Being Film #27 for Hooptober 2024
I’ve been thinking a lot about expectations, and how they impact our viewing of a film. Dark Water, the other Hideo Nakata horror film (Ringu being the first) was a film I knew a lot about, but always held off for one reason or another, thinking there would be time and when I did get to it, I would love it. Well, thanks to the stunning 4K transfer from Arrow Video I did finally get around to it, and while I didn’t love it, it was very surprising, as the horror is a distant second to a rather pointed narrative about divorce, children, and their parents. Looks great, sounds fantastic…just not even remotely scary save for one scene we’ll get into that sadly breaks the tension with a laughable punctuation that I’m sure was NOT Nakata’s intention.
THE QUICK SUMMARY: Yoshimi and her young daughter Ikuko are NOT having a time. Yoshimi is in the middle of a divorce and custody battle with her ex, and is trying to rebuild her life and make damn sure Ikuko is in it. That means moving to a broken down apartment complex with a less-than enthusiastic super and a nasty water stain that continues to grow and drip water in their new apartment. Soon, Yoshimi starts seeing a young, dripping wet child in the hallways, on the roof near the water tower…could it be the same girl labeled missing two years earlier, abandoned by her parents in the apartment directly above theirs? Is there anything more disgusting that hair in your water? Well things are about to get more icky as Yoshimi uncovers a mystery that threatens the life of her and her daughter…FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE!
Did the above sound scary? I tried hard, but Nakata’s mind is very much on other things in Dark Water, unless there are some real aquatic fears that perhaps resonate more with Asian audiences than with me personally. From a technical perspective the film is great, and Arrow’s 4K restoration is as good as it can be. But I’d be lying if I said this film was remotely terrifying. It has definite moments of tension, and if there’s anything truly frightening here, it’s the way Japan looks at the role of women in marriage and divorce, and particularly how mental health can impact that. Perhaps the scariest moment in the film is a simple interview between Yoshimi and a pair of lawyers, when it’s revealed she needed therapy from her former job as a copywriter proofing sadistic and graphic horror novels. Yoshimi’s shame and terror that this could hold back her custody battle for Ikuko has a palpable dread made all the worse for the matter of fact way the lawyers address it.
As Yoshimi, Hitomi Kuroki has to hold the picture together and she does a great job, even when the film veers into silly territory. This brings me to my biggest complaint about Dark Water. I’m fine with the lack of overt terror and scares, but once the mystery is solved and the climax begins, there is a moment that starts off so incredibly tense you realize this is what the film is building toward. SPOILER ALERT: As the ghost of the young missing child named Mitsuko tries to drown Ikuko, Yoshimi races into the apartment and finds Ikuko on the ground of their bathroom, picks her up and races out of the apartment and down the hallway to the elevator. As she struggles to get the elevator closed, she sees through the glass her apartment door opening, and Ikuko coming out, looking for her mamma.
That moment, that realization that the child Yoshimi is carrying is most definitely not her daughter, is chilling. And that tension is ramped up to the hilt as Yoshimi ever-so-slowly turns to see who it is she’s holding….
…and it’s a laughable makeup job that is so silly it immediately breaks the tension and undercuts the drama of the sacrifice Yoshimi needs to make.
There you have it. Dark Water. I don’t know if the American remake is any better, but I’m guessing not. Do I recommend this? I do; it’s an assured piece of work, just don’t go in expecting more of a Ringu experience and you should be fine.
Cinema Dual 
Leave a comment