Hide and Seek (2013 film)

A woman named Eun-Hye was stalked by stranger who dons a black jacket and biker helmet when she comes home. When she checked her security camera, she shocked when she saw the stranger enters her apartment room and murders her.

Sung-soo is a successful businessman who lives with his wife Min-ji and two children, Ho-se and Soo-ha in a luxury penthouse. Despite his good life, he's harboring a dark secret. He was adopted by rich family and their biological son and his older step brother, Baek Sung-Chul, whom he completely despise. He framed Sung-Chul to the authorities for sexually assault a young girl out of disgust because of his skin rash. Since that day, he's having constant nightmares about his brother and regularly taking medicines to overcome his guilt and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder anxiety.

One day, Sung-soo receives a phone call that his estranged brother is missing and goes to his brother's apartment building for the first time in decades to look for him. There, he finds strange symbols carved into every door and meets his brother's neighbor Joo-hee and her young daughter Pyeong-Hwa. When Sung-Soo tells her he want to visit his brother, she suddenly become hostile and kicks them out, telling him to stop his brother from "peeping" her daughter. Sung-Soo decided to stay in his brother's room while Min-Ji returns to home with their children.

During his stay, Sung-Soo discover a secret passage that connects his room and Eun-Hye's room and finding the latter's underwear in Sung-Chul drawers. Meanwhile, Min-Ji and the children are attacked by the same stranger who kills Eun-Hye. They theorized that the stranger was Sung-Chul, who simply want to get revenge on Sung-Soo for ruining his life. When Sung-Soo and Min-Ji mistakenly accuse a bystander who wears a same outfit as the stranger, the mysterious man silently watches them from distance.

Sung-soo later figures out that the symbols carved onto the doors are "hide and seek codes" that indicates gender and numbers of people. In their penthouse, he finds similar symbols carved into his door, deducing that the stranger knows well about the penthouse they lived in. Days later, his anxiety are getting worse and after he experience a nightmare which make him blindly destroy his furniture, Min-Ji stressfully tells him that they can't stay anymore and they must return to America.

Had enough, Sung-Soo returns to Sung-Chul apartment to confront his brother only to be attacked by the same man who stalking him. Mistaken him to be the stranger who attacks his family, he manages to overpower him and only to discover that the man who attacks him is Eun-Hye boyfriend, who also thought Sung-chul is the one who killed his girlfriend. When they return to the apartment, he saw the stranger on the secret passage and goes after them. In Eun-Hye's room, Sung-Soo screams in fear when he found the girl's corpse in her wardrobe. Suddenly, the stranger appears and stabbed the boyfriend in the back, killing him and attacks Sung-Soo. He manages to escape and take refuge in Joo-hee's room. When he saw a lot of junk and smartphones (including his phone that missing) in Pyeong-Hwa's room and find his brother's corpse in her wardrobe, he realize that the stranger is Joo-hee before she knocks him unconscious and takes his wallet and credit card and flee with Pyeong-Hwa.

It's revealed that Joo-hee and her daughter are a deranged kleptomaniacs whose modus operandi is killing the original resident of the apartment and pretends to be one. She killed Sung-Chul in order to lure his brother to come investigate and take over their place in the penthouse. When Min-Ji and the children are about to leave, she comes back to their room to take her daughter medicine when suddenly she's strucked in the back by Joo-hee. Sung-Soo manages to wake up and warned his wife about Joo-hee before drives off in a hurry. Joo-he attempts to kill Ho-se and Soo-ha, but they manage to escape back to their room. When Sung-Soo arrives, Joo-he attacks him again and gains the upper hand, but stops due to Sung-Soo threatened to burn their penthouse if she kills him and his family. He persuades her to spare them in exchange of the penthouse, but she refuses and starts choking him, claiming that the penthouse is "hers". She almost kill him when Soo-ha distract her long enough to make Sung-Soo burns the kitchen. Horrified, she let go Sung-Soo and tries in vain to stop the fire, burned to death in progress. The police manage to break in and secure the room while Sung-Soo cradle Min-Ji unconscious body and their tearful children yells at her to wake up.

Some time later, Sung-Soo and his family visit his parent and Sung-Chul grave, finally making peace for his brother and free from his guilt before they travel back to America. Their penthouse is now empty and occupied by a new family. As the new resident settles in, the camera turns on the wardrobe which Pyeong-Hwa still hides in there, looking at them, narrating the voiceover from the beginning.

A low-budget (₩2.5 billion) thriller with no high-profile director or stars,[6][7] Hide and Seek was an unexpected hit upon its release on August 14, 2013. It topped the box office on its opening weekend with 1.35 million ticket sales.[8][9] As of December 22, 19 days after its release, the film has reached 5 million admissions.[10][11][12][13]

• Hide and Seek at the Korean Movie Database
• Hide and Seek at IMDb
• Hide and Seek at HanCinema