Dark Water

There are many movies (particularly in Asian cinema) which utilise a mysterious little girl who terrorises some poor innocent(s). It’s an old age trick, but yet still works. A most-of-the-time-faceless-little-girl-who-usually-never-speaks may be an overused horror icon and for some audiences they aren’t shaken, but for others the fear gets to them and they love it.

In Dark Water, Hideo Nakata’s visionary comes to life where the camera angles produce an unassuming view which creates an ominous expectation, yet what’s delivered always surprises with an abrupt change of view and a sound of a gong simultaneously to create tension.

Dark Water is about a woman, Yoshimi (Hitomi Kuroki), struggling to keep ends meet when settling into a new apartment, acquiring and keeping a new job of mediocrity and in the middle of a custody battle for her young daughter Ikuko (Rio Kanno) of which she steadily becomes unsuccessful at winning during the film’s progression.

The apartment block mother and daughter move in to holds a malevolent supernatural being in the form of a sinister little girl. As certain inexplicable occurrences come to light more and more, Yoshimi soon realizes the missing girl Mitsuko Kawai (Mirei Oguchi), from her daughter’s same school, lived in the apartment above theirs with her own mother.

Ikuko is constantly ‘hunted’ by Mitsuko’s spirit; on the apartment block roof, playtime at school and in the bathroom of their own apartment. Every time she attempts to rid of Ikuko, the closer she is to breaking the bond between mother and daughter. However, the purpose of killing Ikuko may have changed to suit Yoshimi, as she sacrifices staying alive to protect and be with her daughter, which was her struggle all along, but she dies to appease Mitusko, so the girl would have a mother. Mitsuko possibly leaves Ikuko alone as an expression of her desire for Yoshimi’s love, a mother’s love.

The resulting intention changes unexpectedly because the love Yoshimi has for her daughter is so deep; it seems her surrendering displays her giving up on her daughter. But when Ikuko matures at the end of the film she realizes her mother was and always will protect her.

The film begins with a primary school courtyard and the first display of pathetic fallacy with a downpour. Mothers pick up their waiting children after school, but there’s one little girl (a young Yoshimi) who waits much longer indoors. Yoshimi as an adult becomes more experienced with emotional baggage as certain scenes denote.           One in particular, is during an afternoon nap, water is dripping onto her face from the ceiling, but she doesn’t seem fazed and addresses the issue to the superintendent. She is capable of questioning her own emotions by presenting a hands-on response. In the kitchen she pours herself a glass of water signifying her ability to contain her emotions.

However, the presence of water is also a form of Mitsuko’s pestering and it is because of her that Yoshimi is immersed in water and can’t avoid the overwhelming need to feel; though it leads to the absolution of Ikuko. Is it ridiculous to suggest Mitsuko provides a stronger unification between Yoshimi and Ikuko? A scene of Ikuko waiting outside the elevator door for her mother to get out only to be drenched by a torrent of water and she lies there crying out for her mother. Here, the water represents the transference of Mitsuko’s overwhelming emotions that she died with: anger, loss, loneliness and rejection are passed onto Ikuko. However, a sixteen-year-old Ikuko returns to finally understand what her mother did. Yoshimi died and became the energy of the water, yet once it was volatile is now subdued and because of her death, Ikuko will stay safe from Mitsuko.

Symbolism is a strong presence concerning Mitsuko; a technique with which her voiceless character can be expressed. It seems whatever is directly related to her is deciphered as some motive she has for threatening Ikuko’s life. One of the objects that refer to Mitsuko is her red bag and its different placing during the film.

It represents her impurity (masquerading as a sinless article), a source of communication between herself and Yoshimi. Firstly, the bag is found by Ikuko on the roof indicating an impending attraction between one little girl’s innocence to another ones corruption. Mitsuko plants the bag as a trap for Ikuko to be lulled to her death place. The bag’s second appearance is in the bins outside the apartment block, signifying how rejected Mitsuko feels by her own mother. Even though Yoshimi (a maternal representation) put it there, the act is telling of the remorse Mitsuko felt when she didn’t feel loved enough by her own mother. Its third and last appearance is in Ikuko’s school bag. The film soon ends and it’s clear how committed Mitsuko is in taking over Ikuko’s existence as Yoshimi’s daughter. The idea of replacement suggests how confused Mitsuko becomes through the neglect she suffered that she’s determined to be a daughter to any mother. The relationship the particular mother and daughter who happen to move in to the apartment below her own is a union of such solidarity of which she is attracted to. This emotion of longing being the most prominently felt before she drowned in the water tank on the roof.

The significance of the red colouring of the bag interprets as Mitsuko’s tainted innocence and her manipulation of Ikuko. Mitsuko fights hard to jeopardise Ikuko’s childhood to compensate for her own loss. The subtle shrewdness of Mitsuko’s spirit is what is most frightening because she recognizes the allure of which her scarred character has upon Ikuko’s purity that wouldn’t resist, even if it could. The bag itself is an archetype of Mitsuko’s life and emotions during her last day alive. 

Mitsuko’s yellow raincoat is a symbol of her shelter from debilitating emotions, in short: her innocence. She wears this during the past memories of the movie as the recollection denotes who she once was. At no other time is she seen to wear it because her innocence is what’s missing in the present. As water stands for overwhelming emotion, it’s uncomplicated to deduce that her raincoat is a protective shield from that, but it is what consumes her to death.

Is this a message? One of which could be that too much mollycoddling may cause a curious child and that very curiosity hurts them in the end. On the other hand, a child runs wild if not given enough attention and is exposed to knowledge and experience beyond their years. Probably both representations are adequate. All three females (Yoshimi, Mitsuko and Ikuko) have similar paths in their childhood, but different outcomes. Mitsuko is a curious child who explores the knowledge of her neglect; Ikuko is sheltered and still absorbs hardship and Yoshimi seems to fluctuate between both states of curiosity and ignorance. There’s no best outcome, none of them have a great outcome; they’re just outcomes.

No child has the ‘best’ childhood and no matter what age people are, they will always suffer losses, but there are triumphs. Mitsuko gained a mother, Yoshimi protected her daughter and Ikuko will always know and have the best love a mother could provide.