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This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

A lot of fun.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

The first must-see film of the year.

After Ringu and its sequel in the late 1990s, prolific J-horror grandmaster Hideo Nakata returned to familiar ground in 2002 with this intimate and very scary family drama/ghost story/murder mystery hybrid. Like Ringu, it was remade (reasonably well) in Hollywood – an indication of the central story's universal appeal.While awaiting custody proceedings over her daughter, Ikuko (Rio Kanno), Yoshimi (Hitomi Kuroki) recalls being left at kindergarten while her own parents argued about who should pick her up. These memories inform the whole premise and tenor of the film: Yoshimi is terrified of losing her daughter. So she convinces the divorce panel that she is looking for work and a new home for her and Ikuko. Mother and daughter move into a cheap, brutalist tenement. It's basic but serviceable. Yoshimi gets a job and soon the pair have achieved some kind of normality. But something's not quite right. There's a damp patch on the ceiling and it's gradually growing. And who is that strange little girl wearing the yellow mac? As Yoshimi seeks the truth – all the while protecting her daughter and triggering her own deep-seated fears – she will uncover the tragedy of a missing child that will haunt her on an existential level. As with Ringu, Nakata shows his mastery of the slow horror form, and is in complete control. The frame is drained of bright colour and tinged with blue and grey, almost as if we're underwater. Forget about cheap jump shocks – Nakata is all about presence, subtly introducing us to the layout of the apartment block before planting its corners with half-glimpsed human forms and shadows. Meanwhile, the subtle, eerily ambient score textures the images rather than crashing the cuts. The two main performances are excellent, portraying an entirely believable bond between mother and daughter. Kuroki's performance may aggravate at first – Yoshimi is all nodding subservience and hysterical nerves – but gradually we empathise. As the clouds clear on the mystery of the girl in the raincoat, so they do too on Yoshimi's really quite rational fear of abandonment. While you can see its influence on recent fare like The Babadook, which similarly focused as much on the mother-child dynamic as the scares, Dark Water also owes itself to films that came before. The image of the possibly supernatural, raincoated child, for example, clearly harks back to Don't Look Now; and we even get a final act shock that matches Nicolas Roeg's classic for sheer, lurching terror.Dark Water is deep and foreboding; a bass thrum of a horror which keeps its creepy cards close to its chest. It is intricate and heartfelt and provides pictures that linger. It is also, crucially, an effective and moving love story about family bonds, which is key to grasping the real horror here: the horror of loss.

A truly memorable film, which succeeds not so much as a literal ghost story as an aching depiction of struggle, heartache, loneliness and loss.In some respects, the film might come across as pretty formulaic stuff, with generally predictable scares, a sometimes dubious script, and generic horror-film score (although there are also effective uses of background silence). Having said this, though, I should also add that the climax in the lift is genuinely shocking and heartrending. But what matters even more than the supernatural thrills is the all-too human story of the characters, the bleak atmosphere created, and the haunting imagery. All these elements the film pulls off remarkably well.The acting is pretty good. Admittedly, at first the mother appeared rather too high-strung to me, but that really is the kind of character she's meant to be. And the mother-child team is superb - there's real chemistry between the two.Dark Water is a notable accomplishment. It does often look like a formulaic supernatural thriller yet it transcends tired old clichés and conventions to be so much more; it manages to be consummately chilling, desolate, and poignant, all at the same time. As a work of art, and in terms of provoking genuine emotion, it succeeds (at any rate I found myself crying openly at the end, and I can honestly say I don't usually cry at films). Dark Water is arguably the best of the whole raft of Asian-horror films of the past two decades. At its core, it is a subtle, moving, and highly intelligent film, the like of which I've rarely seen, whether in the supernaturalist genre or out of it. A treat..

"Honogurai mizu no soko kara" or "Dark Water" is the first movie of Dark Water three years before the American version and I have to say that this movie is really better than the American version. This version has more suspense, action and is more creepy than the American and I believe that it's also the definition of a horror movie.After "The Ring", "The Ring 2", "Grudge" and more Japanese movies (or based on Japan culture) we watch this one. First of all the whole movie is based on the novel of Kôji Suzuki which is really impressive. Secondly Hideo Nakata did a great job in the direction of this movie. Thirdly the interpretations of Hitomi Kuroki who plays as Yoshimi Matsubara was magnificent and Rio Kanno who played as Ikuko Matsubara when she was 6 years old is outstanding.Finally I have to say that "Dark Water" is a really nice horror movie which has to give you and it can transfer to us many feelings from the actors and that is something that direction and especially Hideo Nakata did a very good job under the guidance of course of Kôji Suzuki.

Another exceptional ghost story from Japan. The set-up on this one's familiar: a lonely mother, her precocious child, a creepy run-down apartment block haunted by the ghost of a little dark-haired girl. So far, so par for the course. Where the film excels is in two places: script and direction. The script delivers an ultimately moving, affecting story peopled by realistic characters we get to know and care about. Sure, there are no jump-in-your-seat moments as in some other Japanese ghost films, but they're not required; by the end, the film has turned into nothing less than a tragedy, and the horror is driven to the background.The direction is sublime (you'd expect as much, given that RING's Hideo Nakata is the man behind the lens). The dripping patch on the ceiling becomes monstrous in itself, and the atmosphere is palpable in every sequence. I loved the way that obvious scenes aren't shown, they don't need to be shown, the focus is on mood instead. Hollywood managed a decent remake of this, but even that had to show obvious stuff that wasn't required. Add in a cast giving top-notch performances and you have one of the finest the genre has to offer.