Arrow Heads — Arrow Video humbly describes themselves as merely a “Distributor of classic, world, cult and horror cinema on DVD & Blu-ray.” But we film geeks know them as the Britain-based bastion of the brutal and bizarre, boasting gorgeous Blu-ray releases with high quality artwork and packaging and bursting with extras, often of their own making. This column is devoted to discussing their weird and wonderful output.
In Arrow’s quest to release the best in Japanese genre, next up is Hideo Nakata’s Japanese Horror classic Dark Water (2002). If the name sounds familiar, the film was remade in 2002 in the US during the Hollywood’s love affair with J-Horror. The film starred Jennifer Connelly and suffers from the same trappings as most of these remakes tend to. Like Nakata’s previous horror outings, Dark Water is based on a story by Koji Suzuki (The Ring) and was the director’s return to the genre after completing his work on The Ring 2 in 1999.
Dark Water follows Yoshimi Matsubara (Hitomi Kuroki), a troubled woman who in is in the midst of a brutal divorce and custody battle for her young daughter Ikuko (Rio Kanno), who just started kindergarten. Desperate to keep her daughter, Yoshimi moves into a dilapidated apartment complex to show she is a stable caregiver as her husband brings up Yoshimi’s past to get an edge in the proceedings. Soon after they move in Yoshimi and Ikuko begin to see a young girl who was supposedly kidnapped years before as a strange leak appears in their apartment’s ceiling.
Dark Water today is still a very effective watch; the film does a great job using the hallmarks of J-Horror to tell an engagingly creepy ghost story that feels eerily reminiscent of the Elisa Lam incident. (Be sure to watch the film before clicking that link due to spoilers.) As Yoshimi becomes obsessed with unraveling the mystery of the young girl, her life begins to slowly crumble around her, taking a toll on her fragile sanity. Ultimately the film is a bleak look at parenting in Japan as we see the effects of absentee parents due to the ridiculous work hours expected of their workforce. It’s a theme that recurs throughout the film as we begin to witness the effects on Ikuko as she is drawn to the girl she sees running through the building.
The film itself was a triumphant return by Hideo Nakata, who had his breakthrough with the creepy classic The Ring and had taken a break from the genre. Dark Water features more than a few similarities in themes and characters to that film, but where it breaks it does so in a way to tell a story that has a bit more heart thanks to a script by Yoshihiro Nakamura and Kenichi Suzuki. Hitomi Kuroki here is the soul of this film with her raw performance as she fights for custody of her daughter while also being driven to the point of madness due to the supernatural happenings around the building. This all culminates in an ending that took the film to a much different place than I was expecting, but in the best way possible.
Strangely enough Nakata’s next film would have the director returning to a previous franchise in another country, making the sequel to the American reboot with The Ring 2. This is quite a coincidence given the third entry in the US Ring series, Rings, directed by F. Javier Gutiérrez, actually opens in theaters this week.
The disc presented by Arrow image-wise leaves something to be desired. Noted on the packaging is “The High Definition master was made available by Kadokawa Pictures. Additional restoration work was performed at Deluxe Restoration, London to remove dirt and debris and improve overall picture stability.” This is not very surprising for a Japanese sourced release, but still a bit disappointing nonetheless. While the image is still Blu-ray quality it appears possibly to be from a release print due to the overall ‘softness’ of the image. There is a lack of clarity and grain in the uneven transfer that lacks the vibrancy of other Arrow releases.
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, however, is where this disc truly redeems itself. Definitely watch this one in the dark if you have a decent sound setup to truly experience some fun soundscapes at work during the film. In particular, in the scenes where Yoshimi hears the footsteps in the apartment above her there is an eerie echo effect that really helps bring the viewer into the scene that I found a bit unnerving the first time it happened.
When discussing the extras I would like to say whoever thought it was funny to put subliminal Ring imagery into Hideo Nakata’s career retrospective, those both totally freaked me out at first and made my day. The disc is definitely packed with extras, both old and new. Interviews with not only the director but also the writer of the original story and principal cast give a great perspective on the title. Hideo Nakata is engaging and honest about his career and how he came up through the old Japanese studio system to eventually find an audience in horror. That coupled with Koji Suzuki’s piece gives the viewer a wealth of information about the project which I felt was always very underrated.
With Dark Water Arrow has definitely given fans another must-buy, even with some of the issues with the presentation. The bevy of extras combined with the upgraded soundtrack will definitely give fans of this film something new. For horror fans looking for the next score, Dark Water is a solid add for its creepy atmosphere and great ending. My biggest question after seeing Arrow’s presentation here is just when will we get The Ring films, especially given the recent sequels with America’s Rings and Japan’s Sadako vs. Kayako, which pits the Ring’s well dweller against Ju-On’s Kayako. Sometimes it can be a bit hard to appreciate the films that came after without seeing the film that started it all.
The Package
The Arrow Video release of The Dark Water includes:
- High Definition master made available by Kadokawa Pictures. Additional restoration work was performed at Deluxe Restoration, London to remove dirt and debris and improve overall picture stability.
- Hideo Nakata: Ghosts, Rings and Water (1080p; 26:03) is a nicely in depth 2016 interview with the director.
- Koji Suzuki: Family Terrors (1080p; 20:20) is a good interview with the celebrated horror author whose short story provided the basis for the film.
- Junichiro Hayashi: Visualizing Horror (1080p; 19:16) features the director of photography, who discusses this film and others he’s done with Nakata.
- Making of Featurette (1080i; 15:50) is an archival EPK.
- Hitomi Kuroki Interview (1080i; 7:59) is another archival piece.
- Asami Mizukawa Interview (1080i; 4:38) is an archival interview with the actress playing the teenaged Ikuko.
- Shikao Suga Interview (1080i; 2:54) is a brief piece featuring the musician discussing the closing theme he wrote for the film.
- Promo Materials
- Trailer (1080p; 1:13)
- Teaser (1080p; 00:37)
- TV Spots (1080p; 00:50)