'Wall To Wall' Korean Movie Spoilers & Summary: Who Was Making The Noise?

Kim Tae-joon and Sharon S. Park’s Wall to Wall is an intense Korean thriller drama set in 2021 Seoul and is centered around the vicious loop of loans and debts. Like any other corporate employee in Seoul, Woo-seong’s goal was to earn enough money to afford an apartment in one of the newly built high-rises. To get closer to his dream, he sought a bank loan, and while the apartment technically belonged to the bank, seeing his name on the property register brought him immense joy. He finally felt he’d done something worthwhile. Woo-seong believed that the apartment was both a shelter and a good investment. But the latter turned out to be untrue when the housing market started to dip. Woo-seong owed more money than he earned, and he couldn’t even afford to keep the power running at his apartment. 

Life was falling apart for Woo-seong; he felt trapped, and he was desperate to find a way out. His colleague suggested investing in crypto, and while he was reluctant at first, his situation got the better of him. He decided to sell his apartment and invest the deposit money in crypto. According to the tip that his colleague received, the investment was supposed to soar, and Woo-seong planned on buying back his apartment with the money he would make. After his crypto investment began to take off, he finally felt like he was heading in the right direction, but luck once again was not on his side.

Spoiler Alert

Why did Eun-hwa pay Woo-seong?

The mass construction of high-rises had resulted in poor-quality apartments. There was news of a newly constructed building collapsing to dust. As a result of a financial crisis, the demand for real estate took a dip, and those with properties were at a loss. Woo-seong was hopeful; he believed that if he could hold on to his apartment a little longer, he would manage to sell the place profitably. But holding on soon became a challenge—he was working two jobs to clear his dues, and by the time he returned home, he used to be exhausted. To make matters worse, he struggled to find peace within the confines of his apartment. The constant noise from the apartment upstairs turned his life into a living hell. He was always on the edge, and he was all the more irritated when the tenants downstairs blamed him for the noise. He decided to confront the tenant upstairs, but to his surprise, the man had been asleep, and there was no way he could’ve been making noises. 

Woo-seong decided to go further up, and he met an elderly couple. He assumed they were the ones making the noise, but he couldn’t understand how it was possible to hear sound coming from an apartment two floors above. The elderly couple asked him to have a word with the residents’ representative. She lived in the penthouse on the top floor. Eun-hwa didn’t care about the sound issue; she simply decided to silence Woo-seong. She handed him an envelope full of cash and told him not to discuss the noise problem with anyone outside. The value of the property would fall crashing down if the media found out about it, and since Woo-seong was also a homeowner, she expected him to understand the complexity of the situation. Woo-seong didn’t expect a reward for his troubles, and he happily agreed to comply. 

Did Woo-seong manage to sell his cryptocurrency share?

Soon the noise problem got out of hand, and everyone assumed Woo-seong was responsible for it. He took leave from his office to spend a week at home, his eyes fixed to his screen, closely monitoring his crypto investment. The neighbors complained that from the time Woo-seong was at home, the noise only got worse. They gathered in front of Woo-seong’s apartment, ready to confront him. Woo-seong blamed the downstairs tenants for the noise, and he demanded to check their apartment as well. Eun-hwa tried to control the commotion, and she suggested they check Woo-seong’s apartment first and then the apartment of the tenants downstairs. Woo-seong confidently allowed the maintenance man and the upstairs tenant, Jin-ho, to check his place. To his surprise, Jin-ho discovered a second cell phone in his house that was continuously playing loud construction noises. The tenant downstairs tried to fight Woo-seong, and even though Woo-seong didn’t even lay his hand on him, the neighbor intentionally banged his head and fell to the ground. He was hospitalized, and Woo-seong was arrested. According to the tip that his colleague had shared, he had to sell his share on Liberation Day for maximum profit. But he was handcuffed, and his phone was broken. Woo-seong was desperate; he knew it was now or never. So, he lied about going to the washroom and instead rushed to the officer’s cabin and locked the door. He got hold of a computer and was about to sell his share when he realized that if he waited a little longer, he would profit even more. His greed resulted in his downfall—the cops tased him, and he failed to sell his share at the right time. The next time he checked, his share was at a loss. He was about to give up when Jin-ho showed up at his apartment. He was sure that Woo-seong was making the noises, but after entering his apartment, he realized he was not at fault. 

What was the conspiracy behind the noise problem?

There was someone else making the noises, and they figured it was coming from downstairs. The door to the apartment downstairs was open, and they searched the place for speakers, but they didn’t find any. The noise continued, suggesting that it was not the tenants downstairs. They also found out that the young man who’d bought both of their apartments was also the one who owned the downstairs apartment. Woo-seong sold his place to Ga Jun-cheol, born in 2009, who apparently lived in the United States. Well, as it turned out, he was buying most of the apartments in the building for a dirt-cheap price because of the real estate crisis as well as the noise issue. Since the public at large didn’t know about the issue, they thought they would get away with it. So, why was this man buying apartments in a faulty building? Ga Jun-cheol was apparently a relative of the penthouse owners, and they were confident that once GTX came through, the price of the building would soar and they would reap maximum profit. Woo-seong and Jin-ho’s plan was to find out what Eun-hwa was hiding behind the locked steel door in her penthouse. They wanted to get their hands on some evidence to prove their theory and use it to blackmail Eun-hwa to cancel their contract. Unfortunately, Woo-seong was caught in the act when he attempted to break into the locked room, and he was thrown out. 

Who had been plotting against Woo-seong? 

Jin-ho promised that he would help Woo-seong to reach the bottom of the truth, but he suggested Woo-seong rest a little. When Woo-seong returned to his apartment, he checked the second phone that was found in his storeroom, and he suddenly noticed that the wifi was turned on and connected to a nearby router. To his surprise, the wifi had maximum signal outside Jin-ho’s apartment. Woo-seong figured that the man who was pretending to help him was possibly the one who’d tried to frame him. He decided to gather evidence against Jin-ho before blaming him. When they were at the sauna together, Woo-seong noticed the many tattoos and scars on Jin-ho’s body. He explained that he was an investigative reporter and he used to navigate a rather dark world, though at present he was freelancing and trying to build something of his own. His mission was to come up with something sensational that would take Korea by storm. 

While Jin-ho decided to stay at the sauna a little longer, Woo-seong left. He broke into Jin-ho’s apartment, and he was flabbergasted when he saw the massive project his seemingly innocent neighbor was working on. Not only was Woo-seong’s phone connected to Jin-ho’s wifi, but he had been surveilling everyone living in the building. He also had an entire room full of photographs and written details about each of the tenants in the building. Jin-ho had been keeping a close watch on Woo-seong. He had also been listening to him through the intercom. He was the one who’d set the second phone in his storeroom with a loud noise, and as it turned out, he’d paid the tenants downstairs to irritate and push Woo-seong to the edge. 

Jin-ho soon returned to his apartment, and Woo-seong had no choice but to hide in the cupboard. He watched Jin-ho cunningly laugh at his misery—he’d video recorded their conversation at the sauna, where Woo-seong had stated that he was in a state to kill people just to keep the noise down. Though he’d immediately added that he was not really going to do that. Jin-ho’s plan was to craft a compelling documentary/reality show that would focus on a common man—Woo-seong—and how the noise issue in high rises drove him to become a murderer and ultimately kill himself. Jin-ho hoped to be the savior who would uncover the corrupt practices behind the noise problem, and Woo-seong was merely a scapegoat. He was an easy target—he was already on the brink of giving up, and Jin-ho knew that a little nudge would drive him to the edge. 

Why did Jin-ho spare Woo-seong?

Jin-ho went to take a quick nap, and while Woo-seong considered battering him to death, he couldn’t do it. He instead decided to leave the apartment after collecting evidence, but suddenly he heard the doorbell ring, and he ended up hiding under the bed. The downstairs tenant met Jin-ho. She was in a terrible mood; she blamed Jin-ho for her husband’s critical condition after he banged his head to put the blame on Woo-seong and keep him in custody. As it turned out, Jin-ho had paid the couple to execute his plan and make Woo-seong suffer. He had sneaked into Woo-seong’s apartment, and he knew about his crypto investment and his plan of selling it on Liberation Day. He offered the wife more money in exchange for her silence. But when she continued to protest and attempted to destroy his hard drives full of video footage, Jin-ho ended up bashing her head with a hammer. 

After witnessing the incident, Woo-seong waited for the right moment to leave, but as it turned out, Jin-ho had a hunch that there was someone else in his apartment. He confronted Woo-seong and was about to kill him. Woo-seong begged him to let him go, and he promised to help him solve the mystery behind the noise problem. He too was desperate to get his apartment back. Since Jin-ho had already killed a tenant, Woo-seong suggested he would have a tough time explaining how he ended up with two dead bodies at his apartment, coupled with the fact that he had an elaborate surveillance setup in two rooms. Woo-seong urged him to think wisely; he could execute his plan well if there was someone else to help him. Jin-ho decided to spare Woo-seong, and they came up with the plan of framing the dead tenant as the messenger—a helpless tenant about to be evicted killed her landlord and committed suicide. 

Was Eun-hwa responsible for the noise issue?

Jin-ho and Woo-seong arrived at Eun-hwa’s penthouse for answers. Jin-ho already had access to every apartment, so they managed to easily break in. They dumped the tenant’s body in the kitchen, and they approached Eun-hwa and her husband. They tied them up, and Jin-ho asked them about the ledger. He knew that it was a case of money embezzlement, and he wanted to know how they were getting away with it. He went on to state that Eun-hwa and her supervisor husband had accepted dirty money and that it was apparently mentioned on a ledger, which had a list of all the names of the people who were involved in the ‘crappy construction.’ She and her husband had brokered the construction fully aware of the threats it could later pose. She denied knowing about the ledger, but Jon-hi added that he’d overheard her conversation with her husband through the intercom when she’d mentioned it. Eun-hwa responded that her husband might have kept it behind the steel door. Jin-ho dragged her husband to the other room and used his finger impression to open the steel door, while Woo-seong was asked to keep an eye on Eun-hwa. As soon as Jon-hi left, Eun-hwa begged Woo-seong to free her, and he agreed to do it because he couldn’t care less about Jin-ho’s exposé and he was not ready to watch Jin-ho kill more people. Eun-hwa promised to give his apartment back for his help. But soon Jin-ho screamed from next door, and Woo-seong walked up to him and found out that behind the steel door, Eun-hwa and her husband stored all their dirty cash. 

By then, Woo-seong had already grabbed the gun he’d noticed in the study room, and he was about to shoot Jin-ho with it when he realized it was not working. Jin-ho kicked and punched Woo-seong, and to their surprise Eun-hwa sprayed a substance in the air and locked herself behind the steel door. She’d asked her husband to kill Jin-ho, but he remained unsuccessful. Woo-seong begged Eun-hwa to open the door, but she didn’t. The suffocating gas had weakened them, and as Woo-seong walked up to Jin-ho, he noticed there was a knife stabbed in his abdomen. Eun-hwa stood behind Woo-seong with a golf stick in her hand. She encouraged Woo-seong to kill Jin-ho, and if he succeeded, he would get back his apartment. But Woo-seong hesitated, and Jin-ho collapsed to the floor. 

Eun-hwa assaulted Woo-seong with the golf stick. She never cared about him—he was simply an easy person she could manipulate. Mrs. Jeon was proud of outwitting everyone else in the room, and she boastfully stated that she had been hiding the ledger in plain sight all along. It was kept hidden between the pages of a magazine. She didn’t feel guilty for what she did, because she strongly believed that cheaper flats were the only way forward; after all, people such as Woo-seong would’ve never dreamt of buying a house in the city had it not been something within his reach. It was aspirational but also not impossible, and to keep the cost low, one had to bear with the noise. 

During Wall to Wall’s ending, when Mrs. Jeon was about to kill Woo-seong with the golf stick (because he knew too much), she was petrified to hear a voice from behind. Jin-ho didn’t die; he had been holding his breath, waiting for the right moment to strike. He repeatedly stabbed Mrs. Jeon, resulting in her death. Jin-ho’s condition was also fragile, but he was determined to expose the ledger to the world. He asked Woo-seong to hand it to him, but instead he stuffed the ledger and the contracts in the oven and turned it on. He wanted to watch Jin-ho suffer. Jin-ho had destroyed the life of an innocent man just to be a hero, and in his own twisted way, he thought the truth made everything worth it. Common people like Woo-seong were always the scapegoat, their voices hushed up and their opinions ignored. Woo-seong decided to do what he felt was right—he ultimately chose to burn down the penthouse with the three bodies in it. He managed to make it out of the building, and when he regained consciousness, he found himself on a hospital bed. He was later questioned by the prosecutor, and while they had found Jin-ho’s videos and learned about the ledger, they couldn’t believe that it had simply disappeared. Woo-seong didn’t say a word; he possibly had stated before that he had no idea what had unfolded at the penthouse, because there was no evidence to suggest that he was there. 

What does the final scene suggest?

Woo-seong moved to his hometown with his mother. She told him to stay with her as long as he wished. While there was no noise and chaos in his hometown, he craved to go back to Seoul. He chose to burn the ledger because he knew that if the truth reached the media, the buildings would be sealed and he would have to wait forever to get back the money he’d invested. So, he chose to make a selfish decision—he did what he thought would benefit him. Eun-hwa accepted a bribe to build her future, and Jin-ho planned the exposé to become famous. Everyone Woo-seong met was driven by their selfish reasons, and he was no different, and he was unapologetic about it. Living in a capitalist world had taught him to prioritize the individual over everything else, and that’s exactly what he did. 

Woo-seong returned to his empty apartment in the final scene of Wall to Wall. It was still very noisy and disturbing, but he felt a sense of achievement knowing that the apartment now belonged to him. The film comes to an end with Woo-seong’s eerie laugh—underlining the irony of his situation. He had been through hell only to return to his noisy apartment, yet it was the only aspect of his life that made him feel worthwhile. He was a homeowner, but at what cost? His entire existence had revolved around becoming a homeowner, and it was the only validation he had left. He might end up selling the apartment at a lower valuation, considering the building was under inspection after the penthouse fire, or he might perhaps end up choosing to stay there because being a part of the city had always been his dream, even if he could barely afford it.

 The prosecutor had access to Jin-ho’s theories and videos, but there was no evidence to prove the massive scam, and the tenants living in the apartment possibly chose to not disclose the noise issue, fearing lower valuation. Wall to Wall underlines the strange contradiction we are living in. Even if one wants to become a homeowner, they can’t really afford it, and even if they buy one for a low price with a house loan, they might just discover that it was badly constructed and there are several issues with the building. Wall to Wall arrives at the idea that the matchbox apartments are a miserable, suffocating trap, yet they continue to be a symbol of making it in a big city.

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