3/5 stars
The layout of a seemingly innocuous Tokyo townhouse opens doorways to secret cults, ancient curses, and a host of other unsettling mysteries in Junichi Ishikawa’s The Floor Plan.
Already a box office hit in Japan, the film is positioned to repeat that success in Hong Kong, where film-goers share an enduring fascination with ghost stories and the supernatural.
The concept for The Floor Plan originated from a viral YouTube video created by the masked paranormal investigator Uketsu, which has garnered more than 20 million views since it was posted in late 2020.
In the video, Uketsu examines the floor plans for a normal town house, which reveal a network of hidden rooms and passageways that appear to serve a darker purpose.
Uketsu expanded this idea into an ongoing manga series, which Ishikawa now brings to the big screen.
Shotaro Mamiya plays Amemiya, a struggling YouTuber whose videos on the occult have failed to find an audience. This all changes when he receives an unusual blueprint from his manager (DJ Matsunaga).
Seeking the help of eccentric architect Kurihara (Jiro Sato), they theorise that the house’s baffling layout may have been designed specifically for committing murders and safely disposing of the bodies.
Amemiya shares his findings online – in a video reminiscent of Uketsu’s original short – and it goes viral, fuelled by recent news reports of a dismembered body found in the woods nearby.
They are approached by Yuzuki (Rina Kawaei), a young woman claiming to be the murder victim’s wife, and their investigation soon snowballs into a full-blown fight for survival.
Considering that his characters spend an inordinate amount of time sitting at home poring over architectural drawings, Ishikawa does a commendable job wringing palpable tension from such an understated premise.
When the film is called upon to offer explanations rather than curious riddles, it inevitably spirals out of control.
The third act dispenses with the slow-burn mystery in favour of a more sensational dénouement, involving creepy masks, brutal violence and a whole host of new characters, whose motivations simply do not hold up to the same degree of scrutiny applied to the floor plan itself.
While the final reel is inevitably a disappointment after the film’s patient and intelligent build-up, The Floor Plan is nevertheless a notable and appreciated throwback to Japan’s horror heyday, when imagery and atmosphere proved far more terrifying than buckets of blood and manipulative jump scares.