Dark Water (2002 film)

Dark Water (2002)
File:Darkwater2002movieposter.jpg The movie poster for the 2002 movie Dark Water.
Directed by	Hideo Nakata
Written by	Hideo Nakata Takashige Ichise Yoshihiro Nakamura
Produced by	Taka Ichise
Starring	Hitomi Kuroki Rio Kanno Mirei Oguchi Fumiyo Kohinata
Distributed by	Toho Company Ltd.
Release dates	January 19, 2002
Running time	101 min.
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Budget	~$4.0 million

Dark Water is a 2002 Japanese horror film directed by Hideo Nakata, the director of Ringu and Ringu 2. Dark Water is based on Floating Water, a short story by Koji Suzuki. Its Japanese name is Honogurai mizu no soko kara (仄暗い水の底から), which is also the name of the horror anthology by Koji Suzuki. There is also a manga adaptation that holds little similarity to the film, although the apartment building is identical.

Plot

The plot involves a woman, Yoshimi Matsubara (Hitomi Kuroki), who, in the midst of an unpleasant divorce, moves to an eerie run-down apartment building with her young daughter, Ikuko (Rio Kanno). The ceiling of their apartment develops a leak, and the daughter finds an unfamiliar red bag while playing on the building's roof. Yoshimi discovers that the upstairs apartment, which appears to be the source of the leak, was formerly the home of a young girl named Mitsuko Kawai (Mirei Oguchi), who was of similar age to her daughter. The child had attended the same kindergarten Ikuko now attends, but she was abandoned by her mother and vanished more than a year ago. The child also owned a red bag.

Many incidents then happen repetitively, becoming more strange each time. The bag is disposed of, but then found by Ikuko on the roof; Yoshimi throws it away again, only to find it herself later. The leak on the roof worsens. Hair is found in tap water. Yoshimi gets glimpses of a girl looking like Mitsuko. Ikuko passes out at school, then in the apartment upstairs, where water is pouring heavily from the walls.

From the beginning, the audience is shown the involvement of a supernatural girl, but Yoshimi only gradually believes it. Her growing hysteria could lose her the right to keep her daughter, so her lawyer pressures her not to panic. At one point she is ready to move out, but her lawyer convinces her that someone is playing tricks on her and she stays.

One evening Yoshimi is drawn to the roof of the building, and there discovers the truth about Mitsuko. While examining the building's water tank she notices that it was last inspected over a year ago - July 14th, 1999, the last reported day Mitsuko had been seen; revealed earlier by the missing flyer located at the school both Ikuko and Mitsuko attended, hence the open water tank in which she was able to fall into. She comes to the sudden horrific realization that Mitsuko had drowned in the tank while trying to retrieve her red bag, which had fallen inside. The tank had since become the home to the child's spirit, seeking in death a replacement for the mother who had abandoned it in life.

Intent on immediately escaping the building, Yoshimi rushes back to her apartment only to find Ikuko in danger of being drowned in the bathtub. Clutching the child to her chest she rushes from the apartment and into the building's elevator, fleeing the apparition. But as the door to the elevator closes she sees that the figure pursuing her is in fact her own daughter - and realizes that the lift's other occupant is the reanimated corpse of Mitsuko, claiming her for its mother at last.

The last moments of the film shows Ikuko, who is now sixteen years old (Asami Mizukawa), visiting the abandoned apartment block. As she walks around, she notices that her apartment looks newly furnished. She then sees her mother, and they have a conversation. Ikuko remembers that her mother once told her that as long as she was with her, she'd be all right. She inquires if she still feels this way, to which her mother replies in the affirmative. She then pleads to stay with her mother. Yoshimi smiles, but tells Ikuko that she's sorry it can't happen. At the same time, Mitsuko can be seen standing behind Ikuko. Sensing someone behind her, Ikuko wearily turns around, but sees no one. When she turns back again, Yoshimi has also disappeared.

The film's theme of a drowned innocent child transforming into a malevolent spiritual force is almost identical to that of Ringu, although in Ringu the spirit returns to avenge her death while Mitsuko seeks a new parental figure.

2005 remake

A U.S. remake of the film, directed by Walter Salles and starring Jennifer Connelly, was released on July 8, 2005.

2009 remake

A possible Indian remake of the film has been announced, starring Kareena Kapoor.

See also

• J-Horror
• Dark Water (2005 film)

External links

• Dark Water at IMDb
• "仄暗い水の底から (Honogurai mizu no soko kara)" (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-07-21.