazy, Ju-hee (Han Soo-a) picks up her video camera to film what is taking place in her apartment. The viewer, however, hears only the chaos that Ju-hee is creating.
In another part of town, Joo-young, is living on the campus of her job, so she hasn’t seen her sister in a while. When she receives a phone call alerting her to the fact that no one has seen or heard from Ju-hee, she goes to their shared apartment to check on her. Hearing impaired, Joo-young (Lee sun-bin) has a hard time making sense of why her sister has tried to sound proof their apartment and she definitely doesn’t understand why one of the neighbors leaves threatening notes on her door about keeping the noise down.
Director Kim Soo-jin’s feature debut is a classic Korean paranormal story that has a bit of a who-done-it aspect while also addressing grief, family trauma, caste systems and what passes as politeness these days. While the jump scares don’t always land, the menace of the other tenants more than makes up for it and cinematographer JunHong-kyu does an excellent job of turning a plain, old apartment building into a foreboding landscape that has you constantly on edge about what is lurking in the background and dark corners of this filing cabinet for humans.
The men in the film are, mostly, misogynistic to the point of unnecessary violence and the word insane is tossed around quite a bit in a pejorative manner that becomes grating, but writers Lee Je-hui and Kim Yong-hwan build on a lot of small things that all come together nicely in the finale. Sun-bin is exceptionally likable as a Final Girl and her refusal to give up on her sister keeps the viewer invested in the mystery of what the hell is going on in apartments 604, 704 and 804.
Played at Fantasia International Film Festival.
Lisa Fremont
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