Dark Water

Title: Dark Water (Honogurai mizu no soko kara)
Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: Drama, Horror
Language: Japanese
Director: Hideo Nakata (Ringu)

It’s been said that Japan is a decade behind the US. Whilst this reference was intended for economic and technological reasons, it holds surprisingly try for many aspects of their culture. A decade after Priest saw the emergence of Heavy Metal artists such as Loudness and X-Japan. A decade after KISS came out sporting their iconic corpse paint came the beginning of the ‘Visual Kei’ phenomenon, and a decade after the 90s, where Hollywood began to run out of ideas for decent Horror films we see the rise of J-Horror. Whilst this is not the best of them, this is the first of (what I assure you will be a number) of films in this genre to be reviewed here.

Following the story of a young woman (Yoshimi) approaching divorce, she struggles to care for her 6 year old daughter (Ikuko) whilst looking not only for work, but for a place to live. They quickly stumble upon a place that seems ideal, but it doesn’t take long to discover the water stain dripping from the ceiling. A child’s red bag mysteriously appears, and it’s not long before they discover there’s more to this room than meets the eye…

Now, that plot does admittedly look fairly thin. A psychological horror based upon tiny, seemingly insignificant events, but it was incredibly well worked to provide a slow build up, a constant increase in suspicious events which are initially rationalised by the characters, until they can be explained no further. The majority of the screen time is given to the young woman and her daughter who both perform exceptionally well. The reactions from Yoshimi prove pivotal in creating the slow tension build-up, watching her break-down as she struggles to maintain herself in spite of lawyers working for her ex-husband trying to regain custody of Ikuko, the reactions as she questions her own sanity, despite the low-budget effects she helps prove how effective they can be if backed by competent acting. Even Ikuko, aged 9 at the time, put on a charming performance beyond what I could have expected, whilst given a comparatively minor role she retained a believable quality; something many more than twice her age fail to accomplish.

Everything about this film is subtle. Without realising it until the end of the film, I noticed I had formed emotional attachment to the characters, a sympathy for their situation, wanting a resolution beneficial to all parties involved, and indeed the resolution was something both unique and beautiful, if perhaps depressingly tragic. This isn’t a film without its problems, for the first half the pace is remarkably slow, and as subtle and well performed the slow build-up of tension was, it gets tiring. Furthermore, the choice of music perhaps could have been better utilised, feeling overtly ‘cheesy’ at certain points. Despite these shortcomings, if you’re looking for a well performed horror that maintains a realistic plot with believable characters – about the love between a mother and daughter – and that actually delivers on horror rather than simplistic gore sequences, then this is well worth your time.