The Critiqal Review: Tales of Terror: Haunted Apartments Review (2004/5) (Spoiler Alert)

Reviewed by Nostalgic Reviewer

Horror movies in Asia is in a league of its own when compared to Hollywood Horror movies. Nonetheless, this doesn't guarantee that movies of this kind are scary all the time. Some can just be outright in scaring its audiences like The Ring or The Grudge and there are those who fail to deliver. So let's have a look at another horror movie from Japan and see if it can hold up with the rest.

The Review

The movie starts with a prologue the father is seen running towards the entrance of the apartment complex. The daughter is seen shouting for him to hurry up but before he can get to the entrance a pair of bloody hands just grabs him from behind, obstructing his view only to be followed by a rotting skull coming at him. As the title indicates, the setting for the story is at 35-year old apartment.

The movie cuts there and proceeds to the movie proper where the two main characters are a father-daughter pair, namely, Mr. Yamato and Aimi Yamato, are looking for a place to live. On a billboard they find what they are looking for and that's the aforementioned apartment. They go to the place and the old man Ebisu shows them around while explaining the history of the building. At first glance, it doesn't seem much at all. In fact, it seems outright abandoned and it's quiet just like the rest of the surrounding neighborhood. The father isn't satisfied since the place seem pretty much run-down. He says he can't afford to have thin walls because he's a freelance journalist. Nonetheless, the place is quiet and seems actually fit for the job. Despite of his disagreements which he failed to convey immediately, Aimi Yamato thinks it's okay. Ebisu hears it and rejoices like he won a lottery ticket. Not bad. When they left, an apparition of a girl, same as Aimi's age, shows up then disappears.

Apparently, a solid apparition.

They move in the week after and the other tenants were all happy to help them move their stuff in. Their first day wasn't really that happy, though. The two main characters discuss the family issues they had. Apparently the mother died from a car accident because it was the father's fault. Aimi encourages him otherwise but still the father blames himself and has a drinking problem.

Alcohol, matchsticks and depression. What can possible go wrong?

If that was the cause of the mother's death, you'd think the experience would let him change his ways by now. But it was never explained if the father was alcoholic before or after the mother's death.

Nonetheless, the daughter is sent out to presumably buy more booze.

On her way out of the door, the apparition is seen going inside her apartment. Aimi follows her and tries to open the door but it's locked. Seeing that there's no point of pursuing the apparition, she turns around and two kids are standing before her, heads bent forward. Brief shock moment, people. Then the two run away, living behind a doll. Aimi picks it up and sees one of the tenants in a hurry to leave the apartment.

She goes down to confront them. She is then told by the abandoning party that it isn't their fault. The mystery mounts from this point on. She is then told by the caretaker Ebisu to be back before 12 midnight.

She shares the news about the curfew to her father who is still drinking booze and playing solitaire. Maybe he really shouldn't have been a parent to begin with. He compounds his problems over time. On her way to school or from school, she locates the former tenants on a playground and questions them about why they left. The mother of the children explains their reasons with a flashback of one of the children almost being killed. It turns out the apartment is being haunted by a lonely ghost (apparition) and kills everyone who leaves unless there's a replacement. This explains the delight of the old tenants upon their arrival.

"So why are you still depressed after being freed?"

The curfew rule is also explained. Everyone who doesn't get home by 12 midnight is dubbed by the ghost, Ai, as someone who betrayed her so she goes after them. It's the same story when a tenant leaves with no replacement. A family tests this fact when they attempted to leave for Tokyo. A brief moment between the son and Aimi is also shown talking about this and talks of breaking the curse if they managed to survive. In fact, they got there but ended up being killed off in ways a demon wouldn't even dare. Their death is all over the news of course.

We are then treated to the first night where the ghost is assumed to be terrorizing Aimi. We don't see this ghost but we do remember Aimi trying her best to cover or hide.


These visits happen on more than one occasion.

In the morning, she wakes up, finding a powder substance on the floor and collects them.

Over the next scenes, Ebisu and his wife's struggles with the ghosts of dead Japanese soldiers are shown. This is then followed by another couple and brief chase with time to meet the curfew where the wife almost fails to make it.

On Aimi's way home from school, she talks to the neighbor who confirms that Ai did come home after school.

"So you told the cops but they won't listen to you?"

As a journalist Mr. Yamato's next logical move is to write an article about the mysterious deaths occurring to former tenants and for some reason with no explanation, the other tenants get wind of this and confront the journalist. Later in the evening, what follows is a brief attempt to rid Mr. Yamato for good.

This guy's aim is so off the mark.

The journalist runs back up to his apartment and are now a prisoner together with his daughter.


A Piece of String: A surprisingly effective means to keep a mob behind the door.

These guys in living flesh couldn't even think of cutting the piece of string with the sharp tools they were holding a while ago. A zombie mob could probably do better.

Nonetheless, they set things on fire and escape through the window and land on the ground more than 10 feet high without breaking a bone. Aimi now has a plan to solve the mystery and tells her father to go hide somewhere. She goes back to the apartment, retrieves the keys left on the door and enters the room the ghost is occupying. She confronts some ghosts and eventually solves the mystery by smashing a hollowed wall. The corpse of the Ai is revealed. The rests of the tenants heard the noise and they see the corpse upon arrival.

"Yay! A corpse!"

The movie cuts to the scene where Aimi calls for her father to get back because it's safe now. Despite the 10+ foot jump, the father can run like the wind and gets to safety before 12:00 midnight. Remember the chase scene at the very beginning of the film? It was different from this, making the former scene like a cheap deception.

Aimi tells him that it is his fault the tenants went mad like that and tells him to never do anything people don't want him to really do (implying rape). The father apologizes. So we're cool now, right?


"I'm such a troll, the real line is here."

One second before midnight...


"Just kidding, the line's back there."

The father is pushed back from the safety zone and is of course killed by the ghost of Ai in a scene with CGI effects that resemble more of The Mummy films. Ai and Aimi stand face to face with a dead corpse between them.

"Parricide complete. Now about that tea party..."

A brief flashback is shown, revealing that Ai was actually a rape victim just like Aimi (implying Aimi's line: "Don't do what people don't really want you to do.") Remember those ghost visits? It was actually her father visiting doing what fathers shouldn't be doing to their teenage daughters. There is also the high probability of the two making arrangements to commit murder. In the end, the tenants were able to leave without a scratch but Aimi chose to stay with the corpse... forever.

How to throw your life away...forever.

Conclusion

This movie actually has a good start but the problem already arises from the relationship of the main character Aimi and the ghost Ai, especially at the scene where the rape was done and the ghost was right there standing before Aimi and the sleeping Mr. Yamato. If the ghost is really going to break the law, she should have killed this guy before Aimi is raped instead of going after escapees who just want to live comfortable and happy lives. Technically, if she did kill Mr. Yamato, it is considered self defense so it's justifiable. But of course the movie isn't horror anymore if that's what happened, right?

There is also the white powder substance that she keeps discovering at dawn. Clearly, the ghost is calling her out to solve the mystery. If this is the case then the ghost has empathy towards Aimi because they are both rape victims.

The ghosts' reasoning is also skewed in some way. She just attacks tenants when they leave when no one will take their place. It is said in the movie that she loves the apartment complex so much that she also invites other ghosts in for company at the expense of the tenants.

The scene of the journalist being attacked by the tenants also does not make sense. Had the journalist been allowed to report the mysterious deaths, then all of them will benefit including Ai. Her remains will be found with a thorough investigation and justice will be served. It will be the same case for Aimi, she can start exposing her case. But it seems like the tenants have a clouded judgment and all she wants is revenge. She's a tyrannical ghost.

And what about the witness living across the street? Nothing. She just tends to her cats that looked stoned and the authorities don't give a cent about what she has to say.

In all honesty, Ai doesn't really have an objective motive for what she's doing. The idea of betrayal for the justification of murder is also weak point. Add to this her assault on another girl with the name Ai. She hates her own name but it was also never explained why. She should be hating the place to begin with, this is where she was raped, killed, and buried without anyone knowing about. As a horror movie, it also fails on the horror elements. The supposed scary scenes aren't scary at all. However, if this was made into a movie about the pursuit of justice without the horror elements then it could have worked out, with the reworking of some plot holes, of course.

The ending is also a stretch. Aimi wanted to leave so bad as soon as she hears of the curse but now wants to stay there for the rest of her life. Where are her relatives?

~End of Review~