Honogurai mizu no soko kara (2002)

Director:

Hideo Nakata

Writers:

Kôji Suzuki (novel) and
Yoshihiro Nakamura (screenplay)

Release Date:

19 January 2002 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

From The Creators of Japan's Acclaimed RINGU, Inspiration for the hit phenomenon THE RING

Plot:

A mother and her 6 year old daughter move into a creepy apartment whose every surface is permeated by water.

Plot Keywords:

Water | Apartment | Ghost | Custody Battle | Divorce

Awards:

5 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Hitomi Kuroki	...	Yoshimi Matsubara
Rio Kanno	...	Ikuko Matsubara (6 years old)
Mirei Oguchi	...	Mitsuko Kawai
Asami Mizukawa	...	Ikuko Hamada (16 years old)
Fumiyo Kohinata	...	Kunio Hamada
Yu Tokui	...	Ohta (real-estate agent)
Isao Yatsu	...	Kamiya (apartment manager)
Shigemitsu Ogi	...	Kishida (Yoshimi's lawyer)
Maiko Asano	...	Young Yoshimi's Teacher
Yukiko Ikari	...	Young Yoshimi
Shinji Nomura	...	Mediator
Kiriko Shimizu	...	Mediator
Teruko Hanahara	...	Old Lady (twin, elder)
Youko Yasuda	...	Old Lady (twin, younger)
Kono Tarou Suwa	...	Old Lady (twin, younger)

Also Known As:

Dark Water (UK) (USA)
From the Depths of Dark Water (International: English title) (literal title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for terror and disturbing situations.

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | Iceland:16 | Malaysia:U | South Korea:12 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Denmark:15 | Finland:K-15 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Norway:15 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13

Company:

Honogurai mizu no Soko kara Seisaku Iinkai

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When everyone is up on the roof examining the water tower, a flap of cloth or pant leg can be seen at the top of the ladder. This could be something attached to the tower, but later when she climbs it by herself and we see the whole thing, no such cloth is visible.

Movie Connections:

References The Haunting (1963/I)

Can't sleep because of this movie so I write a review.

I like these flicks. Very slow in the beginning, very creepy in the end. Of course there are similarities between 'Dark Water' and 'Ringu' but who cares if you enjoy the movie. If we can learn one thing from both movies is that children are scary. People refer to 'The Shining' when reviewing this film and whenever I think of that movie I think of children... the twin sisters... scary!

Personally I think this movie is more a 'Kramer vs Kramer meets The Changeling' instead of a 'Ringu revisited' or 'The Shining' rip off.

I agree with people who say that after 'Ringu' a lot of bad horror movies followed from asia (e.g. kakashi, tomei) but this is NOT one of them. It scared the hell out of me! So far the best 3 asia horror movies I've seen: The Eye, Ringu and this one Dark Water. Hope to enjoy more movies like these.