DARK WATER

Japan, 2002, 101 minutes, Colour.
Hitomi Kuroki, Rio Kanno.
Directed by Hideo Nakata.

With the great success of the two Ring films, with their eerie mood where a Japanese journalist tries to solve the mystery of a video that people watch and then receive a phone call to tell them that they will die within a week, what next for director? First of all, there was the American version of Ring with Naomi Watts. Now comes another atmospheric thriller, less overtly horror than the Ring films, but creepy and suspenseful nonetheless.

Once again we have a woman coping with a mysterious situation. In the process of divorce, she wants to protect her six year old daughter and takes an apartment. Ignoring the water stain in the roof of a bedroom (a fatal mistake), she finds herself more and more involved - in deeper waters, one might say.

The water in the building is dirty, the roof stain gets larger, footsteps can be heard above. And, to top it all, a young girl who lived in the upper apartment went missing four years earlier. Is she haunting mother and daughter? Does she want to destroy them? Step by step, the movie, rather patiently, takes us through the mother's terror for her daughter, the pressure from her husband in the divorce, the discovery of floods and the water tank on the roof. It depends on how you enjoy ghost stories. One wonders how the Japanese regard ghosts. (And this one should not be difficult for an American remake - which soon happened with Walter Salles directing Jennifer Connolly.)

1. An interesting Japanese thriller? Eerie atmosphere, touches of horror?

2. The landscapes of the city, the river, the paths? Apartments, offices, school? The incessant rain? Musical score?

3. The title, the symbol of water, the rain, baths, the tank, floods, dripping roofs? The ending?

4. The film as a blend of realism/fantasy/dream/ghosts? Japanese beliefs in the afterlife and ghosts and their influence?

5. Mother and daughter, their relationship, the impact of the divorce, the hearings and the mother trying to defend herself, her tension, meeting her husband, his taunts, the lawyer, nice, helping? Trying to get her to control herself and her fears?

6. The mother and her past, having to read and proof horror books, going into therapy before the marriage, her fears and sleeplessness, the suggestions of susceptibility, her obsessions, her possessiveness of her daughter?

7. The move, the tour of the apartment, finding it nice, enrolling the daughter at the school, the interviews with the teachers, watching her daughter at school, the hopes of a new life?

8. The stain on the roof, the drops of water, the bucket? Hearing the story of the girl who had disappeared? The dates? The irony of the dates and the cleaning of the tank? Her living upstairs, the water, the footsteps? The audience later seeing the flooded apartment?

9. The mother and her being protective of her daughter, the daughter running out and playing, the mother frantic, searching for her? The red bag and its reappearance? The mystery of the bag, the ominous sense of another presence? The baths? The daughter and her being overcome, ill? The house being repaired - and the possibility of all going well?
10. The mother, her going upstairs, the search, finding the flooded room, the bag, the information about the little girl (supported from information from the school)? Her climbing the tank, finding the bag again, the presence of the girl?

11. The girl herself, a ghost, the floods, the schoolbag? The daughter in the bathroom, her almost being drowned, being taken possession of? The bath water going on, the bubbling and soiled water (and the memories of the hair in the glass of water)? The mother coming, trying to revive her daughter? The mysterious ghost arriving, the mother embracing her, wanting to be her mother? Her daughter looking on helpless?

12. The daughter ten years afterwards, with the schoolgirl friends? Going for the visit to the apartment, seeing it beautifully clean, finding her mother, discussing things with her, her love for her mother, wanting to stay with her, the story about her father and his remarriage? Her turning, her mother being a ghost?

13. The devices used in angles, light and dark, editing for a sense of the eerie? Life, destiny, ghosts, destruction?