Movie Review: Dark Water (2002)

Dark Water (Honogurai mizu no soko kara) 

Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co., Nippon Television Network, Video Audio Project, Nikkatsu, Office Augusta Co. Ltd., Oz Company , Japan 2002. 

Based on a collection of short stories by Koji Suzuki. 

Yoshimi Matsubara (Hitomi Kuroki) has divorced and battles for custody of her daughter Ikuko (Rio Kanno). Yoshimi had some psychological problems before but she is better now. They move into a new apartment, an old run-down apartment house that has only some old people as tenants. It makes you think about the inverted age pyramid of Japan. There is water on the floor and surveillance camera shows a ghostly figure. Also the apartment has a lot of moisture. Warning! There may be a major water damage with mould (sounds like a typical school building in Finland). 

Yoshimi Matsubara

Real-estate agent Ohta (Yu Tokui) introduces new home

Ikuko goes missing and is found playing on the roof terrace. After moving in everything seems fine, except for water dripping from the ceiling. Also the tap water is dirty. Apartment manager Kamiya (Isao Yatsu) is useless for the water problem. From the above apartment comes also child's footsteps but no one lives there. 

Kamiya

Early water damage signs

Taking care of things and going to job interviews takes a lot of Yoshimi's time so Ikuko feels lonely. Yoshimi is late to take Ikuko home from pre-school so Ikuko's father (Fumiyo Kohinata) arrives to fetch her leading to conflict with Yoshimi. The stress begins to make Yoshimi nervous. Looking unbalanced would not look good for the custody case. Ikuko begins to see an imaginary friend. Then Yoshimi sees a poster of a little girl Mitsuko who went missing two years ago...

Ikuko's father

Ikuko and dark water

Much like the original "Ringu" the creepy atmosphere is built slowly. This is not surprising as also novel "Ringu" was written by Koji Suzuki. This time the story is built around lonely and neglected children. As in few years later made failed American version "Ring 2" water is essential part of the mystery as water symbolizes the element separating the land of the living and land of the dead. "Dark Water" is an effective ghost story that relies on the creepy atmosphere instead of cheap shocks. 

It is not really a horror film but a psychological drama with a ghost mystery. Once again minimalistic music by Kenji Kawai and Shikao Suga is haunting and beautiful.

Rating: Very Good

Starring: Hitomi Kuroki, Rio Kanno, Mirei Oguchi, Asami Mizukawa, Fumiyo Kohinata, Yu Tokui, Isao Yatsu, Shigemitsu Ogi, Maiko Asano, Yukiko Ikari, Shinji Nomura, Kiriko Shimizu, Teruko Hanahara, Youko Yasuda, Kono Tarou Suwa, Shichirou Gou, Chisako Hara, Tôru Shinagawa, Chihiro Ohtsuka, Tarô Suwa 

Director: Hideo Nakata