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Sejin (Ko So-young, Double Agent) moves into a high-rise apartment. She befriends a lonely and morose disabled girl Yu-yeon (newcomer Jang Hee-jin), who seems to be cared for by the neighborhood volunteers. One day, she notices something funny: the apartment units facing her balcony simultaneously turn off their lights, exactly on 9:56 pm. Soon the ketchup bottles begin to fly, as Sejin discovers that each spontaneous blackout results in a suspicious death. A hard-boiled cop (Kang Seong-jin, Attack the Gas Station), who naturally does not believe in anything supernatural, investigates. A pouty teenager sullenly spits out plot exposition. A Sadako clone with back problems makes several appearances. And so on.

Thanks to film critic Djuna, I was able to check out comic artist Gangfull's (this is apparently how his nom de plume is spelled in English, although in Korean it reads "Kang Pool") original. The comic is a loosely structured thriller in which the ghost plays only a supporting role. A good deal of its strange charm comes from its surprisingly realistic and oddly endearing characters and the resolutely democratic multiple perspectives from which the narrative is told: the ghost, the detective, the haunted hero, the agoraphobic lady and every other character all get to tell their sides of the story (There are no villains in the piece, which should give you a clue as to its real nature). This is actually a not-bad material for an unconventional horror film, heavy on atmospherics and interesting characters and light on bump-in-the-night terror: it would have been intriguing to see what non-genre directors like Jeong Jae-eun or Im Sun-rye could have done with it. Alas, adapting it to screen is Ahn Byung-ki (Nightmare, Phone, Bunshinsaba), which is sort of like asking Iron Maiden to record cover versions of Pat Metheny.

APT is not as stark-raving loony as Ahn's previous Bunshinsaba, but that is not necessarily a good thing for someone like me, who happens to appreciate whacky numbers like Emillio Miraglia's Red Queen Kills Seven Times. Ahn keeps banging on the saucepan and kettle to at least keep the audience awake, and a few scenes borrowed from Gangfull's original (such as a character's white dress being dyed into scarlet by her blood) do generate some poetic beauty and frisson. Mostly, though, he bulldozes over subtle characterizations in the comic and reintroduces dull cliches done to death in other horror films. Kang Seong-jin's cop and Ko So-young's Sejin fall victim to Ahn's sledgehammer-and-nail-gun approach to characterization and storytelling. The cop might as well be a wind-up toy clack-clacking "tough-guy" dialogue at regular intervals. And Ahn really does disservice to Ko So-young by turning her into a Ha Ji-won clone, right down to her hairstyle and tomboy outfit. While Song Yuna was weepy and annoying in Arang, Ko in APT is rigid and inexpressive. The only person who registers in the acting department is the fresh-faced Jang Hee-jin, partly because she is allowed to outscream everybody. Fueki Yuko also cameos in a totally pointless role that will leave many viewers scratching their heads.

Finally, there is the plagiarism issue. I can accept Ahn Byung-ki ripping off scenes wholesale from the acknowledged masterpieces (such as the tracking shot of Ko So-young's jogging routine "referencing" Jodie Foster in Silence of the Lambs). But why did he have to faithfully re-create the Ju-on-Sadako ghost, complete with that teeth-rattling "k-k-k-k" noise, in his film? What did he do, pay for the copyright use of the k-k-k-k Juon-Sadako ghost in Korea? Folks, the Sadako ghosts are not scary anymore: they are annoying. It is truly a sign of creative bankruptcy when Korean filmmakers have to import ghosts from not only Ring but Ju-on. Come on, you have five thousand years of culture and history behind you. Can't you come up with one type of ghost that's original? Or at least one that does not look like Sadako badly in need of a chiropractic treatment.      (Kyu Hyun  Kim)

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