Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Dark Water (Honogurai mizu no soko kara)

This is topic Dark Water (Honogurai mizu no soko kara) in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 07-14-2003, 02:25 AM:

WARNING: The following contains plot spoilers

This is a virtual remake of Ring from its director, Hideo Nakata. A recently divorced single mum moves into a grotty, run-down 1960s block of flats with her six year-old daughter. Water starts leaking from the ceiling and she investigates the flat above, where a little girl of a similar age to the daughter used to live. It later emerges that she drowned in the water tower on the building's roof, hence all the flooding. Needless to say, a thoroughly unpleasant time is then had by all.

As I mentioned above, this film really does recycle pretty much all of the key themes, characters and suspense/shock devices of Ring. Once again, the lead character is a single parent who ends up having to make a sacrifice for the sake of her daughter. Once again, the mundane and pragmatic behaviour of the middle-class, professional supporting characters (teachers, lawyer, apartment block manager) is contrasted with the supernatural havoc perpetrated by the ghost of the dead child. And finally there's the obsession with domestic technology: TVs and VCRs in Ring, the lift in this film (I guarantee you'll never want to ride in one again after seeing this). I won't give away the ending, but it's pretty similar, too.

Lovely cinematography and a superb print - only Fuji stock can give you those dense and rich blue/grey/green shades.

Edited afterthought, a fortnight or so later: this film would make a brilliant double bill with Ascenseur pour l'échafaud.

[ 07-31-2003, 06:05 PM: Message edited by: Leo Enticknap ]