Dark Water (2002 film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dark Water (2002) | |
|---|---|
 The movie poster for the 2002 movie Dark Water. |
|
| Directed by | Hideo Nakata |
| Produced by | Taka Ichise |
| Written by | Hideo Nakata Takashige Ichise Yoshihiro Nakamura |
| Starring | Hitomi Kuroki Rio Kanno Mirei Oguchi Fumiyo Kohinata |
| Distributed by | Toho Company Ltd. |
| Release date(s) |  January 19, 2002 |
| Running time | 101 min. |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Budget | ~$4.0 million |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Dark Water is a 2002 Japanese horror film directed by Hideo Nakata, who is perhaps better known to the general public as 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.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The plot involves a woman, Yoshimi Matsubara, who, in the midst of an unpleasant divorce, moves to an eerie run-down apartment building with her young daughter, Ikuko. The ceiling of their apartment develops a leak, which progressively worsens, 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, 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.
Sensing something untoward, Yoshimi disposes of the bag; however, it reappears. Again Yoshimi disposes of the bag, and again it reappears, establishing a pattern that becomes increasingly panicked, and driving Yoshimi to the point of nervous hysteria, which in turn threatens her custody of her daughter. When Ikuko disappears, only to be found wandering in the flooded upstairs apartment - apparently lured there by the apparition of Mitsuko - a lawyer teams with Yoshimi to try to relieve her fears. For a while he succeeds in convincing her that the events she has experienced have natural causes.
One evening Yoshimi is drawn to the roof of the building, and there uncovers the dark secret that lies at the heart of the events to which she is now inextricably involved. While examining the building's water tank she notices that it was last inspected over a year ago - July 17th, 1999, the last reported day Mitsuko had been seen; revealed earlier by the missing flier located at the school both Ikuko and Mitsuko attended, hence the open water tank in which she was able to fall into - and comes to the sudden horrific realization 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, while 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, with the apparition in dogged pursuit. 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 16, visiting her old, meanwhile abandoned apartment. As she walks around, she notices that the 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 alright. 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 also disappeared.
The film's theme of a drowned innocent child transmogrifying 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.
[edit] 2005 remake
A U.S. remake of the film, directed by Walter Salles and starring Jennifer Connelly, was released on July 8, 2005.
