I can handle anything, just as long as you're with me
(Yoshimi Matsubara)
Director: Nakata Hideo
Screenwriter: Suzuki Ken'ichi
Stars: Kuroki Hitomi, Kanno Rio, Oguchi Mirei
Origin: Japan
Runtime: 101 minutes
Sinopsis: While a mother and her children tried to begin a new chapter in the new apartment, they encountered with a spirit of a little girl which came along with the traces of water
Based on novel by Kooji Suzuki
For some people, the movie must not be as scary as Ringu, but for me, this movie is also frightening, as same as Ringu, even i'll say if this movie has more impact than Ringu since the event occurred in the movie is possible to happen. In fact, the movie seemed to have similar hint with the accident of Alice Lam, though it's happened in the different year (you might google about it, if you're curious about that). And about the movie, I think it has a strong story. It began with the childhood memory of the mother and then, the mother had to realize that her daughter might have similar path with her because she's going to divorce with her husband. You see, for the first sequence, the movie tended to enhance the drama side. Compared with Ringu, it's surely a different thing. Ringu began with the story of a strange video which make people died in seven days; meanwhile, this movie began with a memory of a young girl, waiting for her mother in school. Quite different, isn't it? and the spirit was giving a quite 'tame' appearance, being metaphorized by the water.
In here, water is the red thread of the story, as the title also called Dark Water in its English version. Water was usually linked with the source of life; but in the movie, as the water is being dark, it seemed to tell that the water is there, to invade the life of the living one. Well, it's just my wishful thinking, but Japanese narrative usually has an interesting meaning and it symbolized something. For me, the movie told about the desperate mother who wanted to raise her own daughter, without the support of her ex-husband. She tried, desperately, to give a proper life to her daughter, wanting her daughter to not to have similar childhood memory with hers. But, for some reason, she found that she wasn't really satisfied with her choice. However, she kept struggling to make everything worked, though everything was not happened, as she planned. But the important thing is everything that the mother did, even though it looked like pathetic trials, it showed how the mother loved her child, just like the decision she made in the ending. It told how the mother loved her daughter, though it might seemed unfair for the daughter.
In sum, this is not your usual horror movie with jumpy and scary scenes. it's more like a story about the love of a mother toward her daughter. It's heartbreaking, and it's not really a horror movie. For some, it can be a boring one; but you might see there is something more about the movie than to make you afraid of it. Everything has a heart-broken history, even for the spirit of the little girl who looked for her own mother, wanting to be loved.
(here's the trailer)
Credits:
munky2ube @ youtube
No comments:
Post a Comment