Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you a thriller,
drama film from 2018, titled Door Lock. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care.
It's late at night in Seoul when Kang Seung-hye makes her way back to her apartment. When she
gets home, she finds the lights not working and hears a weird sound coming from the closet.
She goes to check and finds nothing inside, but before she can turn around,
she's attacked by a mysterious figure. Many days later, morning arrives at another apartment in
the same building, and Cho Kyung-min sleeps without knowing there's a man cuddling her.
This man wakes up when the alarm in his old watch rings, and he leaves after having breakfast with
her food. Kyung-min wakes up a few minutes later and takes a painkiller for her headache,
which lately she's been having every morning. She's surprised at how little milk she has left,
and before leaving for work, she makes sure to put things in their right place. On her way out,
she notices there's some dirt on her door lock keypad and cleans it before putting in the code.
At work, Kyung-min gets a little frustrated when another one of the clerks keeps taking
away her potential clients, which also angers Kyung-min's coworker and best friend Oh Hyo-Joo.
Later, while on the train, they chat about work, unaware that Kim Gi-Jeong is watching them.
Once Kyung-min arrives at her building, the night-shift guard Han Dong-hoon gives her a
box that the day-shift guard left for her. She takes the box with her and goes to her apartment,
finding a note from her mom on the door saying she couldn't open it and that she left the
package at the reception. The lock lid however, is open. Kyung-min calls her mother to explain
that she changes the password often and that she should call her about visiting in advance,
she also asks her if she left the lid open, which the mother denies. After getting in bed,
Kyung-min hears a noise outside: someone is trying to put a code on her lock and failing.
That someone also tries to open the door quite violently, but they leave without succeeding.
Kyung-min waits some seconds before looking through the peephole and opening the door,
but there's nobody in the hallway except for a cigarette butt on the floor.
She calls the police and asks them to take fingerprints off the cigarette,
but they remind her that no matter how many times she reports these incidents, there's nothing they
can do if there's no actual crime done. Kyung-min has no other choice but to go back to sleep,
unaware that once again, there's a man in the apartment using her bathroom and falling asleep
next to her. The following morning, she wakes up with another headache. When leaving from work,
she checks with the day-shift guard if it's possible to check the security cameras,
and when he says it is, she agrees to do it when she comes back. Before going to work however,
she stops by to meet with a realtor and see an apartment in another building, which is smaller
than hers yet more expensive. During her lunch break, Hyo-Joo teases her and tells her she should
get a boyfriend for extra safety, like perhaps Kim Seong-ho, a coworker that is always nice to her.
Back at work, Kyung-min stands up for herself and doesn't let the other clerk take the next client,
who turns out to be Gi-Jeong. In an effort to make a big sale, Kyung-min chitchats with him and
discovers they're neighbors, Gi-Jeong even says he's seen her around. Once his transaction is over
and she's given him her business card, he asks her out for coffee, and when she turns him down, he
starts making a scene, saying she flirted with him first and she shouldn't fake it just for sales.
Seong-ho comes in and defends her, calling security when the man won't listen to reason.
In the evening, when she returns to her building, she sees Dong-hoon is being scolded by his boss
because there always are incidents at night and they shouldn't need the police when he's around,
something that never happens when the day-shift guard is on. Kyung-min takes the elevator and a
man gets inside with her to go to the same floor, so when they get there, she waits for him to be at
his door before coming out as well. Later, after she goes to bed, the mysterious man that uses her
apartment comes out from under the bed and sedates her before using her toothbrush and shower.
He makes sure to clean every hair from the drain before joining Kyung-min and falling asleep next
to her. The next day at work, her boss calls her to his office to explain her contract is over,
but her performance has been good so the company wants to hire her as a permanent employee.
She doesn't look too happy about this since she isn't in a good mental place right now, and later,
while doing some extra hours, she gets a call on her phone from an unknown number. She doesn't pick
it up, and she ignores it again when the stranger calls while she's at the bus stop, where she's
suddenly approached by Gi-Jeong. Kyung-min tries to get away, but Gi-Jeong grabs her and tells her
to take a taxi with him, reminding her she owes him for what happened at the bank. At that moment,
Seong-ho arrives in his car and sends Gi-Jeong away before offering Kyung-min a ride,
telling her it's ok to call him for help whenever she needs it. When she arrives at her apartment,
she finds that the lights are not working and there's someone at her door.
It's Seong-ho, who's brought the wallet she left in his car. As she opens the door to take it,
he notices the lights are off and offers to fix it for her. Once the lights are working again,
Kyung-min invites him to stay for coffee, and while he goes to the bathroom, she notices many
things around the apartment have been moved. After wondering how he knew the number of her apartment,
Kyung-min goes downstairs with the excuse that she'll buy coffee, but she's actually
calling the police and asking them to check her apartment. Detective Lee arrives with an officer
and when they open the door, they find Seong-ho dead and with his tie hanging on the doorknob.
Kyung-min is taken to the police station to be interrogated because they think it's too much
coincidence that a third person killed Seong-ho while she called the police, so they believe the
murderer to be her partner in crime. There's not enough evidence to back this up though,
in fact, all the previous reports she's made of someone trying to break into her apartment
prove that she's a victim, so they let her go. When she returns to her job a few days later,
her boss tells her the offer to make her a permanent employee is off the table now,
and since her contract is over, she must return home unemployed. Back in her building, she asks
the guard to see the security tapes, only to find out the cameras in the hallways are fake and
there's only a recording of her in the elevator. He also mentions that the person that tried to
open her door the other day was probably a drunk neighbor that got the doors confused. Still,
Kyung-min worries, so she asks him to check her apartment before she enters it. Thankfully it's
empty, but things have been moved around again, and there are coffee beans spilled on the floor.
After calling her realtor to confirm she wants to move to a new place as soon as possible,
she begins cleaning the beans and finds under the cupboard a key from another apartment. Remembering
what the guard said about the neighbors, Kyung-min begins going from door to door
trying to find which apartment the key belongs to. She ends up at Seung-Hye's place, but it's empty,
and it looks like nobody has been there in a long while. At least she gets her name from the mail,
so she asks Hyo-Joo to use the computer at work to get Seung-Hye's card statement.
It shows that every day at eight p.m. she buys something that costs 3.20 at a local convenience
store, except for Saturdays, when she goes at one p.m. The statement also has her phone number,
so they try to call her and text her, but she doesn't reply. Since today is Saturday, they
decide to go to the convenience store to see if they can meet her there. They find there's packed
porridge that costs 3.20, but that doesn't mean anything, because she could be buying two cheaper
things that add to that. They decide to take a break and have lunch right there in the store,
and while eating, Hyo-Joo gets a reply to her texts as they see a woman buying the porridge.
They follow her into a shady neighborhood and come across a split road, so Hyo-Joo
and Kyung-min split to cover more ground. After some running, Hyo-Joo catches up with the woman
and is disappointed to see she's not Seung-Hye. Meanwhile, Kyung-min finds a cat eating from
the porridge cup and when she looks behind the door of the building the animal runs into, she
finds there is a bunch of those cups, all empty - looks like someone has been feeding the cat.
She crosses the garden and approaches the house, discovering it has the same lock as the apartments
in her building. After trying a few wrong codes, she remembers the night someone tried to enter
her place and the dirt on the keypad, so she tries the code following the dirt pattern, and it works.
The house seems to be empty at first, but when she reaches the bedroom, she finds the real Seung-Hye
tied to the bed, sleeping with an IV connected to her arm. Kyung-min calls 911 but she barely
gets to tell them anything before the criminal returns, so she hangs up and hides under the bed.
The mysterious man has Seung-Hye's phone and is the one that has been answering Hyo-Joo's texts,
and now he's killing Seung-Hye by injecting something in her IV as he explains that he's
found someone else, a beautiful woman that lives on the floor under hers, meaning Kyung-min. When
he leaves to grab something from the other room, she comes out from under the bed and hides behind
the door just in time to see the man return with a saw and take the blanket off Seung-Hye's body,
revealing she's already missing her legs and her body will soon go through the same. Suddenly, the
police sirens can be heard outside, so when the man approaches the window to see where they are,
she takes the chance to leave the room and escape the house. As soon as she reaches the door though,
she realizes she's dropped her phone and it is now ringing. The criminal hears this and comes closer,
telling her she's forgetting her phone before he begins chasing her around town with his face
covered by a mask and a cap. She cries out for help as she runs, but nobody hears her, so she
ends up entering an abandoned store. The stranger finds her there, but when he's about to strike,
Hyo-Joo shows up and hits him with a handbarrow. The man quickly recovers and hits her in return,
but at that moment, a police car passes by and Hyo-Joo yells for help, so the criminal has no
choice but to run away. Moments later, Detective Lee is scolding her both because he thinks they're
lying. The house is empty, Kyung-min's phone is nowhere to be found, and the only thing
she knows about the guy is that he wears an old school watch. They are suddenly interrupted by an
officer that says they've found something: it's Seung-Hye's body in the trash with Kyung-min's
business card in her fingers. Many hours later, the police bring Gi-Jeong in for interrogation,
since he had been given Kyung-min's card. Security cameras show he's been following her around too,
he wears an old watch, and because he's a carpenter, he has access to tools like
saws and knows how to use them. Detective Lee pushes until Gi-Jeong becomes angry and violent,
making a mistake in his confession and earning him a reason to keep him locked up. After apologizing
to them, Lee lets the women go home, promising they've got the case. Kyung-min finally moves into
her new apartment, where she makes sure to put extra safety measures on her doors and windows.
Meanwhile, Gi-Jeong is freed because there's not enough evidence to keep him arrested,
so he goes to the apartment building to search for Kyung-min. When he hears she's moved,
he makes up some story about him being her cousin and needing to tell her her dad is dying,
so Dong-hoon gives him the new address. Moments later, Kyung-min gets a package delivered to her:
inside there's the phone she has dropped at the killer's house with multiple pictures of her
sleeping. Then, her new phone starts ringing with a call from Hyo-Joo - when she picks up,
she sees a hidden video of the murderer at her friend's house without her knowing.
Kyung-min rushes out of her place without her keys and goes to Hyo-Joo 's building,
which he manages to enter because someone is leaving when she arrives.
In the video, the killer can be seen starting to work on a foot, so Kyung-min hurries to the right
apartment, but she can't open the door. She grabs a fire extinguisher to start hitting the lock,
but before she can go far, Gi-Jeong shows up and hits her, intending to take her with him
to have that coffee. A neighbor has heard the noises and Kyung-min's cries for help,
so luckily for her, the police arrive then and tackle Gi-Jeong to the ground. Now free,
Kyung-min finishes breaking the lock and enters the apartment, finding Hyo-Joo bleeding on her
bed. Meanwhile, at her new apartment, a mysterious figure leaves her keys back where she left them.
Sometime later, Kyung-min visits Hyo-Joo at the hospital - she hasn't lost her foot, she only
has a scar where the killer began cutting for the video, and she doesn't blame her friend for what
happened. Lee talks to Kyung-min as well, telling her it all had been a trick and the criminal had
recorded everything in advance to get her out of the apartment and catch her by surprise.
They've arrested Gi-Jeong and now they only need to wait for the DNA test results. He also
gifts Kyung-min a security camera disguised as a penguin to help her feel safe. Kyung-min
installs the camera when she returns home. Afterward, she goes to the convenience store,
where she comes across Dong-hoon, although she doesn't recognize him at first. Conversation gets
awkward when he starts mentioning how nobody will hurt her anymore now the criminal has been caught,
so Kyung-min quickly pays for her things to get out of there, but she can't help turning around
when she hears something very peculiar: Dong-hoon is spending 3.20. He is buying the same packed
porridge the cat had been eating, and he also is wearing an old-fashioned watch. Getting worried,
she rushes back to her place, where she gets a call from Lee telling her not to leave home.
It turns out Gi-Jeong had been freed because the DNA didn't match, and now he's been found dead.
When she suddenly notices a cup of porridge on her cupboard, she checks the security camera
and sees Dong-hoon entering the apartment and hiding under her bed. He's still there and at
that moment, he puts his hand out to grab her, so Kyung-min runs to the door, trying to escape,
but Dong-hoon knocks her out before she can even open the door. Hours later, Lee begins
looking for her, because he saw on the security camera that Dong-hoon took her away in his car.
One of his fellow officers calls him and lets him know some important information they've found out:
Dong-hoon quit his job and disappeared the day after Gi-Jeong was killed. He also used to work
in a place near Yangpyeong Lake, a hotel that closed business after a guest supposedly killed
themselves. Dong-hoon moved to Seoul shortly after that incident and began working at Kyung-min's old
building, which also has an unsolved case related to it. Meanwhile, Kyung-min wakes up in a strange
room with Dong-hoon cuddling her. He's brought some things from her apartment and even changed
her into her pajamas, saying he wants her to be comfortable, but she's been sedated all this time
and right now there's an IV connected to her arm. He's angry because she didn't recognize him at the
store and tells her the door is open so she can leave any time, but if she does, he'll have to
cut her feet and hands. When she suddenly starts coughing pretty badly, Dong-hoon comes closer to
pet her head, so Kyung-min takes the chance and bites his ear before stabbing his hand with one of
the needles from the nightstand. Still under the effect of the sedative, she drags her body out of
the room until her legs are awake again to start running down the stairs, only to find all doors
are locked, and the one room that isn't has its windows blocked. Hearing Dong-hoon coming closer
with an ax, Kyung-min grabs a glass shard from the floor to defend herself, but when he's about to
enter the room, a crash echoes in the house. It's Lee, who has finally arrived to help her. He calls
out her name and when she replies, Dong-hoon jumps behind him and both men begin fighting over the
gun, causing some bullets to be shot in the air. Suddenly, Kyung-min doesn't hear any more noises,
so she comes out of the room, grabs the ax she finds on the floor and goes looking for the men,
only to find Dong-hoon has stabbed Lee. He plans to come for her next,
so she pulls the carpet from under his feet to make him trip and grabs the gun to shoot him,
but it doesn't have any bullets left. Dong-hoon grabs her by her clothes and hits her head on the
floor a few times before retrieving his ax, but when he is about to start getting rid of the arm,
she pushes him back by sticking her fingers on his wounds. This isn't enough to completely get
him off her, in fact, it only angers him more, so he grabs her and tosses her against a wardrobe,
which falls on top of both of them. Dong-hoon's hand ends up trapped under an edge with a nail,
but he still tries to grab her with his free one, so Kyung-min does her best to keep him
away by hitting and kicking him. She notices one of the sides of the wardrobe is about to
come off so she tries to push it to create an opening, but Dong-hoon manages to free his hand
then and puts both around her neck to choke her. Kyung-min responds by putting her hands on his
shoulders too and pushing him, her intention only being to get him off her, but she ends up killing
him by pushing his head against a wardrobe nail. Sometime later, Kyung-min is back to
her normal life, living in her new apartment where she still hasn't finished unpacking.
Before doing anything that day however, she checks under the bed to be sure it's empty.