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After the
death of her professor, a young female reporter
finds out about something called the death water. Legend
has it that the spring water beneath her town is cursed
and that anyone who drinks of it will go crazy and commit
suicide. With people dying mysterious deaths every day,
the reporter decides to investigate this curse. But even
if the legend is real, what can she do about it?
Mizuchi brings us back to the early 2000's, when Japanese
horror movies were the best movies you could get your
hands on, and while Mizuchi might not be as good as the
classics, it's still nice to see a Japanese horror movie
with atmosphere in it once again. In the vein of Kairo,
this mildly entertaining chiller thriller tells the
story of a young female reporter who investigates the
curse of the death water. The numbers of suicides have
increased drastically over the past couple of weeks,
could this be due to the cursed water? And if so, why
now, where did it come from and is there any way to
stop the curse before it kills her as well?
As you can hear, it's not the most original horror movie
ever, but at least I was happy to see that there were
no creepy ghost girls in sight. Just like with Kairo,
the movie doesn't rely on cheap scares and loud noises
(even if there are a couple to be found in here), instead
it focuses on creating a creepy atmosphere and a mysterious
plot. Probably not a movie for people with short attention
span, the story takes its time to develop (it does tend
to drag a little every here and there). But if you, like
me, enjoy a movie that takes its time to build a solid
foundation for its story (believe me, finding plot holes
in this movie is not easy), you'll probably end up
enjoying Mizuchi as much as I did. Hell, who knew that
a movie about water could be so exciting?
While South Korea spends a lot of time making their
movies look good, Japan seems to do just the opposite.
Just like with many other Japanese horror movies, the
movie looks old and tired with really flat colours,
which unfortunately works against the movie. It's not
very nice to look at, even if the directing is decent.
Luckily, the actors are good enough to weigh this out
but I have to tell you, I would've enjoyed it a whole
lot more had it looked better.
Ultimately, Mizuchi (which by the way translates into
Death Water) is a quite forgettable horror movie even
though it's got a whole lot of atmosphere and some
genuinely creepy scenes. Unfortunately, the story isn't
quite strong enough to keep one entertained for 100
minutes, and I felt that it could have used a better
pacing at times (even though I appreciated the fact
that it took its time to build a solid foundation).
If you're a fan of Kairo, you might want to give it a
try as it plays like Japanese horror movies used to
do a couple of years ago.
We get some needles in ones eyes, not very gory though.
The piano music wasn't exactly creative but it worked
well enough. Could probably have benefited from a tighter
score though.
Despite the fact that the movie's drenched with atmosphere,
it still didn't manage to be all that great and ends up
being a rather forgettable horror movie. Even if the
story is fairly original, it's all just a bit too slow.
If you haven't got anything else to watch, check it out,
but don't expect too much.
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