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Synopsis:
After terrifying audiences worldwide with the blockbuster J-horror classic Ring and its sequel, director Hideo Nakata returned to the genre for Dark Water, another highly atmospheric, and critically acclaimed, tale of the supernatural which took the common theme of the “dead wet girl” to new heights of suspense and drama.

Based upon on a short story by Ring author Koji Suzuki, Dark Water follows Yoshimi, a single mother struggling to win sole custody of her only child, Ikuko. When they move into a new home within a dilapidated and long-forgotten apartment complex, Yoshimi begins to experience startling visions and unexplainable sounds, calling her mental well-being into question, and endangering not only her custody of Ikuko, but perhaps their lives as well.

Beautifully shot by the same cinematographer as Ring and Pulse, and featuring an especially unnerving sound design, Dark Water successfully merges spine-tingling tension with a family’s heart-wrenching emotional struggle, creating one of the very finest and most unsettling contemporary Japanese horror films.

4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS


• 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Original lossless 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
• Optional English subtitles
• Ghosts, Rings and Water – interview with director Hideo Nakata
• Family Terrors – interview with author Koji Suzuki
• Visualizing Horror – interview with cinematographer Junichiro Hayashi
• Archive interviews with actors Hitomi Kuroki & Asami Mizukawa and theme song artist Shikao Suga
• Original ‘making-of’ documentary
• Trailers and TV Spots
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Peter Strain
• Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring writing on the film by David Kalat and Michael Gingold

Good to see Arrow releasing more J-horror. I easily preferred this to Ringu.

This is being released as a Dual Format edition on October 10th according to the Arrow Store listing that was taken down last week (clear indication it'll get a joint UK/US release, and will be announced formally tomorrow).

No word on whether there'll be a steelbook edition yet, but Audition was popular so I'd imagine they'd do the same here.

Hope there's more J-horror on the way. Definitely want Ju-On the most (one of my favourite horrors), but Ringu would also be good.

If they do Ju-On, I'd love the chance to see the two 2000 TV movies made before the features (hint, hint!)

colinr0380 wrote:If they do Ju-On, I'd love the chance to see the two 2000 TV movies made before the features (hint, hint!)

Me too! I'd love just Ju-on: The Grudge on its own at the very least, but if they could include the sequel (Ju-on: The Grudge 2) and/or the two previous TV movies (Ju-on: The Curse 1&2), I'd be over the moon. I've been meaning to buy the sequel actually, but the original is by far my favourite J-horror.

Back to Dark Water, early Amazon listings suggest there won't be a steelbook this time. A bit of a shame, but I guess they're not as confident with this one as they were with Audition (for whatever reason).

Per Arrow's Facebook, the US edition of this has been pushed to October 25 (UK version out today).

Most sites appear to have the October 25 change, but Amazon did not correct the release date. They have the movie in stock. My pre-order shipped.

Beaver.

I have the disc, and though I really dig the movie, the transfer left me scratching my head. is it supposed to be THIS soft and muddy looking?

This is most likely an out-dated master (sadly). While it could be supposed to look murky, it seems to have a heavily electronic look which I don't think it should have.

Dr Svet's making a right tit of himself in the accompany topic on the blu-ray.com, where he uses Criterion's weak-tea SWORD OF DOOM transfer to slamn Arrow's Nikkatsu transfers.

I'm sad to report I'm the one who lit his fire (and then fueled it). I should know better.

I'll be interested to see this release in motion; based on the caps it looks quite similar to the old SD (not bad, to my eyes, but maybe not quite HD-ready).

Some comments imply the black levels haven't been set right.

tenia wrote:I'm sad to report I'm the one who lit his fire (and then fueled it). I should know better.

Yes, you should - didn't you get the memo? He's right, you're wrong.

Just keep throwing the Thieves' Highway controversy back at him.

What A Disgrace wrote:I have the disc, and though I really dig the movie, the transfer left me scratching my head. is it supposed to be THIS soft and muddy looking?

Absolutely not. I saw the film at the theatre and it looked like what 35mm should look like, not like this sorry mess. Only lasted 20 minutes with this travesty of a transfer. I suppose you can do an HD transfer of an SD source and then call it HD, but it's still misleading.

Lost Highway wrote:I suppose you can do an HD transfer of an SD source and then call it HD, but it's still misleading.

Just because it's bad doesn't mean it's SD. Just because it's HD doesn't mean it's good.
This is from an HD Telecine. It's crappy, it's old, it's full of tube telecine noise, but it's HD (just like a decade-old magenta-pushed-to-death MGM HD transfer is HD, for instance).

tenia wrote:

Lost Highway wrote:I suppose you can do an HD transfer of an SD source and then call it HD, but it's still misleading.

Just because it's bad doesn't mean it's SD. Just because it's HD doesn't mean it's good.
This is from an HD Telecine. It's crappy, it's old, it's full of tube telecine noise, but it's HD (just like a decade-old magenta-pushed-to-death MGM HD transfer is HD, for instance).

Nothing about it looks like HD, so I don't see the point of your arguement. I watch everything on a projector and most DVDs look better than this and that's not a hyperbolic exaggeration, I genuinely mean that. There is no fine detail or definition, no film grain, no pores on the skin visible. You can parrot what Arrow tell you or you can trust your eyes to understand that this is not HD as we understand it. Whether it is technically HD by the standards of 2002 is besides the point, that still doesn't make the viewing experience any better. I'm not here to argue a theoretical point, this smeary mess should never have been released by Arrow.

He's not defending it. He is just pointing out it is an HD transfer, just a really shitty one. And I'm not defending it either. It looks pretty awful.

Lost Highway wrote:

tenia wrote:

Lost Highway wrote:I suppose you can do an HD transfer of an SD source and then call it HD, but it's still misleading.

Just because it's bad doesn't mean it's SD. Just because it's HD doesn't mean it's good.
This is from an HD Telecine. It's crappy, it's old, it's full of tube telecine noise, but it's HD (just like a decade-old magenta-pushed-to-death MGM HD transfer is HD, for instance).

Nothing about it looks like HD, so I don't see the point of your arguement. I watch everything on a projector and most DVDs look better than this and that's not a hyperbolic exaggeration, I genuinely mean that. There is no fine detail or definition, no film grain, no pores on the skin visible. You can parrot what Arrow tell you or you can trust your eyes to understand that this is not HD as we understand it. Whether it is technically HD by the standards of 2002 is besides the point, that still doesn't make the viewing experience any better. I'm not here to argue a theoretical point, this smeary mess should never have been released by Arrow.

All HD means is that the final video stream has a resolution of a value greater than 720p.

Lost Highway wrote:Nothing about it looks like HD

tenia wrote:Just because it's bad doesn't mean it's SD. Just because it's HD doesn't mean it's good.

Lost Highway wrote:I watch everything on a projector and most DVDs look better than this and that's not a hyperbolic exaggeration, I genuinely mean that.

I'm not saying, it's actually very much possible considering the PQ scores of this disc. But again : it doesn't mean it didn't have a HD workflow.

TMDaines wrote:All HD means is that the final video stream has a resolution of a value greater than 720p.

Yup. Which actually is something I myself didn't want to believe 8 years ago. To me, a movie in HD was meaning good BD-quality.

4K upgrade coming in March