Dark Water (2002)
The movie poster for the 2002 movie Dark Water.
Directed by	Hideo Nakata
Produced by	Taka Ichise
Written by	Hideo Nakata Takashige Ichise Yoshihiro Nakamura
Starring	Hitomi Kuroki Rio Kanno Mirei Oguchi Fumiyo Kohinata
Distributed by	Toho Company Ltd.
Release date(s)	January 19, 2002
Running time	101 min.
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Budget	~$4.0 million
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Dark Water is a 2002 Japanese horror film directed by Hideo Nakata, who is perhaps better known to the general public as the director of Ringu and Ringu 2. Dark Water is based on Floating Water, a short story by Koji Suzuki. Its Japanese name is Honogurai mizu no soko kara (仄暗い水の底から), which is also the name of the horror anthology by Koji Suzuki. There is also a manga adaptation that holds little similarity to the film, although the apartment building is identical. Image File history File links movie poster from the 2002 Japanese film Dark Water Poster use fair use under US and Japanese copyright law This work is copyrighted. ... Hideo Nakata (中田秀夫 Nakata Hideo, born July 19, 1961, in Okayama, Japan) is a Japanese film director. ... Hideo Nakata (中田秀夫 Nakata Hideo, born July 19, 1961, in Okayama, Japan) is a Japanese film director. ... Yoshihiro Nakamura is a Japanese film director, mostly famous for Bûsu (The Booth). ... Kuroki Hitomi (黒木瞳; born October 5, 1960 in Kurogi-Machi, Yame District, Fukuoka, Japan) is a Japanese actress. ... The English-language version of Tohos famous logo, used from the early 1960s to the late 1990s. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Japan. ... January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... Poster for Dark Water J-Horror is a term used to refer to Japanese contributions to horror fiction in popular culture. ... Hideo Nakata (中田秀夫 Nakata Hideo, born July 19, 1961, in Okayama, Japan) is a Japanese film director. ... Ring ) is a 1998 Japanese horror mystery film from director Hideo Nakata, adapted from a novel by Koji Suzuki of the same name. ... Ring 2 (リング2 Ringu 2) (1999), directed by Hideo Nakata, is the sequel to the Japanese horror film, Ring. ... Dark Water is the English title of a book by Koji Suzuki, originally published in Japan as Honogurai mizu no soko kara (Kanji: 仄暗い水の底から; literally, In the Depths of Dark Water). ... Kōji Suzuki (born May 13, 1957) is a Japanese writer currently lives in Tokyo. ... There have been several films entitled Dark Water, these include: Dark Water, a Japanese horror film directed by Hideo Nakata Dark Water, a remake of the 2002 film directed by Walter Salles. ... Manga )   (pl. ...

Plot

The plot involves a woman, Yoshimi Matsubara(Hitomi Kuroki), who, in the midst of an unpleasant divorce, moves to an eerie run-down apartment building with her young daughter, Ikuko(Rio Kanno). The ceiling of their apartment develops a leak, which progressively worsens, and the daughter finds an unfamiliar red bag while playing on the building's roof. Yoshimi discovers that the upstairs apartment, which appears to be the source of the leak, was formerly the home of a young girl named Mitsuko Kawai(Mirei Oguchi), who was of similar age to her daughter. The child had attended the same kindergarten Ikuko now attends, but she was abandoned by her mother and vanished more than a year ago. The child also owned a red bag.

Sensing something untoward, Yoshimi disposes of the bag; however, it reappears. Again Yoshimi disposes of the bag, and again it reappears, establishing a pattern that becomes increasingly panicked, and driving Yoshimi to the point of nervous hysteria, which in turn threatens her custody of her daughter. When Ikuko disappears, only to be found wandering in the flooded upstairs apartment - apparently lured there by the apparition of Mitsuko - a lawyer teams with Yoshimi to try to relieve her fears. For a while he succeeds in convincing her that the events she has experienced have natural causes.

One evening Yoshimi is drawn to the roof of the building, and there uncovers the dark secret that lies at the heart of the events to which she is now inextricably involved. While examining the building's water tank she notices that it was last inspected over a year ago - July 14th, 1999, the last reported day Mitsuko had been seen; revealed earlier by the missing flyer located at the school both Ikuko and Mitsuko attended, hence the open water tank in which she was able to fall into - and comes to the sudden horrific realization Mitsuko had drowned in the tank while trying to retrieve her red bag, which had fallen inside. The tank had since become the home to the child's spirit, while seeking in death a replacement for the mother who had abandoned it in life.

Intent on immediately escaping the building, Yoshimi rushes back to her apartment only to find Ikuko in danger of being drowned in the bathtub. Clutching the child to her chest she rushes from the apartment and into the building's elevator, with the apparition in dogged pursuit. But as the door to the elevator closes she sees that the figure pursuing her is in fact her own daughter - and realizes that the lift's other occupant is the reanimated corpse of Mitsuko, claiming her for its mother at last. Corporeal reanimation is the theoretical concept of reanimating a dead organism, restoring its living functions and enabling it to move and to freely interact with the world of the living as it did when it was alive. ...

The last moments of the film shows Ikuko, who is now 16(Asami Mizukawa), visiting her old, meanwhile abandoned apartment. As she walks around, she notices that the apartment looks newly furnished. She then sees her mother, and they have a conversation. Ikuko remembers that her mother once told her that as long as she was with her, she'd be alright. She enquires if she still feels this way, to which her mother replies in the affirmative. She then pleads to stay with her mother. Yoshimi smiles, but tells Ikuko that she's sorry it can't happen. At the same time, Mitsuko can be seen standing behind Ikuko. Sensing someone behind her, Ikuko wearily turns around, but sees no one. When she turns back again, Yoshimi also disappeared.

The film's theme of a drowned innocent child transmogrifying into a malevolent spiritual force is almost identical to that of Ringu - although in Ringu the spirit returns to avenge her death while Mitsuko seeks a new parental figure.

2005 remake

A U.S. remake of the film, directed by Walter Salles and starring Jennifer Connelly, was released on July 8, 2005. Walter Salles (2002) Walter Moreira Salles Jr. ... Jennifer Lynn Connelly (born December 12, 1970) is an Academy Award-winning American film actress and former child model. ... July 8 is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 176 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

2009 remake

A Indian remake Of the film, and staring Kareena Kapoor Kareena Kapoor (Devanagari:करीना कपूर), born 21 September 1980)[1] nicknamed Bebo is a four-time Filmfare Award-winning Indian popular actress who appears in Bollywood movies. ...

See also

• J-Horror
• Dark Water (2005 film)

Poster for Dark Water J-Horror is a term used to refer to Japanese contributions to horror fiction in popular culture. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

External links

• Dark Water at the Internet Movie Database