[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Gojirosan

Dark Water - 2002 Japan d: Hideo Nakata

After my bad run of crappy films lately I thought it was best I revisit one I knew was good rather than take another risk! And as I found the remake of this in a charity shop the other week I thought I would remind myself of the original.

It's a fine film, a modern ghost story that reminds me of the classics in tone and execution. This sits more comfortably with The Haunting and The Innocents than does Ring, say. Indeed, great as Hideo Nakata's now iconic Ring is, this for me is his better film.

The story is wonderful, imagery enveloping and, key, the acting sublime. Hitomi Kuroki and Rio Kanno are vital to the success of this film and come up with the goods in spades. Rio Kanno especially delivers one of the best child performances I have seen in any film. Add to this the great sets and locations and you have a creepy yet beautiful experience that lingers in the memory and pays rewatching.

Flaws? Well only one strikes me with this film - the dreadful music. Sensibly, music isn't allowed to interfere with the proceedings much, but when it does it is a lush, sentimental orchestral affair at odds with the visual storytelling and it rather jars, sadly.

A film at the pinnacle of that lauded phase of Japanese genre film, I fear for the remake's ability to move me when I get around to checking it!

Don't get your hopes up, the remake is definately inferior. It misses out one key sequence from the origional entirely and simply isn't scary. Its not as bad as the ring remake which mangled everything good about the origional, (Sadako's emergence from the tv being the key example) but its definately a lesser film.