Amidst a divorce, Yoshimi Matsubara struggles to rebuild her life. She rents a run-down apartment, enrolls her daughter Ikuko in a nearby kindergarten, and gets a job as a proofreader in a small publishing company. The ceiling of their apartment has a leak that continually worsens. Matsubara complains to the building superintendent to no avail.
Yoshimi begins experiencing strange occurrences around the complex. A red bag reappears no matter how often she tries to dispose of it; she gets glimpses of a mysterious, long-haired little girl. Several incidents remind her of the time she was abandoned as a child. She is regularly late to pick up Ikuko from school and is stressed when her ex-husband tries to take Ikuko. Yoshimi learns of Mitsuko Kawai, who went missing a year earlier, from a missing person photo of her with a yellow raincoat and red bag. The little girl used to live in the abandoned unit right above Yoshimi's.
One day, Yoshimi finds Ikuko in the apartment upstairs, where the faucets have been left running and have flooded the entire unit. Her lawyer talks to the superintendent, who finally agrees to fix the issue. Afterwards, things seemingly return to normal, but the red bag reappears. Yoshimi heads to the building roof and notices that the water tank was last opened and inspected over a year ago, shortly before Mitsuko was last seen. She has a vision and realizes that Mitsuko fell into the tank while trying to retrieve her red bag and drowned. Meanwhile, Mitsuko's ghost attempts to drown Ikuko in the bathtub.
Yoshimi rushes back to her apartment, grabs Ikuko, and flees from Mitsuko. However, as the elevator door closes, she sees that the figure pursuing her is her daughter – she is carrying Mitsuko. Mitsuko clings to Yoshimi, who realizes she won't go. With Ikuko watching tearfully, Yoshimi sacrifices herself to appease Mitsuko's spirit, who claims Yoshimi in a heavy torrent of water.
10 years later, Ikuko, now a high schooler, revisits the now-abandoned block and notices that her old apartment looks oddly clean and lived-in. She sees Yoshimi, who looks the same. Yoshimi apologizes that they cannot be together and affirms that she is happy as long as Ikuko is alright. Mitsuko appears by her side, and they disappear together.
Cast
Hitomi Kuroki as Yoshimi Matsubara, a single mother who is going through a divorce mediation
Yukiko Ikari as Young Yoshimi
Rio Kanno as Ikuko Matsubara (6-year-old Ikuko), Yoshimi's daughter
Isao Yatsu as Kamiya, the apartment's ignorant superintendent
Shigemitsu Ogi as Kishida, Yoshimi's lawyer
Maiko Asano as Young Yoshimi's Teacher
Shinji Nomura as Mediator (man)
Kiriko Shimizu as Mediator (woman)
Teruko Hanahara as Old Lady (twin, elder) / Old Woman A
Youko Yasuda as Kono
Tarou Suwa Old Lady (twin, younger) / Old Woman B
Shichirou Gou as Nishioka, Kunio's lawyer
Sachiko Hara as Kayo, Yoshimi's aunt
Tohru Shinagawa as Principal
Release
The film was released theatrically in Japan on January 19, 2002, where it was distributed by Toho and received a total domestic gross of $906,344.[1][2] In the Philippines, the film was released by Solar Films on July 30, 2003.[3] The film grossed a total over $1.4 million worldwide.[2]
The film was shown at the AFI Film Festival in the United States on November 9, 2002.[1]
Home media
An American DVD release of Dark Water was dubbed in 2004 by ADV Films, and later released on June 21, 2005, by Section23. Arrow Video released Dark Water on Blu-Ray (AV068) on October 25, 2016. It was packaged with a 1080p transfer Blu-Ray disc and separate standard definition DVD disc.[4]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Dark Water has an approval rating of 84% (based on 19 critics).[5]Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, writing that "The movie's denouement delivers not just a flash of fear but a strange, sweet charge of pathos - and the combination adds up to the most disturbing spell in the cinema I've had in a very long time".[6]Alexander Walker of the London Evening Standard also gave the film a positive review, writing that "Its cleverness relies on transferring our concern from the supernatural events emanating from one lost child to the natural fear of a mother losing her own child to the other world."[7] Katie Rife of The A.V. Club recommended the film for horror fans, writing that "The J-horror boom of the '90s and early '00s produced some extremely creepy ghost stories, and Dark Water ... is one of the creepiest, and saddest, of them all."[8]
Thomas Spurlin of DVD Talk gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars, writing that it "doesn't pack as much of a suspenseful punch as other entries in the J-Horror subgenre, but the heaviness of its supernatural moisture-soaked atmosphere and the melancholy angle of its parental theatrics fill that void".[9] Nicholas Rucka of Midnight Eye called the film "a simply passable horror viewing experience", criticizing its "weak story resolve and mediocre characterization" but writing that it "is worth watching for a good chill."[10]
In 2020, Katherine McLaughlin included the film in a list of 10 great Japanese ghost stories, referring to the film as an "eerie and heartbreaking adaptation" that "strikes a disquieting mood".[11]
Related works
The original title, Honogurai Mizu no Soko kara (仄暗い水の底から, From the Depths of Dark Water), is also the title of the horror anthology by Koji Suzuki and the manga adaptation, authored by Koji Suzuki and illustrated by MEIMU, under Kadokawa Shoten in 2002. The English manga version, translated by Javier Lopez, was published as Dark Water by ADV Manga in 2004.
^"Opens Today!". Philippine Daily Inquirer. The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inc. July 30, 2003. p. A30. Retrieved 12 September 2022. If you like being afraid this one will 'drown' you dead!
^"Dark Water". Arrow Video. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
