This movie did a decent job of building up suspense, bring out the creepiness factor, and portraying the psychological stresses of divorce, parenting, and trying to start your life again. The direction and acting were, for the most part, well-done, with the cinematography on-point.
The problem I have is that there's a world of difference between subtlety and out-right incomprehensible choices. In order to create a horror that felt as ambiguous and inevitable as the filmmakers clearly wanted, they had to sacrifice a considerable degree of common sense. Why is the mother, already frazzled and stung, leaving her daughter alone for extended periods? Why does she go racing off alone, and why, when she has someone willing to help her, does she immediately give up when he can't be reached RIGHT NOW!?! Why does a small child disappear and the police never take the time to check everywhere, including the water tank? Why does she quit struggling almost immediately when the dead girl takes hold of her...that is, she just makes a perfunctory effort and quits. Why not, once she's convinced there's something off about her new apartment, flee as fast as she can and hope that the ghost doesn't feel like going all the way across the city to keep tabs on them? Why does she do such an awful job of explaining the issues, and why she feels the ex-husband is behaving badly? Why not make use of the aunt earlier, to avoid issues that complicate the custody battle, like leaving her child alone and untended? What secrets are the manager and the man from the office hiding that they even see the growing water spots and hear about leaks that prevent them from at least doing cursory checks? Why does 16 year old Ikuko behave like she's taking a slightly puzzling tour when she's confronted with a situation that defies logic and rational human experience? And so forth.
Just to reiterate -- these aren't instances of basic ambiguity that make the viewer think. They're instances of incomprehensible behavior that make the viewer think the characters are blithering morons. Ambiguity is the question of whether the ghost was truly lacking in malice or had become something darker, which would explain why she took a girl's mother from her, or the motives of the ex-husband or even what the various events leading up to the final encounter in the elevator meant. None of my questions above fall into the same category.
It's a well-done movie, in technical terms. It's just a bit nonsensical in plotting and characterization terms on occasion.
The problem I have is that there's a world of difference between subtlety and out-right incomprehensible choices. In order to create a horror that felt as ambiguous and inevitable as the filmmakers clearly wanted, they had to sacrifice a considerable degree of common sense. Why is the mother, already frazzled and stung, leaving her daughter alone for extended periods? Why does she go racing off alone, and why, when she has someone willing to help her, does she immediately give up when he can't be reached RIGHT NOW!?! Why does a small child disappear and the police never take the time to check everywhere, including the water tank? Why does she quit struggling almost immediately when the dead girl takes hold of her...that is, she just makes a perfunctory effort and quits. Why not, once she's convinced there's something off about her new apartment, flee as fast as she can and hope that the ghost doesn't feel like going all the way across the city to keep tabs on them? Why does she do such an awful job of explaining the issues, and why she feels the ex-husband is behaving badly? Why not make use of the aunt earlier, to avoid issues that complicate the custody battle, like leaving her child alone and untended? What secrets are the manager and the man from the office hiding that they even see the growing water spots and hear about leaks that prevent them from at least doing cursory checks? Why does 16 year old Ikuko behave like she's taking a slightly puzzling tour when she's confronted with a situation that defies logic and rational human experience? And so forth.
Just to reiterate -- these aren't instances of basic ambiguity that make the viewer think. They're instances of incomprehensible behavior that make the viewer think the characters are blithering morons. Ambiguity is the question of whether the ghost was truly lacking in malice or had become something darker, which would explain why she took a girl's mother from her, or the motives of the ex-husband or even what the various events leading up to the final encounter in the elevator meant. None of my questions above fall into the same category.
It's a well-done movie, in technical terms. It's just a bit nonsensical in plotting and characterization terms on occasion.