3/5 stars
In Junichi Ishikawa's Floor Plan, a seemingly innocuous Tokyo townhouse floor plan opens the door to secret societies, ancient curses, and a host of other disturbing mysteries.
The film has already been a box office hit in Japan and is likely to repeat its success in Hong Kong, where moviegoers have a strong fascination with ghost stories and the supernatural.
The concept for “The Floorplan” originated from a YouTube video created by masked paranormal investigator Uketu, which has garnered more than 20 million views since it was posted in late 2020.
In the video, Uketu is seen examining the floor plan of an ordinary townhouse, revealing a network of hidden rooms and passageways that could hint at something conspiratorial.
Uetsu developed the idea into a manga series, which Ishikawa adapted into a film.
Amemiya, played by Shotaro Mamiya, is an unsuccessful YouTuber who posts videos about the occult but fails to attract viewers. His situation changes when he receives a strange blueprint from his manager (DJ Matsunaga).
Enlisting the help of eccentric architect Kurihara (Sato Jiro), they deduce that the house's puzzling layout may have been specifically designed for committing a murder and then safely disposing of the body.
Amemiya shared his find online in a video reminiscent of Ukezu's original short, and the video went viral, fuelled by recent news reports of a dismembered body found in a nearby forest.
Kawaei Rina plays the role of Yuzuki in a still from “Floor Plan.”
They are approached by a young woman, Yuzuki (Kawaei Rina), who claims to be the murder victim's wife, and their investigation soon develops into a full-scale battle for survival.
Considering the characters spend a huge amount of time sitting at home poring over architectural drawings, Ishikawa does an impressive job of wringing a palpable sense of tension from such a modest premise.
The Floorplan evokes the atmosphere of quietly suffocating dread that made Japanese horror classics such as Shimizu Takashi's Ju-on and Nakata Hideo's Ring such global successes.
(From left) Mamiya Shotaro, who plays the YouTuber Amemiya, Sato Jiro, who plays the architect Kurihara, and Kawaei Rina in a still from “Floor Plan.”
When a film is asked to provide explanations rather than intriguing mysteries, it inevitably spins out of control.
The third act abandons the slow-burning mystery for a more sensationalist conclusion, introducing creepy masks, brutal violence, and a host of new characters whose motivations don't hold up to the same level of scrutiny applied to the floorplan itself.
Though the final scenes are inevitably a disappointment after the film's dogged, intelligent development, The Floorplan is a notable and worthwhile return to the heyday of Japanese horror cinema, a time when imagery and atmosphere were far more frightening than copious amounts of blood or clever jump scares.
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