Dark Water

From the director of Ringu, Dark Water (2002) tells the story of recently divorced mother Yoshimi and her daughter Ikuko as they settle into their new apartment and attempt to live peacefully. Water as horror motif plays a huge role throughout the film. With sparse moments of tensity and real horror, the film falls just short of an incredibly amazing horror movie, due to some aesthetically unsatisfactory final moments.

While divorce was not as common at the time as it was in the United States, 2002 held the highest divorce rate that Japan had ever seen. Especially in Japanese culture where family is highly regarded, the initial set up of the story places viewers in an uncomfortable situation from the get-go.  The family as a unit is analyzed and broken in Dark Water; through flashbacks and other scenes we learn that mother Yoshimi was often left behind and mistreated by her own mother. The parallel is made between her and the "monster" of the film-- Mitsuko, a young girl that lived in the same apartment building and went missing over a year prior to Yoshimi and Ikuko's arrival.

The mise en scene of the film reflects the true horror in a very subtle way for most of the film. Shortly after moving into the new apartment, Yoshimi notices a water spot on her ceiling that begins to leak, which slowly grows in size as more pieces of information about Mitsuko are revealed. A good portion of the complex itself is rundown as well, thanks to the incompetent caretaker of the building who does nothing when Yoshimi mentions the issue. The water spot is an important aesthetic of the film because its growing presence causes anxiety and it moves the plot along by forcing Yoshimi to check out the room above hers (the old room of Mitsuko's family).

The reoccurrence of a red lunch bag also works aesthetically because we don't know who it belongs to or where it comes from; again, the audience feels anxious. The color red is also commonly used in horror films to symbolize a past death or signal one coming in the near future. In addition to all of this, the lunch bag connects Ikuko to Mitsuko. We know that Yoshimi was ignored by her mother as a child, as was Mitsuko.  Yoshimi works hard to be a better mother for Ikuko. But when the strange events continue to happen, Yoshimi forgets to pick Ikuko up from school for various reasons (mainly her job and attempting to find the truth behind Mitsuko's disappearance). In this moment she is likened to her mother, and a glimpse of the true "monster"-- ignorance and mistreatment-- is shown within in the main character. This also ties in with the moral transgression that caused the horror in the first place (the old caretaker who failed to upkeep the building and more specifically, the water tank).

Everything leads to the prior residence of Mitsuko's family and the old water tank that sits on the roof of the complex, as well as the replacement of Ikuko by the spirit of Mitsuko. In a game of hide and seek gone wrong, Ikuko is attacked at her school by Mitsuko's spirit. The spirit lures Ikuko to the 4th floor residence, where water pours from the ceiling. As mentioned earlier, Yoshimi becomes overly concerned with Mitsuko's disappearance, thereby giving less attention to Ikuko. Yoshimi discovers the cleaning log on the water tank that corresponds with the date of Mitsuko's disappearance. At the same time, Ikuko encounters some strange happenings on her own. First, hair spurts from the bathroom sink, which is shortly followed by the bathtub overflowing. As Ikuko tries to shut the water off, Mitsuko's spirit leaps from the tub and attempts to drown Ikuko. The scene is tense; we know something will come from the tub, but it's still shocking to see the rotten hands of Mitsuko. Unfortunately, this is the point where the plot starts to head south.

Yoshimi rushes back to save her daughter from drowning. Clutching Ikuko in her arms, Yoshimi runs to the elevator, attempting to escape from Mitsuko's spirit. Yoshimi watches from the elevator in terror, waiting for Mitsuko to exit the apartment. But Nakata plays a trick on us; Ikuko stumbles from the doorway, calling for her mother. Yoshimi realizes that she is holding Mitsuko instead. While I do think the twist itself functions very well aesthetically, the vision of the spirit realized is a little lack luster. It looks like an old doll painted green, which negatively affected all the tension that was previously built. Luckily we don't see the spirit for too long-- Yoshimi decides that she must stay with the spirit in order to save her daughter. A waterfall erupts from the elevator over Ikuko with Yoshimi and the spirit nowhere in sight.

If the movie had ended there I could completely ignore the aforementioned negative. But the film ends with an epilogue of sorts. Ikuko, now a high school student, returns to her old home and finds her mother. When she realizes what she saw was the spirit of Yoshimi, she understands that her mother has been watching over her and protecting her. This epilogue serves to tie together the themes of family and togetherness and resolve the issue of mistreatment that was the crux of the movie. For a drama, this epilogue works well aesthetically, as it ties everything together in a "happy ending" situation. I think that it lessens the impact of the horror itself. However, realizing that this is an Asian film, I do understand why the epilogue was included. It certainly doesn't detract from the quality of the overall film-- it only lessens the idea of what horrors occurred.