The Roommate (2010)

"The Roommate" is a low, low budget Japanese film that feels more like an amateurs ode to the genre of recent Japanese ghost films than an original movie. I didn't mind the acting, the story line, or the visuals but the sound effects were sometimes very grating, especially in one scene where there is supposed to me a stabbing sound. (shudder). Even though the film is full of Japanese ghost cliches, the ending was still unique and the movie was overall enjoyable. The short run time of only 70 minutes also helps.


The film follows two women, the pretty and likable Tamaki, and the plain hard working Ayako. They live together in an apartment in Tokyo. You can tel pretty quickly that Tamaki has more than just a crush on Ayako and that Ayako is beginning to feel the same. One night, Ayako is surprised by a phone call from her father, who she hasn't in over ten years since moving to Tokyo. Her father shows up while she is out and Tamaki is mistaken as Ayako. Ayako's father apologizes and admits that it's been too long since he's seen his daughter. In the next scene, Ayako comes home but her father has left and Tamaki says that she couldn't convince him to stay. That night, Ayako begins to have visions of a female ghost; this ghost continues to appear throughout the film. The more that Ayako sees the ghost, the more people around the two women begin to disappear. Will Ayako find out the secret of the ghost or is Tamaki trying to hide something form her roommate?