A racy comedy has arrived that somehow remains safe to watch with parents despite its R rating, striking a balance between spicy dialogue and suggestive gestures that allows audiences to laugh without discomfort.
This reflects Ha Jung Woo’s confident direction and the easy familiarity of a star packed cast that includes Gong Hyo Jin, Kim Dong Wook, and Lee Ha Nee.
Adding to the intrigue is the reunion of Ha and Gong, whose lived in chemistry in the 2012 film Love Fiction made headlines for how naturally they embraced each other’s quirks. That history adds an extra layer of fascination to their new dynamic as upstairs and downstairs neighbors.
Ha’s fourth directorial feature, The Upstairs People, which premiered on December 3, opens with a digital clock displaying PM 10:50 before cutting to Jung Ah, played by Gong Hyo Jin, lying alone on her bed and staring blankly at the ceiling.
Her dry observation that the neighbors started ten minutes early today reveals the ongoing disturbances from above, while her husband Hyun Soo, portrayed by Kim Dong Wook, attempts to sleep on a cot in the next room. Their curt KakaoTalk exchanges underscore a strained marriage, with Jung Ah’s jealousy and Hyun Soo’s frustration highlighting the emotional fissures between them.
The film springs to life when the bored downstairs couple invites their chaotic upstairs neighbors to dinner, igniting a night filled with razor sharp banter.
Jung Ah remarks that she once sent up twelve cans of low sodium spam as an apology for renovation noise, while Hyun Soo grumbles that proper etiquette would be receiving twelve servings of premium Hanwoo beef in return for enduring nightly uproar.
The rhythm and bite of this wordplay exemplify Ha Jung Woo’s signature comedic sensibility.
The upstairs couple, Mr Kim played by Ha Jung Woo and Soo Kyung portrayed by Lee Ha Nee, is revealed to be a remarried pair with their own offbeat charm.
Soo Kyung, a psychiatrist who also runs a YouTube channel, casually notes that it is easier to say she got divorced than to explain that she initiated the divorce, establishing her candid and unfiltered personality.
As the four adults settle in, wine becomes a central prop, and a bottle labeled Four Some hints mischievously at the upstairs couple’s motives as the evening escalates into boundary crossing antics that culminate in an outrageous acrobatic yoga display.
Ha Jung Woo’s artistic and directorial identity threads unmistakably through the film. The paintings displayed on Jung Ah’s walls are Ha’s own works, and Hyun Soo, depicted as a novice director, battles nightly with a stalled screenplay while enduring subtle belittlement from Mr Kim that hints at an undercurrent of condescension.
Ha noted that he shaped Hyun Soo using amusing traits drawn from himself and fellow filmmakers. The role reversal between Ha and Gong Hyo Jin from their Love Fiction era adds another layer of interest.
Once playing a clumsy aspiring novelist and a free spirited film agent, the two now embody the sly, calculating Mr Kim and the weary, easily influenced Jung Ah. Gong recalled that during their earlier collaboration, Jung Woo had been romantically inexperienced while she was more seasoned.
The Upstairs People embraces broader, more mainstream humor than Ha’s previous film Lobby. Ha reflected that audiences struggled to connect with his more eccentric comedic style, prompting him to pursue a more universal tone this time.
The film’s momentum, however, softens as it shifts from the chaotic, innuendo driven first half into a more introspective look at the emotional drift between the downstairs couple. Viewers who resonate deeply with Jung Ah and Hyun Soo may find this change especially compelling.
