Here in the US, films like The Ring and The Grudge became the best-known entries in terms of late 1990s/early 2000s Japanese horror. However, those didn’t exist in a vacuum, and 2002’s Dark Water offers another example of the genre.

We meet Yoshimi Matsubara (Hitomi Kuroki), a single mother going through a contentious divorce from Kunio Hamada (Fumiyo Kohinata). Custody of six-year-old Ikuko (Rio Kanno) causes much of the friction, especially when he uses her earlier struggles with mental health against her.

Yoshimi and Ikuko settle into a grotty but affordable place where strange things start to occur. Water leaks cause concerns, and Ikuko develops some perplexing behaviors.

Already psychologically fragile due to childhood issues, Yoshimi starts to go over the edge as the various problems intensify. The movie follows these areas as Yoshimi questions her own sanity.

Like The Grudge and The Ring, Dark Water received it own Hollywood adaptation. With Jennifer Connelly as the lead, that one debuted in 2005.

Whereas the US Grudge and Ring translations made buckets of money, that 2005 Water found a considerably smaller audience. Even with a fairly low $30 million budget, its $68 million worldwide gross meant it didn’t turn a profit.

Which explains why we never get Dark Water 2: Darker Water. (2019 did produce Dark Waters, but that offered a wholly unconnected story of corporate malfeasance.)

Usually I would expect the original version of a movie to work better than its Hollywood conversion. Too often, the US updates dumb down the material and lose what made it interesting in the first place.

Here, however, I think the American version of Water becomes the superior one. This seems true in part due to the work of their respective lead actors.

As I noted in my review of the 2005 Water, Connelly offered a strong performance that benefited from her refusal to play Over the Top. Connelly’s turn made the role realistic and didn’t stretch into cheap horror theatrics.

On the other hand, Kiroki makes Yoshimi and shrill and unbalanced from the start. She telegraphs too much and doesn’t represent the character’s slow descent into madness.

The 2002 Water becomes less of a “slow burn” than it needs to be, largely due to this aforementioned telegraphing. Unfortunately, this doesn’t stop with Kiroki’s soap opera performance.

In addition, the movie’s music pushes and pulses in a way that leaves little room for viewer interpretation. Visuals also lean toward the overly creepy side of the street, another factor that ensures the flick lacks subtlety.

All these overt attempts to weird out and scare the viewer work in the opposite manner. Rather than find myself disturbed by the eerie story, instead I wound up annoyed by the cheap manipulation.

Plot points also seem easy to predict, and not because I already watched a rendition of the story. I saw the US Water 19 years ago so I don’t maintain detailed memories of narrative development.

No, matters feel simple to anticipate because they lack creativity. Pretty much everything here follows an easily discerned route that fails to develop into anything especially intriguing.

Toss in an unnecessary epilogue and the 2002 Water disappoints. I hoped for a creepy horror tale but found a lackluster and trite effort instead.

Dark Water appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Despite an intentionally drab vibe, the Dolby Vision image satisfied.

Stylistic choices meant delineation could occasionally sag, as interiors sometimes leaned a little soft. However, this felt intentional, and the vast majority of the movie seemed accurate and concise.

Neither jagged edges nor moiré effects materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain felt somewhat heavy but appropriate, and print flaws remained absent.

As implied by my remarks about the movie’s drab feel, the palette of Water seemed low-key and favored a mix of cold blues or subdued ambers/yellows. Though the colors never jumped out, they suited the story, and HDR gave the hues greater depth.

Blacks seemed dark and tight, while low-light shots appeared smooth and clear. HDR granted extra punch to whites and contrast. Within photographic decisions, this picture worked well.

Similar thoughts greeted the atmospheric DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Dark Water. As befit the tale, the mix emphasized creepy ambience over more overt jolts.

Music showed nice stereo spread, and effects broadened around the room in a fairly satisfying manner, with an emphasis on a whole lot of rain. A few elements came across as a bit “speaker-specific”, but I still thought the soundscape filled the spectrum well for this moody mix.

Audio quality worked fine, with speech that appeared natural and concise. Music offered full and dynamic tones.

Effects came across as accurate and robust. Though not a terribly active soundtrack, the mix seemed appropriate for the narrative.

When we move to extras, we find a mix of video programs. Ghosts, Rings and Water goes for 26 minutes, two seconds and features writer/director Hideo Nakata.

Nakata discusses aspects of his career as well as Water. Nakata provides an engaging look at his work, especially when he goes into his Hollywood experiences.

Family Terrors spans 20 minutes, 19 seconds. Here we get notes from author Koji Suzuki.

Unsurprisingly, Suzuki talks about the origins of his story, aspects of his work and the tale's adaptation to the movie screen. Suzuki delivers a strong discussion of the subject matter.

Next comes Visualizing Horror. It lasts 19 minutes, 15 seconds and involves director of photography Junichiro Hayashi.

“Horror” offers his thoughts about horror movies and what got him into filmmaking as well as aspects of his job and his work on Water. This turns into another frank and informative reel.

Shot for the film’s 2002 release, a Making Of featurette fills 15 minutes, 51 seconds.

It boasts shots from the sets. This delivers a fun "fly on the wall" view of the production, and I especially like that we sometimes see the movie's finished scenes in the bottom right corner of the screen.

More archival materials follow as we get three separate Interviews. These provide info from actor Hitomi Kuroki (8:00), actor Asami Mizukawa (4:39) and composer Shikao Suga (2:55).

Kuroki looks at what brought her to the project, her character/performance and aspects of the shoot. She offers a short but fairly interesting chat.

Mizakawa presents thoughts about her role and the film. We don't get many real insights, but I do like shots from her audition.

Finally, Suga talks about his composition for the movie. Too brief for much detail, we do get a decent overview, at least.

Ads complete the set. We get the movie’s trailer, its teaser and three TV spots.

Oddly dull and uncompelling, Dark Water provides a rare example of a movie that worked better via its Hollywood remake. The original comes with an iffy lead performance and a lack of tension. The 4K UHD provides positive picture and audio as well as a decent array of bonus materials. I wanted to like Dark Water but it never engaged me.