Sayaka is the new tenant of the fated Apartment 1303. After moving into her new apartment-which she got at a discounted price (sound familiar?), Sayaka kicks things off with a party. After visiting the "Tatami room," she entertains her guests by eating dog food off the floor and donning a motorcycle helmet(?), she then leaps off the thirteen floor, plunging to her death.
Sayaka's sister Mariko (Noriko Nakagoshi), is puzzled by her sisters sudden suicide. After some extremely long grieving scenes, Mariko decides to do some detective work. She quickly finds out that Sayaka was the fifth woman to die in the apartment, all of who died under similar circumstances. Her journey leads her to the apartment as well as a detective (Arata Furuta) who-for once-believes Mariko's story. Independently, the two set out to unravel the mystery of Apartment 1303 while trying not to become it's next victims.
After watching the first few opening scenes in this movie, I thought this might be good. It seemed as if the director was doing kind of a parody of J-Horror. The death of Sayaka seemed to be ringed with campy overtones. From the goofy faces the characters made to the way things were overacted just a bit, to the weird death scene. Alas, it was not to be, besides the opening and a few scenes toward the end (which kind of reminded of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2... in style only) 1303 then degenerates into the typical J-horror flick, riddled with genre cliché's.
Yes, this film has them all; scary dreams, phone calls from dead girls, a grudge type curse, a long haired vengeful ghost, and of course, the obligatory creepy little girl. Everything in this film is a mix of previous Asian horror films as Director Ataru Oikawa brings nothing new to the genre. I wish he would have followed the goofy beginning to it's logical next step (A spoof movie of Asian horror would be great if done right) but Oikawa instead elects to follow paths already forged out in J-Horror.
Bottom Line- For genre fans only. Same old song and dance.
Sayaka's sister Mariko (Noriko Nakagoshi), is puzzled by her sisters sudden suicide. After some extremely long grieving scenes, Mariko decides to do some detective work. She quickly finds out that Sayaka was the fifth woman to die in the apartment, all of who died under similar circumstances. Her journey leads her to the apartment as well as a detective (Arata Furuta) who-for once-believes Mariko's story. Independently, the two set out to unravel the mystery of Apartment 1303 while trying not to become it's next victims.
After watching the first few opening scenes in this movie, I thought this might be good. It seemed as if the director was doing kind of a parody of J-Horror. The death of Sayaka seemed to be ringed with campy overtones. From the goofy faces the characters made to the way things were overacted just a bit, to the weird death scene. Alas, it was not to be, besides the opening and a few scenes toward the end (which kind of reminded of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2... in style only) 1303 then degenerates into the typical J-horror flick, riddled with genre cliché's.
Yes, this film has them all; scary dreams, phone calls from dead girls, a grudge type curse, a long haired vengeful ghost, and of course, the obligatory creepy little girl. Everything in this film is a mix of previous Asian horror films as Director Ataru Oikawa brings nothing new to the genre. I wish he would have followed the goofy beginning to it's logical next step (A spoof movie of Asian horror would be great if done right) but Oikawa instead elects to follow paths already forged out in J-Horror.
Bottom Line- For genre fans only. Same old song and dance.