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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Dark Water

07:39 / 09.06.03

http://www.funkygrad.com/estyle/displayarticle.php?artID=174&subcat=popcorn

Before I go into full "wow, I loved the bit where-" mode and spoil it for everyone, has anyone seen this film?

It's from the same director as the original version of Ring. Very similar in plot and style. Fantastic horror film/ghost story. No big shocks or gore, just a slow and delibrate horror. You know exactly what has happened, and how it will probably unfold, and it's the inevitability of it that makes it so terrifying.

Something that struck me, that I hadn't realised before for some reason, is one of the reasons I like a lot of films coming out from Hong Kong and Japan. It's their ability to deal and promote slow moments in the films. Moments where perhaps nothing of apparent consequence is happening. But the time alloted to, say someone cutting some vegtables, is long enough to force the audience to look at their facial expressions or to hear a very subtle sound in the background of the scene. I think Kitano handles it very well also.

I'm rambling... I really liked it, so I'm kinda hoping someone else has seen it?

hanabius yamamura

10:36 / 09.06.03

caught this film at last year's edinburgh film festival - thoroughly enjoyable experience

i know what you mean, waxy ... having read your post and thought back over some of the japanese films i've watched and very much enjoyed, there is almost a comforting quality (maybe not the right word) to the fact that it's not continual 100mph stuff with constant sfx etc. - there is almost a sense of confidence in the quality of the actual story and the viewing capabilities of the audience to actually enjoy a good tale for what it is ...

11:22 / 09.06.03

Do you find it's kind've a skill?

It took me a few viewings to really start liking the style of beat takeshi's films. A few of my mates say that, while they appreciate them, the slow considered pacing is somethin they just can't clue into.

I presume, much like reading comics or poetry, it's just becoming accustomed to a differet 'grammar'.

15:11 / 09.06.03

For some reason I thought this thread would be about this:

Is it out in the states yet?

15:22 / 09.06.03

You know, fitting that into the horror film has some really terrifying images in my head.

is that the Elfquest guys?

16:36 / 09.06.03

I know exactly what you mean. Kitano's movies unfold at a wonderfully slow, meditative pace. Minutes are devoted to a person or object completing a movement: a man walking up to a house, a car driving from the horizon until it passes the camera. By comparison most mainstream Hollywood movies have been quickening their pace since the seventies. Someone somewhere probably thinks MTV is to blame.

I'll have to see this when it's out.

16:42 / 09.06.03

Are you in the UK? If so, it's out now. I went to see it in Covent Garden over the weekend.

Poor old MTV. They get so much schtick.

20:16 / 09.06.03

You can't really call Southampton a proper part of the UK. Maybe a part which is about a month or two behind for cinema.

Well, at least we have a cinema that screens foreign movies. I guess I can't complain much. The new listings should be out in a week or so.

07:12 / 10.06.03

Cool. Well, if you see it; post what you thought.

13:28 / 10.06.03

hhmm, I'm not convinced by Dark Water. So many friends had banged on to me about the brilliance of Ring that I was pretty excited about checking out Nataka's latest on the big screen. Expectations were high for a truly scary, intelligent and stylish horror, unfortunately this was not to be. Sure, it's a cut above the usual pap churned out by Hollywood but it didn't chill me to the bone or have me gripping the edge of my seat. It should have worked... the production design stands out...the grey, foreboding, concrete housing project, the constant rain and water imagery, even nicking the 'Don't Look Now' little-eerie-girl-in-mackintosh moments work, however, the plot is so obvious and signposted that it takes away from the look and feel of the film. The potentially spine-chilling moments are diminshed and it doesn't help when one of your main characters is as wet & annoying as having a kipper slapped in your face. I'm obviously the exception to the rule though as every review I've seen over the weekend praises it to the hilt and heralds it as a masterpiece of suspense and true horror. Am I alone in hoping for a piece of cinema that is genuinely chilling? Give me The Vanishing (original) any day.

I'm hoping that Dolls by Takeshi will blow this one out of the water (excuse the pun). Hana Bi was excellent. It was visually brilliant, creating luscious landscapes as a backdrop to sweet and tender emotions. Takeshi rates as one of the best directors around. For me his films encompass violence and love, notions of friendship and familial bonds, beauty and art, comedy and death. Pretty much the whole shebang...So hopes are high for a sumptious feast on Dolls. I'll keep you posted...

13:33 / 10.06.03

Not to rain on your parade or anything but I read that Dolls isn't that great.

I think I'll go see Dark Water on Sunday, guy at work saw it earlier this week and he really enjoyed it and thought it was quite scary especially as it nears the end.

13:07 / 13.06.03

Saw it in London yesterday, really enjoyed it- obvious thematic and stylistic similarities between it and Ring, but I felt the story was actually more water-tight (excuse the pun) and satisfying. Particularly liked the part where Ikuko is playing hide-and-seek in the kindergartden and sees the feet, very reminiscent of that scene with the ex-husband in Ring, as he's sitting in the park after first seeing the video. In terms of horror, I found it more consistently scary than Ring but didn't feel it had anthing to match that scene with the TV at the end. Anyway, would definitely recommend.

13:30 / 13.06.03

SPOILER

Yup, TV bit in Ring's gonna be hard to beat.

Though I did find the climax where the monster girl actually manifests herself in the lift truly horrifying. Not in the 'jump-out-of-my-seat-in-fright' way. But in that it was just horrible.

The way in which she kept clinging desperately to the mother, and the time given for the audience to really consider the experience of having a rotting/desperate/angry/dead weight gripping to your throat in need of love certainly made me feel kind've uneasy.

Though I can't decide whether or not I liked the last scene. I think it displayed the sacrifice the mother had made very well, but maybe it was unnessecary. It broke up the pacing of the narrative a bit for me.

13:56 / 15.06.03

The last scene was interesting... SPOILERS!

I saw the film with a mate and she really didn't like the end, found it unecessary and strange. Personally I thought it worked well, I know what you mean about the pace but I actually liked that, ending the film on a kind of sad, stilted note. It also explains the decision made by the mother in the lift more clearly, you understand that she really didn't have much choice but to stay there with that horrible little girl.
Come to think of it, the bit in the lift at the end really was very unpleasant. For me the worst moment is when you see that it's Ikuko coming out of the door, there's just this second when you're like "Oh God, if that's Ikuko then who's in the lift?" and of course you know the answer.
This whole concept of "Loving the ghost" I find interesting, you can see it in "Ring" as well. Probably some strange Japanese narritive convention. Weirdos.