When Kim Sung-kyun’s character arrives at the apartment building that is his new home the first neighbor he encounters, played by Cha Seung-won, is hardly neighborly. Kim’s character, Park Dong-wan, has saved for 11 years to buy a home closer to his office. A more reasonable commute means he will at least have time for breakfast before he must leave home. His apartment in Chungwoon Villa is the family’s dream of home ownership come true.
Cha’s character Jung Man-su seems rude, but he’s just a single dad, jack-of-all-trades, trying to survive. Dong-wan’s family is happy with their new home, so they brush off Man-su’s presence and also the first troubling sign that something is wrong, a marble rolling down the floor, which might indicate the building is not level.
Lee Kwang-soo plays Kim Seung-hyun, Dong-wan’s colleague at the office. He delivers some darkly comic conversations about the price of real estate and how hopeless his life is because he can’t afford to buy a home. According to data reported in Korea’s Joongang Daily, compiled by KB Kookmin Bank, average Seoul apartment prices hit 1.1 billion won ($988,000) in April 2021. It’s a problem for those wanting to live in Seoul, as the average worker might fall into a sinkhole of debt to secure a decent place to live.
The film’s gallows humor is much appreciated after the building, a symbol of middle-class real estate success, sinks into the ground. Dong-wan, Seung-hyun, fellow office worker Eun-joo, played by Kim Hye-jun, and the insidious Man-su all become trapped in the disintegrating building as it sinks almost 2,000 feet into the ground.
That’s when the neighbors and their office colleagues must work together to get out. Their dramatic efforts to survive almost 2,000 feet below the ground makes for some heart-pumping disaster scenes. The trapped characters will benefit from survival techniques, learned on YouTube by Man-su’s son, played by Nam Da-reum, and a little inspiration from the Beatles. Dong-wan and Man-su will have to learn to get along if they want to live. They will have to become good neighbors and a good neighbor might be more valuable than affordable city real estate.
The film is directed by Kim Ji-hoon, who previously directed The Tower and Sector 7. Sinkhole will have its North American premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF). The film had its world premiere at the Locarno Film festival and set a box office record on its opening day in South Korea.
