A mother and her 6-year-old daughter move into a creepy apartment whose every surface is permeated by water.A mother and her 6-year-old daughter move into a creepy apartment whose every surface is permeated by water.A mother and her 6-year-old daughter move into a creepy apartment whose every surface is permeated by water.
- Awards
- 6 wins & 2 nominations
Yû Tokui
- Ohta (real-estate agent)
- (as Yu Tokui)
Tôru Shinagawa
- Principal
- (as Tohur Shinagawa)
Shelley Calene-Black
- Yoshimi Matsubara
- (English version)
- (voice)
- Director
- Writers
- Kôji Suzuki
- Takashige Ichise(uncredited)
- Hideo Nakata(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaSecond film by Hideo Nakata to be based on a novel by Koji Suzuki. He previously directed Ring (1998) and its sequel Ring 2 (1999).
- Goofs(at around 1h 3 mins) 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.
- ConnectionsFeatured in WatchMojo: Top 10 J Horror Films (2016)
Featured review
"Mama!!!"
Director Hideo Nakata's 1998 offering, "Ringu," based on a book by the so-called "Stephen King of Japan," Koji Suzuki, was one of the scariest movies I've seen in years. Thus, it was with great expectation that I popped the same team's 2002 effort, "Dark Water," into my DVD player at home. And while this latter film may not be the horror masterpiece that "Ringu" is, it still has much to offer. The story here concerns a newly divorced mother, Yoshimi Matsubara (sympathetically portrayed by Hitomi Kuroki), who moves into a run-down apartment building with her 5-year-old daughter, Ikuko, while at the same time starting a new job and engaging in a custody battle. We really come to care about the plight of these two characters, especially when some decidedly creepy incidents in the building start to pile up, and this gradually escalating sense of there being something "wrong" with the building turns out to be fully justified. Whereas "Ringu" provided us with that truly terrifying TV crawl-through scene, "Dark Water" offers a scene that is also absolutely guaranteed to raise the hackles on the back of any viewer's neck (I'm thinking here of the one in the elevator near the end, natch). Similar again to "Ringu," a water container turns out to be the site of a childhood tragedy, and a lank-haired ghost girl makes for one very creepy presence. Special kudos must be given here to young Rio Kanno, in her role as Ikuko. Kanno is just remarkable, and surely one of the most adorable kids I've ever seen on film. I'd give her a 9.8 on the Cute-O-Meter. With an involving story, excellent acting, some genuine chills and that great novelist/director pedigree mentioned above, "Dark Water" is a fine example of "J-horror" indeed, and if nothing else underlines the importance of having a really good building super!
helpful•72
- ferbs54
- Apr 2, 2008
- How long is Dark Water?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- From the Depths of Dark Water
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $1,686,839
- Runtime1 hour 41 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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