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Yoshimi Matsubara (Hitomi Kuroki) is a divorced young mother embroiled in a bitter battle with
her husband for the custody of their six year old daughter Ikuko (Rio Kanno).
Adapting to a less affluent lifestyle, she rents an affordable apartment unit in an old building near the school where Ikuko begins kindergarten. She also gets a job as a proofreader. Life is difficult but Yoshimi keeps on, buoyed up by the love and close bond between her and Ikuko. However, things worsen when mysterious events which threaten their existence happen in their apartment and elsewhere in the building, which seems unoccupied except for the two of them. Ikuko almost loses her life under strange circumstances in school. How will the ordeal of mother and child end?
Director Hideo Nakata (known for the popular spine-tingling Japanese version of Ring
) considers himself more of a "chronicler of the paranormal" rather than the maker of horror films, yet his latest opus Dark Water
shows he has the deft and ingenious touch in this genre. Though he delves into the world of the spirits, he shuns the use of monsters and other fantastic creatures to provide the thrills and the shocks. He uses instead common everyday objects to transform the mundane environment into a threatening one. As suggested by the title, the main device in this movie is water. There is water everywhere: in the incessant, heavy downpour from the skies, in the river by the street often traversed by the protagonist. There is water leaking slowly, increasingly, menacingly from the ceiling water gushing from closed faucets, rising darkly in the tub, engulfing people in the elevators. Together with the threatening water, the setting—a dilapidated, dark, empty building with a maze of rooms- helps build atmosphere and create suspense. Dubbed in Japanese, the movie has English subtitles. Much of the effectiveness of this slow paced movie depends on the good, subtle underacting of the lead characters, especially Hitomi Kuroki (Yoshimi). Like many stories involving the unearthly, there are loose ends and unanswered questions.
The film shows the travails of single parenting. Yoshimi's situation is made more difficult by
the indifference and unconcern of the building manager and the deviousness and untruthfulness of the caretaker. Other negative values shown are the tendency of the
interviewers (for the custody case) to rake up misdemeanors even when irrelevant and committed a long time past; also the lack of consideration of the publishing house
employer who lets the applicant (Yoshimi) wait for an unreasonably long time so that she is late in fetching her child from school.
Two incidents show the school's lack of concern and understanding of very young children. The manner of interrogating the tearful child and putting words in her mouth to make her admit her fault are likely to scar the child for life. Then there is the school's unsafe environment where the child (Ikuko) can disappear without being missed. Later, instead of finding out the real cause of her trauma, the doctor blames it on the child being "odd". In spite of all the negative values, the movie shimmers with the love of Yoshimi for her child. As shown, a mother's love is boundless—no matter what the sacrifice or difficulty. The movie also underscores the importance of the mother's presence in a child's life. Yoshimi as a child, the missing child (ghost) and Ikuko all hunger for a mother's love and presence.
(Date reviewed: August 1, 2003)
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