DARK WATER (Honogurai mizu no soko kara, 2001)

Japan. Direction: Hideo Nakata. Production: Taka Ichise / OZ Production. Screenplay: Yoshihiro Nakamura, Ken-Ichi Suzuki. Photography: Junichiro Hayashi. Music: Kenji Kawai. Edition: Nobuyuki Takahashi. Cast: Hitomi Kuroki, Rio Kanno, Mirei Oguchi, Asami Mizukawa, Fumiyo Kohinata. Running time: 97 min

LANGUAGE: Japanese / SUBTITLES: Basque

A sad mother attempts to maintain custody over her five-year-old daughter, and moves with her to a humble, mournful apartment. A loner girl, trapped between the corridors of a troubling building. A large water stain that drips from the flat above, closed off between the doors of a dark lift. A young girl who went missing years ago without a trace. A swollen Japan, moist under a rain that never seems to stop falling. After changing the course of contemporary Japanese horror cinema with The Ring (1997), Hideo Nakata ushered in the new millennium with this terrifying film that was remade in the United States by Walter Salles.