Floor

FLOOR 🧨 

There’s nothing like a good old-fashioned dopamine hit of kick-ass action, and that’s exactly what director Jo Ba-reun delivers in this frenzied tale of neighbouring revenge.

FLOOR is a South Korean short film that had its international premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival this past week in Montreal, where it rightfully won the festival’s Best Director for an International Short Film award.

This story follows a humble man who tries to resolve his wife’s inability to sleep due to the upstairs tenants constant noise-making. Whether you have loud siblings, parents, pets, or neighbours, everyone has experienced that moment at least once in their life where you’re trying to sleep but someone’s noise is keeping you up. Our main character tries to approach his neighbours peacefully and communicate respectfully but instead gets tossed aside as if his opinion doesn’t matter. At that point his kindness is mistaken for weakness, which leads him to his last resort of resolution—kicking everyone’s ass.

In a way this is most dudes wet dream of solving righteous conflict with absolute violence, and it is hands down some of the best combat I’ve seen on screen since The Raid.

We are living in an era of cinema that has an abundance of man-against-the-world-type action flicks like John Wick, Monkey Man, and Nobody—to name a few, but a lot of these revenge stories get bogged down by the minutiae of crafting a story that is supposed to elevate the character when all anyone really cares about is how the protagonist will come out on top, not why.

Director Jo Ba-reun has a clear understanding of that principle and immediately throws his main character into a situation audiences will instantly relate to, then allows for the story to progress in a way that will keep viewers fist-pumping on the edge of their seat until the very last second. It was like watching UFC BMF champion Max Holloway fight, whereinthe last ten seconds he points to the middle of the cage and just starts throwing punches with reckless abandon, except this extends that same energy to nine awesome minutes.

The way some people find beauty in the ballet and its gracefulness is the same appreciation I have for well-executed fight choreography. FLOOR is close-corner combat with a relentless pace that uses each move and motion to tell a story in ways some feature films need hours to get across.

Like seriously, the first John Wick was one hour and forty-one minutes, and the fourth one was damn near three hours, and though I still enjoy both for what they are, there’s something about FLOOR that reminded me sometimes less is more.

I would’ve given this a perfect ten, but there was one moment in the end that felt too over the top in comparison to the rest of the film, so I just couldn’t give it the ten I wanted to.

FLOOR is currently making the rounds in the festival circuit. If it’s playing in your area, I highly recommend adding this to your watch list. 

Enjoy!

8.5/10 🍿 🎥

Runtime: 13mins

Where: The 2025 Fantasia Film Festival.

Floor Review (2025) The Richmond Reviewer - August 1st, 2025.

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