[비즈한국] “This is why you have to live in a good place. All sorts of lowlifes keep crawling in.”
Though the expression is quite harsh and vulgar, I often hear sentiments like this. People are often quite blunt about it, too. Here, a "good place" is an intuitive location defined by numbers. Preferably in Seoul, and among expensive neighborhoods, preferably Gangnam; preferably a newly built apartment. Internet communities and social media are overflowing with "testimonies" about such "good places." You may have read reviews from new residents or local business owners claiming, "In a good neighborhood, even the kids are well-mannered, and everyone has a slim and healthy body."
No Woo-seong (Kang Ha-neul), the protagonist of the Netflix film '84 Square Meters', also dreamed of the future described in such "testimonies." In an absurd reality where prices would rise by 10 million won in just 10 minutes, Woo-seong bought a 34-pyeong (84-square-meter) apartment, known as the "national standard," for 1.1 billion won. It was an apartment he could only afford by scraping together every last cent, taking out various loans, cashing out his retirement savings early, and even selling his mother’s garlic field back home. He signed the contract in April 2021. As you know, 2021 was a period of a nationwide real estate "fever." It was also the year when people in their 30s (36.4%), shocked by the skyrocketing apartment prices, purchased a significant portion of apartments in Seoul—just like Woo-seong.
By August 2024, Woo-seong’s reality is nothing short of miserable. The price of the apartment he "scraped to buy" has dropped to the high 800-million-won range, and as if to mock him, interest rates on his loans keep rising. Since he broke up with the fiancé he had planned to marry, he has to shoulder those enormous interest payments on a single income. He doesn't just "theft-charge" his devices at work and swipe office supplies from the pantry; taking on a part-time job after work is a given. He lives with minimal movement even at home. He can't even turn on the air conditioner during the sweltering heat of midsummer. Amidst all this, inter-floor noise begins to plague him. Even worse, while he is suffering from the noise himself, a series of chilling post-it notes from the downstairs neighbor leads to a rumor spreading throughout the apartment complex that Woo-seong is the source of the noise.
After the tenant in unit 1301 attacks him with post-it notes complaining about the noise, Woo-seong starts searching for the real culprit, looking toward the unit above him, 1501, occupied by Jin-ho (Seo Hyun-woo), and keeps going higher. Why? Because inter-floor noise doesn't just travel from the unit above to the unit below. It can travel from below to above, and there is also wall-to-wall noise between units facing each other. Climbing higher and higher, Woo-seong eventually meets Eun-hwa (Yeom Hye-ran), the head of the residents' council who lives in the penthouse at the top. Eun-hwa hands him an envelope to keep his mouth shut. She tells him that they shouldn't let anything disrupt the apartment's value until the GTX line opens, suggesting that "those who hold the title deed" should show some mutual understanding.
However, the noise does not stop, and the entire complex becomes shrouded in a grim atmosphere. While Woo-seong tries to find the source of the noise with Jin-ho from the unit above, he is also filled with dreams of clearing his debts in "one shot" after receiving "insider information" from a colleague who struck it rich with cryptocurrency. Who is the real source of the noise? Can Woo-seong succeed in turning his life around with crypto? Will the apartment's value rise as the GTX opens without a hitch? '84 Square Meters' delivers intense suspense by dealing with the worries, conflicts, and burning desires of Koreans in this current era. Seeing the movie 'Noise', which has drawn 1.26 million viewers (as of July 16) by using inter-floor noise as its main subject, shows just how realistic the problems of apartments and noise are.
Of course, the identity of the noise maker revealed at the end of '84 Square Meters' and the motive are quite unrealistic and cinematic. While it is a reality that murders can occur over inter-floor noise, this movie goes a bit too far. Nevertheless, the reason you can’t take your eyes off this film until the end is that the desire to protect one’s apartment despite extreme situations is not just someone else's story—it is ours. It’s because most of us are not free from that discriminatory desire for wealth, which is blatantly exposed in Eun-hwa’s remark, "This is why you have to live in a good place." It is because we all share, to some extent, a feeling of being unable to criticize Woo-seong’s desperate choice to pay off his loans, even while we wince at it.
They say that for the past few years, the majority of entries for new writers' contests have been about real estate and crypto, including jeonse fraud. Isn't this proof that we have become a world that is desperate for money, even while being trampled by it? The 2025 Hankook Ilbo Literary Award winner, 'The Blessed Ones', is a provocative piece featuring a protagonist who pursues "sustainable poverty" just to live in rental housing for as long as possible; that character considers people who believe they can save money by working hard to be naive. And yet, one hesitates to criticize them as pathetic. While Woo-seong, who tries to make money with crypto using his apartment as a springboard, seems to be at the opposite end of that character, there is a common thread between them.
'84 Square Meters' is the second film by director Kim Tae-jun, who showed a knack for realistic horror with his debut, 'Unlocked'. The director said, "I feel the hardships and difficulties the younger generation faces as homes turn into investment vehicles. I think things need to change a bit, and I believe homes should remain comfortable shelters." However, in a world where capitalist class conflict is maximized, the day when a Seoul apartment is perceived as a comfortable shelter seems far off. Perhaps an unconscious awareness that we must put a brake on today's world, even by mobilizing such unrealistic horror, is the reason why works like 'Noise' and '84 Square Meters' are being produced. '84 Square Meters' will be released on July 18.
About the author, Jung Su-jin:
I have covered and written about film, travel, and pop culture across various magazines. I don’t want to fall behind on trends, but I’ve become an "old person" who watches the latest dramas and predicts the obvious clichés for the next scene. I am drifting through the vast world of OTT platforms, trying to regain my sense of touch, and my current wish is for an integrated OTT subscription plan.