The Tenants – Review | Fantasia (3/5)

THE TENANTS is a South Korean thriller screening at Fantasia 2024. It starts out being bleak but grows intensely dark. The ending is brutal in this character-driven story. Read our full The Tenants movie review here!

THE TENANTS is a new thriller set in a near future version of Seoul. In that sense, this is a sci-fi thriller and the kind you’d compare to Blade Runner or 1984. Okay, it’s not that much of a sci-fi, but the world presented offers a bleak perspective.

Also, this is a South Korean movie (org. title: Seibja) and fans of movies and TV series from South Korea will know that they tend to be both character-driven and brutal. The running time is just 90 minutes, which is much shorter than usual but works for this story.

Continue reading our The Tenants movie review below.

Welcome to the future… yikes!

As we meet our protagonist, the world seems very dreary as experienced in near-future Seoul. He is living in an apartment on his own and prefers it this way. However, he is about to be kicked out as the building is to be renovated.

Fortunately, sort of, there is a way out. He simply needs to bring in a tenant, which will make it impossible for anyone to kick him out. Also, it will help with the extremely high housing costs.

A couple of newlyweds move into his bathroom (oh yes) which means he can no longer use that space. He is now forced to use bathrooms at his place of work or in public places. Along with many others in the same predicament, it turns out.

While they seem normal (if not a tad weird), the couple will soon start acting in strange ways.

Black, White, and Bleak

This near-future version of Seoul is presented as grossly overpopulated and completely soulless. It’s like seeing an ant colony where everyone is working for some greater good they don’t even fully understand. However, they have to work if they want to live.

Yet safety measures are set up to help citizens struggling. It bears noting that these “safety nets” are so bleak and dreary that part of the “package” is getting medication to keep desperation and depression at bay.

The movie is entirely black and white, which fits the very bleak story. There is nothing colorful or hopeful in this world. Just getting by.

Of course, there is one thing that could help. If he can get a promotion at his job, it comes with a transfer to the new utopian city called Sphere 2. Our main protagonist, Shin-dong, works all hours of the day to fight for this promotion, but so do many colleagues.

All while the new tenants at home are also participating in making his life a weird living nightmare. Never doing things that are too crazy or dangerous. Just extremely weird.

The Tenants is screening at Fantasia 2024

The Tenants (org. title: Seibja) comes from writer-director Yoon Eun-kyoung. He won the Best Director Award and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 34th Singapore International Film Festival.

In this dreadfully bleak and eerie movie, Yoon Eun-kyoung has crafted a claustrophobic tale. One that focused on feelings of alienation and societal pressures. Not unlike what Bong Joon-ho managed with the multi-Oscar-winning Parasite.

It’s difficult to say too much about The Tenants without spoiling it. However, I can certainly say that this is not a feel-good story. Then again, it should definitely make you feel better that you’re not living in near-future Seoul.

The Tenants is part of our Fantasia 2024 coverage.

Details

Director: Yoon Eun-kyoung
Writer: Yoon Eun-kyoung
Stars: Kim Dae-gun, Heo Dong-won, Park So-hyun