Apartment 1303

Apartment 1303
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ataru Oikawa
Produced by	Chiaki Harada
Written by	Ataru Oikawa Kei Oishi Takamasa Sato
Starring	Noriko Nakagoshi Yuka Itaya Arata Furuta
Music by	John Lissauer Masako Miyoshi
Cinematography	Tokusho Kikumura
Edited by	Shuichi Kakesu
Production company	Amuse Career & Bridge T.O. Entertainment
Distributed by	MonteCristo International
Release dates	8 February 2007
Running time	94 minutes
Language	Japanese

Apartment 1303 is a Japanese horror film, directed by Ataru Oikawa, that revolves around a woman who investigates a series of suicides in her late sister's apartment.^[1] Based on Ju-on horror author Kei Oishi's original novel.

Plot

Living on her own for the first time, Sayaka has been celebrating with her friends at her new 13th-floor apartment. During the party, she catches something of interest in one of the rooms and is seen acting weird then runs to her balcony and jumps to her death. A little girl picks up a teddy bear found lying near Sayaka's body and, as she looks up at a block of apartments, she says: "There goes another one."

At Sayaka's funeral, her older sister Mariko has been trying to cheer up Sayaka's grieving friends when she soon notices the ghostly form of Sayaka, who whispers: "Mom pushed me." Their mother, deeply devastated by Sayaka’s death, seems to be falling into a world of insanity, which worries and concerns Mariko, who decides to protect her mother by taking on the responsibility of sorting out Sayaka’s estate.

As Mariko's about to enter Sayaka’s apartment, a little girl appears from the next door and asks her if she’s afraid of #1303. Mariko, puzzled, says she isn’t. The girl nods and casually informs her that "all women who lived there had died, you know."

While Mariko clears out the apartment, she repeatedly catches the sight of Sayaka and hears her ghostly voice on phone. Each time Mariko tries to talk to her, Sayaka either stares back or whispers a couple of words before vanishing. During the clear out, Mariko comes across an earring that looked as if it’d been ripped out of someone's earlobe. Mariko wonders if this might be a clue.

After turning over Sayaka’s apartment to the landlord, Mariko meets a police detective, Sakurai, who reveals that he’s been investigating a series of suicides at #1303 and he doesn’t believe it’s a coincidence. Mariko gives him the blood-streaked earring as she believes it belongs to a previous tenant.

Mariko soon comes across a book about the first two tenants who lived in #1303: Yukiyo Sugiuchi and her mother who, during the first few years, lived peacefully together at their apartment. This however changed when the mother becomes abusive towards Yukiyo for hiding food and having her ears pierced, which prompts her to rip the earring out of Yukiyo's earlobe. Yukiyo defensively reacts to her mother’s violent reaction with a butcher knife, then watches while her mother crawls into a closet where she eventually bleeds to death. Six months later, the landlord visits Yukiyo’s apartment and reveals his plans to have her and mother thrown out for failing to pay rent. Upset and afraid, Yukiyo sees the ghost of her mother, who’s revealed to have been tormenting Yukiyo since her death. "You’ll never survive without me," her ghostly mother taunts. Yukiyo picks up a teddy bear and after she touches it gently, she walks to her apartment balcony and jumps to her death. Mariko discovers that since Yukiyo’s death, the next four tenants – with Sayaka as the latest – had moved into #1303 and eventually jumped to their death. The police has ruled each case as a suicide.

Detective Sakurai returns the earring to Mariko and says that he thinks she didn’t commit suicide while she was inside #1303 because she still lives with her mother. As Mariko absorbs this, she learns her mother plans to visit #1303 to see Sayaka one more time and rushes to save her. Unknown to Mariko, the apartment has been rented out to several college students, who throw a party that night. During the party, Yukiyo appears and pushes some girls over the balcony while scaring the other party guests out.

As Mariko arrives at the block of apartments, she spots the authorities removing the bodies from the scene and rushes up to #1303. As she enters, she doesn’t see her mother who’s closing a door, disappearing when Mariko opens it. Yukiyo appears in front of Mariko who confronts her over her killing of previous tenants including her sister, but Yukiyo denies the charge, which disconcerts Mariko. However, as Yukiyo becomes hostile towards Mariko, she reveals that her mother is the one who told her to throw them over because they were evil. Mariko returns Yukiyo’s earring to her while promising to look after #1303 and Yukiyo herself. The spirit seems to accept this and vanishes, leaving Mariko to pass out from the encounter.

As Mariko awakens the following morning, Yukiyo appears and knocks her against the balcony railing. Yukiyo tells her that her mother has only one daughter. Mariko notices her ghostly sister Sayaka watching, just as she falls to her death. Standing next to her mother, the little girl says: "There goes another one." Then she and her mother vanish. At #1303, Yukiyo and Sayaka also vanish, leaving the apartment empty once more.

Cast

• Noriko Nakagoshi as Mariko
• Arata Furuta as Detective Sakurai
• Eriko Hatsune as Yukiyo Sugiuchi
• Yuka Itaya as Neighbor next door
• Naoko Otani as San Midorikawa
• Aki Fukada as Sayaka Midorikawa
• Toshinobu Matsuo as Kenichiro Itawa
• Shion Machida as Mrs. Sugiuchi, Yukiyo's mother

Production

Apartment 1303 was filmed in the Japanese Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture.^[2]

Release

The film premiered on 8 February 2007, as part of the European Film Market in Germany.^[3]

Remake

The film was remade as an American/Canadian, English language co-production in late 2011/2012. It was set to be written, directed and co-produced by Swedish filmmaker Daniel Fridell,^[4] however the film was directed and co-written by Michael Taverna, who co-produced with Cindy Nelson-Mullen. Ken Ôishi was also credited as a writer.^[5] Mischa Barton, Rebecca De Mornay and Julianne Michelle were cast in the production's lead roles.^[6] It was released in December 2012 and across early 2013 internationally, with a release in the United States expected on 25 July 2013.

See also

• List of ghost films

References

External links

• Apartment 1303 at the Internet Movie Database