Honogurai mizu no soko kara (2002)

Country of Origin: Japan
Year of Production: 2001
Running Times: 96 mins 56 sec (UK video / DVD (PAL))     101 mins 9 sec
Format: colour 35mm
Ratio:
Sound:

PRODUCTION
Production Companies: Oz / Dark Water Film Partners

SCRIPT
Script: Yoshihiro Nakamura, Ken-ichi Suzuki
Novel: Suzuki Kôji

DIRECTION
Director: Hideo Nakata
Assistant Director: Masanori Adachi

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Junichirô Hayashi
Lighting: Meichô Tomiyama

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: Nobuyuki Takahashi

MUSIC
Music: Kenji Kawai

SOUND
Sound: Masayuki Iwakura, Kiyoshi Kakizawa
Sound Effects: Kenji Shibazaki

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Shuichi Kishiura

VISUAL EFFECTS
Special Visual Effects: Mitsuaki Hashimoti

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Katsumi Nakazawa

CAST
Hitomi Kuroki (Yoshimi Matsubara)
Rio Kanno (Ikuko Matsubara)
Fumiyo Kohinata (Kunio Hamada)
Asami Mizukawa (Ikuko Hamada as a teenager)
Shigemitsu Ogi (Kishida)
Mirei Oguchi (Mitsuko Kawai)
Yu Tokui (Ohta)
Isao Yatsu (Kamiya)

PLOT SUMMARY

A recently divorced woman, Yoshimi (a cracking performance from Hitomi Kuroki) and her her young daughter Ikoku (Rio Kanno) move into a new apartment only to find that the entire block seems to be dangerously waterlogged. A small damp patch on their bedroom ceiling grows at an alarming rate, it's always raining and a child's bright red satchel keeps turning up on the roof, no matter how many times it's thrown out into a rubbish bin. Someone appears to be running around in the flat upstairs, but no-one seems to live there since the woman who lived there ran off, leaving her young daughter Mitsuko alone - until she too mysteriously disappeared...

Dark Water almost seems at times like an even creepier reworking of Ringu - both films feature young girl ghosts, a watery grave and a mother and child being targetted by the haunting presence. But, much as I adore Ringu, Dark Water far surpasses that earlier film and firmly establishes Nakata as the master of the modern ghost story. But as well as being flat-out scary, Dark Water is also deeply affecting - the epilogue in particular is achingly sad and the mother-daughter relationship is beautifully drawn, easily the most convincing study of a mother's all-encompassing love for her child ever filmed. Yoshimi battles not only the supernatural in her efforts to make a better life for her daughter, but also an uncaring ex-husband and a sense of isolation and loneliness that makes her climactic and heart-breaking decision in the elevator all the more moving. Yoshimi is a tragic figure trapped in a world far more terrifying than any supernatural manifestation and it's predicament that makes the film all the more effective.

France
Theatrical Distributor: Diaphana Films

International
International Sales: Kadokawa Shoten

UK
Theatrical Distributors: Metro Tartan
Video Distributors: Tartan Video (TVX4437)
DVD Distributors: Tartan Video (TVD3436)

Singapore
Rating: PG

UK
Rating: 15 (with no cuts)

2002
January
19: Japan - theatrical release

February
7: Germany - shown at the Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin 2002

March
21: Belgium - shown at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy, Thriller and Science-Fiction Film

June
6: Singapore - theatrical release
8: Australia - shown at the Sydney Film Festival
14: USA - shown at the Seattle International Film Festival
15: USA - shown at the Seattle International Film Festival
27: Russia - shown at the Moscow Film Festival

August
7: UK - rated 15 by the BBFC (with no cuts, for theatrical release)
17: UK - shown at the Edinburgh Film Festival
25: UK - shown at the Lupo Frightfest, London

September
19: Malaysia - theatrical release

October
8: Spain - shown at the Sitges Film Festival
10: Poland - shown at the Warsaw Film Festival
27: UK - shown at the Raindance Film Festival

November
4: Spain - shown at the Semana de Cine Fantástico y de Terror de San Sebastián
9: Sweden - shown at the Uppsala Horror Film Festival; USA - shown at the AFI Film Festival
16: Sweden - shown at the Stockholm International Film Festival

2003
March
26: France - theatrical release

May
12: UK - trailer rated 15 by the BBFC (with no cuts, for theatrical release)

June
18: UK - trailer rated 15 by the BBFC (with no cuts, for video release)

September
22: UK - rated 15 by the BBFC (with no cuts, for video release)

November
24: UK - DVD release (Tartan Video (TVD3436)); video release (Tartan Video (TVX4437))

AWARDS

2002
Brussels International Festival of Fantasy, Thriller and Science-Fiction Film, Belgium
Silver Raven (Hideo Nakata) - winner (with Faust 5.0)

Dark Water

WEBLINKS

Official site - http://www.honogurai.com/ (in Japanese)

MAGAZINES

Screen International no.1343 (8 February 2002) p.30 (UK)
illustrated credits, review

Variety 4 March 2002 pp.36, 37 (USA)
illustrated credits, synopsis, review

NEWSPAPERS

International Herald Tribune no.37002 (22 February 2002) p.9 (USA)
review (by Donald Richie)

OTHER SOURCES

52nd Berlin Film Festival Catalogue (2002) pp.138-139
illustrated credits, synopsis