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]

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]

CENSORSHIP HISTORY

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]]

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