This film I actually saw after the remake. I obtained a copy and it was awhile before I finally got around to seeing it. I'm a fan of these ghost films from the era in Japan, but I wasn't the biggest fan of this one after the first viewing. This is now my second watch for the Summer Challenge Series over on The Podcast Under the Stairs for the 2000s. The synopsis is a mother and her 6 year old daughter move into a creepy apartment whose every surface is permeated by water.
We start off seeing a young girl waiting for her mother. She is at school and it is raining. It shifts to a room where we have a Yoshimi Matsubara (Hitomi Kuroki) talking to two mediators. She is going through a divorce with her husband Kunio Hamada (Fumiyo Kohinata). We learn through this that she has moments of instability in her past. She used to be an editor for a book company and she had a breakdown while doing this. She blamed it on the books she was reading over and over. Kunio is not playing fair and what he wants is custody of their daughter. It isn't a pretty sight, but also hard to blame him.
The film then shows us Yoshimi with her daughter Ikuko (Rio Kanno). They are looking for an apartment, which she told the mediators she would shore up this week. Ikuko is is tired as they looked at a few places and it has just been a long day Yoshimi does get her excited about the last one though. They go to a building and it looks older. It is raining outside and they meet with the real-estate agent Ohta (Yu Tokui). Inside we meet the property manager who is an older man by the name of Kamiya (Isao Yatsu).
They go up to the apartment and Yoshimi likes it. Ohta is nervous, because he notices a water spot on the ceiling. Yoshimi doesn't notice and panics when she cannot find her daughter. She searches the apartment and then goes downstairs. She asks Kamiya if he saw her and he hasn't. He does see her though on the security monitor. They aren't sure what floor at first, but the display on the elevator shows the top floor. Ikuko goes outside and finds a red bag. She wants to keep it, but Yoshimi doesn't know who it belongs to. It is put into lost and found for the time being.
The two of them take the apartment and try to bring normalcy to their life. The following day Ikuko is going to start at her new kindergarten. Yoshimi meets with the principal and watches as he and a teacher scold a child. She then goes to a job interview. It runs longer than she thought it would and Ikuko has to wait. Yoshimi ends up just leaving and we see flashes of something from her childhood. It appears her mother did the same thing to her during her childhood. While she is heading that way, she sees a poster for Mitsuko Kawai (Mirei Oguchi) and realizes that she is missing for a couple of years. Ahead of her she sees that Ikuko is with her ex. She freaks out on him and takes her daughter home.
The problem with this is that it gets back to the mediators. More information is revealed to them about Yoshimi. This causes her to break down in the hallway and her lawyer Kishida (Shigemitsu Ogi) must calm her down. He has her come back to his office and explains to her that she needs to keep it together, even when it is too difficult or they aren't going to win.
Despite all of these issues with her divorce, there is something wrong with her apartment. The leak is getting worse and no matter how much she tells Kamiya or Ohta, they don't seem to do anything about it. There could be a supernatural twist to this as well as the red bag keeps appearing, Ikuko is talking to someone and Yoshimi is seeing things. Is any of this real or is it just the stress of what is going on in her life getting to her?
As I said earlier, I did see the American remake first which I thought was fine, but I wasn't the biggest fan of to begin with. I do have to say that after seeing this original version it makes more sense to me. Where I should lead off here is that this movie isn't overly scary. It is more about the atmosphere with some creepy parts. I do have to give credit there as the aesthetic is a dreary one. It is raining quite a bit in the movie, which could explain the leak in the apartment. There isn't a lot of color, so when we get it, it does pop. That is especially for the red bag we see in the movie. I do have to give credit for these aspects.
This film is more about this unstable mother slowly losing her mind. She is going through a divorce; she is struggling trying to get her life together. There is the new aspect of being a single mother. We can see her husband has more money than she does, so she really needs to be careful not to hurt her case in keeping Ikuko. To complicate things, she is taking an apartment that is her own, but it also isn't much in an older building. She does hear running around above her and she goes up there to find the place completely flooded at one time. What is interesting here though is that everything up until that point, aside from her seeing Mitsuko can be explained away rationally. Kishida does this and it is one of my favorite aspects to the movie.
I will admit that the first time I saw this movie, I wasn't the biggest fan of the ending. It did make sense though when I thought about it. Mitsuko is missing and left by her family. From what it sounds like, her mother wasn't really there for her which is sad. Her father did what he could to try to find her. Yoshimi seemed to have similar upbringing and doesn't want to do it to Ikuko. She is really the one that gets hurt. She does still have her father who loves her and can provide everything, where Mitsuko is missing that. It is quite tragic.
Being that this is the second time I've seen this, I knew the reveal of this movie. It isn't ruined by knowing it. If anything, it added a bit more for me. Like an example of this is when they're drinking the water in the apartment. We see hair come out of the facet. The building is old so it could be explained. There also seems to be the dynamic where it isn't being maintained or cleaned as it should.
That will take me next to the acting. I really think that Kuroki's performance is really good. I feel horrible for her as she's going through a divorce, trying to make a good life for her and her daughter. To add on to it, she could dealing with a possible haunting. Oguchi is solid in being creepy. Kanno is adorable as the daughter here. Kohinata is somewhat of a scumbag, but I know that these custody battles. The rest of the cast is good in rounding this out for what is needed.
The last thing that I want to go over would be the effects of the movie. There really aren't a lot of them to be honest. They do well in indicating things from the past with the tint and the color of the images we see. I also really like the look of the building that they're staying in. It is a dreary and fits the mood of the movie for sure. There are some creepy images with Mitsuko as well. The cinematography really works for what they're going for as well.
Now with that said, this is an interesting movie here. It is a story that is grounded with a woman going through a tough divorce and custody battle. She is trying to get her new life on its feet. To complicate it there is the possible haunting in where she is living. She wants to get away, but that could make things worse for her. The acting is good and the movie just has a depressing feel to it that I dug. I think what effects we get are good. There really aren't a lot of them to be honest. The soundtrack fit for what was needed and fitting the tone of the movie. I would rate this movie as above average. It isn't as good for me as some of the other moves from the J-Horror movement for sure with the other ghost films.
We start off seeing a young girl waiting for her mother. She is at school and it is raining. It shifts to a room where we have a Yoshimi Matsubara (Hitomi Kuroki) talking to two mediators. She is going through a divorce with her husband Kunio Hamada (Fumiyo Kohinata). We learn through this that she has moments of instability in her past. She used to be an editor for a book company and she had a breakdown while doing this. She blamed it on the books she was reading over and over. Kunio is not playing fair and what he wants is custody of their daughter. It isn't a pretty sight, but also hard to blame him.
The film then shows us Yoshimi with her daughter Ikuko (Rio Kanno). They are looking for an apartment, which she told the mediators she would shore up this week. Ikuko is is tired as they looked at a few places and it has just been a long day Yoshimi does get her excited about the last one though. They go to a building and it looks older. It is raining outside and they meet with the real-estate agent Ohta (Yu Tokui). Inside we meet the property manager who is an older man by the name of Kamiya (Isao Yatsu).
They go up to the apartment and Yoshimi likes it. Ohta is nervous, because he notices a water spot on the ceiling. Yoshimi doesn't notice and panics when she cannot find her daughter. She searches the apartment and then goes downstairs. She asks Kamiya if he saw her and he hasn't. He does see her though on the security monitor. They aren't sure what floor at first, but the display on the elevator shows the top floor. Ikuko goes outside and finds a red bag. She wants to keep it, but Yoshimi doesn't know who it belongs to. It is put into lost and found for the time being.
The two of them take the apartment and try to bring normalcy to their life. The following day Ikuko is going to start at her new kindergarten. Yoshimi meets with the principal and watches as he and a teacher scold a child. She then goes to a job interview. It runs longer than she thought it would and Ikuko has to wait. Yoshimi ends up just leaving and we see flashes of something from her childhood. It appears her mother did the same thing to her during her childhood. While she is heading that way, she sees a poster for Mitsuko Kawai (Mirei Oguchi) and realizes that she is missing for a couple of years. Ahead of her she sees that Ikuko is with her ex. She freaks out on him and takes her daughter home.
The problem with this is that it gets back to the mediators. More information is revealed to them about Yoshimi. This causes her to break down in the hallway and her lawyer Kishida (Shigemitsu Ogi) must calm her down. He has her come back to his office and explains to her that she needs to keep it together, even when it is too difficult or they aren't going to win.
Despite all of these issues with her divorce, there is something wrong with her apartment. The leak is getting worse and no matter how much she tells Kamiya or Ohta, they don't seem to do anything about it. There could be a supernatural twist to this as well as the red bag keeps appearing, Ikuko is talking to someone and Yoshimi is seeing things. Is any of this real or is it just the stress of what is going on in her life getting to her?
As I said earlier, I did see the American remake first which I thought was fine, but I wasn't the biggest fan of to begin with. I do have to say that after seeing this original version it makes more sense to me. Where I should lead off here is that this movie isn't overly scary. It is more about the atmosphere with some creepy parts. I do have to give credit there as the aesthetic is a dreary one. It is raining quite a bit in the movie, which could explain the leak in the apartment. There isn't a lot of color, so when we get it, it does pop. That is especially for the red bag we see in the movie. I do have to give credit for these aspects.
This film is more about this unstable mother slowly losing her mind. She is going through a divorce; she is struggling trying to get her life together. There is the new aspect of being a single mother. We can see her husband has more money than she does, so she really needs to be careful not to hurt her case in keeping Ikuko. To complicate things, she is taking an apartment that is her own, but it also isn't much in an older building. She does hear running around above her and she goes up there to find the place completely flooded at one time. What is interesting here though is that everything up until that point, aside from her seeing Mitsuko can be explained away rationally. Kishida does this and it is one of my favorite aspects to the movie.
I will admit that the first time I saw this movie, I wasn't the biggest fan of the ending. It did make sense though when I thought about it. Mitsuko is missing and left by her family. From what it sounds like, her mother wasn't really there for her which is sad. Her father did what he could to try to find her. Yoshimi seemed to have similar upbringing and doesn't want to do it to Ikuko. She is really the one that gets hurt. She does still have her father who loves her and can provide everything, where Mitsuko is missing that. It is quite tragic.
Being that this is the second time I've seen this, I knew the reveal of this movie. It isn't ruined by knowing it. If anything, it added a bit more for me. Like an example of this is when they're drinking the water in the apartment. We see hair come out of the facet. The building is old so it could be explained. There also seems to be the dynamic where it isn't being maintained or cleaned as it should.
That will take me next to the acting. I really think that Kuroki's performance is really good. I feel horrible for her as she's going through a divorce, trying to make a good life for her and her daughter. To add on to it, she could dealing with a possible haunting. Oguchi is solid in being creepy. Kanno is adorable as the daughter here. Kohinata is somewhat of a scumbag, but I know that these custody battles. The rest of the cast is good in rounding this out for what is needed.
The last thing that I want to go over would be the effects of the movie. There really aren't a lot of them to be honest. They do well in indicating things from the past with the tint and the color of the images we see. I also really like the look of the building that they're staying in. It is a dreary and fits the mood of the movie for sure. There are some creepy images with Mitsuko as well. The cinematography really works for what they're going for as well.
Now with that said, this is an interesting movie here. It is a story that is grounded with a woman going through a tough divorce and custody battle. She is trying to get her new life on its feet. To complicate it there is the possible haunting in where she is living. She wants to get away, but that could make things worse for her. The acting is good and the movie just has a depressing feel to it that I dug. I think what effects we get are good. There really aren't a lot of them to be honest. The soundtrack fit for what was needed and fitting the tone of the movie. I would rate this movie as above average. It isn't as good for me as some of the other moves from the J-Horror movement for sure with the other ghost films.