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| ▲ This photo of filmmaker Kim Tae-joon, the director of film "Wall to Wall," is provided by Netflix. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
SEOUL, July 21 (Yonhap) -- Filmmaker Kim Tae-joon recalled the moment that sparked the idea for his new thriller "Wall to Wall," which revolves around the all-too-familiar urban frustration of noise between apartment floors.
“I used to get a lot of stress because the upstairs unit made noise every night,” he said during an interview at a cafe in Samcheong-dong, central Seoul, on Monday. “I once asked them politely to keep it down, but after that, the noise felt even more deliberate.”
His new film, "Wall to Wall", follows Woo-sung (played by Kang Ha-neul), a young man who scrapes together every last bit of financial leverage — even selling his mother’s rural land — to buy an 84-square-meter apartment in Seoul, only to find himself driven to the brink by relentless noise from above. The thriller is a grounded depiction of everyday tension in urban apartment life.
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| ▲ This still of film "Wall to Wall" is provided by Netflix. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
Kim shared a strange twist in the film’s development process. “I poured all the anger and frustration of retaliatory noise into the screenplay, and the very day I completed the first draft, the upstairs neighbors moved out,” he said. “But then, the noise continued the following month in the early mornings — that’s when I realized the noise wasn’t coming from them at all.”
That realization altered his perception and inspired a key part of the story — Woo-sung’s descent into confusion as he desperately tries to locate the true source of the noise, knocking on one neighbor’s door after another.
The film also critiques South Korea’s real estate obsession. Woo-sung’s desperation to buy an apartment in Seoul by maxing out loans and selling family property echoes the director’s own reflections. “I’ve always wanted to live in Seoul, in an apartment,” Kim said. “It was such an obvious goal growing up — but at some point, I started asking myself why it ever seemed so obvious.”
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| ▲ This still of film "Wall to Wall" is provided by Netflix. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
The idea of pouring one’s life into buying an overpriced apartment plagued by shoddy construction and noise issues felt jarring to Kim — and he layered that discomfort into the film. Beyond noise issues, "Wall to Wall" weaves in societal themes such as real estate corruption and cryptocurrency mania.
“I didn’t want the noise issue to be reduced to mere entertainment,” Kim emphasized. “It felt important to show the deeper implications.”
He also addressed the success of Noise, a horror film starring Lee Sun-bin that deals with the same topic. “Seeing audiences relate to the issue of floor noise confirmed that this is a timely theme,” he said. “Watching Noise do well actually encouraged me a lot.”
Looking ahead, Kim’s next film will likely be another thriller, following his 2023 work Unlocked, which dealt with smartphone hacking. But he’s considering a fresh spin.
“I’d like to keep doing thrillers, but maybe ones that blend with other genres like sports or romance,” he said. “I think it could be even more fun that way.”
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