Browse: Japanese DVD's / Page 10


View Larger Image
Dark Water
Director: Hideo Nakata
Number of Items: 1
Format: Color, Dolby
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Running Time: 100 minutes
Studio: A.D. Vision
Product Group: DVD
Release Date: 2005-06-21

Buy from Amazon





"a masterpiece of J-horror"
This is one of the best J-Horror films I've seen, and it's a great example of why I prefer, in many cases, the Japanese take on horror over the typical Hollywood treatment. Almost every scene is saturated in water, as well as atmosphere galore, and visually, it's beautiful. It makes you think, and it has it's fair share of scares too. I'm excited to see the American remake with Jennifer Connelly, though I hope they hold true to the source material. If the remake is dumbed down and changed for American audiences, they'll miss the point entirely. Definitely check out this original classic...



"Disorienting"
I didn't dislike this movie, but I do dislike when plot twists end up changing the entire story from one side to another entirely. The movie was creepy even with the regular water, and the American version's (I like Jennifer Connelly, but American versions are always changed with the most stupid details - Ringu and The Ring 2 for example)going to have brown water, but I'm wondering what else will be changed to up the scare tactics? I'm also thinkingalot will be changed to avoid confusion. I never saw the clues in the movie and the end came as a shock to me.



"HORRIBLE"
This junk pretty much sums up all that's bad about Japanese horror flims.Personally, I have yet to watch an impressive J-horror flick, but some were at least entertaining. Actually , this one can be entertaining too if you're in the mood to see just how bad such films can get. From the beginning , it's pure cheese - some water dripping from the ceiling, ghostly girl popping up everywhere along with her personal belongings and so on. And OF COURSE, it's all shrouded in a deep mystery - who the girl is, what she's doing there, blah ,blah,blah. Sounds familiar? Well, to top it off, it's all presented in the most impressively mundane format (homage to other J-horror classics, perhaps?), so in the end it's pretty much up to your imagination (hopefully you have one, unlike this Japanese directors) to answer the above questions and figure out what exactly is going on. In other words: unless you want to show your friends just how bad J-horror can get, avoid this at all costs... damn, I hear something dripping..what the #$^& ?! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



"Dark Water a fantastic ride"
Ringu, which inspired a sequel, a television series, and a nearly identical American remake (The Ring), it's not surprising that Japanese horror specialist Hideo Nakata would turn once again to household objects as a source of terror. What Ringu did for television sets and video tapes, Dark Water will, for the faint of heart, do for kitchen faucets and leaky ceilings. Nakata certainly can't be blamed for going with what works, but if Dark Water seems at first like a cynical recycling of a successful formula, its director has developed into enough of a formalist to at least make it reasonably compelling. Set in a dreary, rain-soaked suburban landscape of concrete block apartment buildings, some of the film's subtly composed long takes wouldn't be out of place in a Michelangelo Antonioni movie. Its atmosphere is its best asset. The final payoff is nowhere near as elementally terrifying as Ringu's most famous sequence, but enough chills are delivered along the way to keep things interesting. Because it is similar but a bit less effective than its predecessor, Dark Water could end up being a transitional fanastic and really good horror flick you wont be disapointed.



"..."
This movie is only worth owning if you are a hardcore fan of the whole creepy ghost kid niche of Asian horror because this movie doesn't really offer much else other than that. A woman is going through a divorce and struggling to keep custody of her child from her ex husband. In the process the former house wife has to find a job and most importantly, a new apartment to live in... Yeah you can see where this is going. So the new apartment starts getting leaks (SUSPENSEFUL and FRIGHTENING leaks) and she sees odd looking girl who is not supposed to be living in the apartment, and lot's of water and raining and the mystery of how the girl died for that matter (gee I wonder how the girl died?)

Throw in a stupid twist and you basically have a film that has been done a hundred times before in Japan. At least the ghost doesn't meow in this movie. I can't imagine how bad the Hollywood remake is going to be after seeing this floater.







1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7


In association with Amazon.com