Original language:
Japanese Translated from: English
Authors: Suzuki, Koji
Translated by: Ruzgys, Linas
Full translated source bibliographical description:
Suzuki, Koji. Dark Water. Vertical,Inc. 2004.
ISBN: 9955-9725-5-6
Published in: Kaunas
Published on: 2005
Publisher: Obuolys
Koji Suzuki is known for being the author of critically acclaimed „The Ring“ and is also being titled as Japanese Stephen King. In this book he tells seven different stories that share one theme- water. These are short tales about everyday people that create a creepy atmosphere. Koji Suzuki is gifted with special talent to make simple objects and situations we encounter in daily life seem spooky.
In prologue we are being introduced to two of book’s bridging characters- a grandmother and her granddaughter, who loves spooky stories. Grandmother wants to give her granddaughter a very precious gift that she found on the shore but for it to make a bigger impact she decides to make up and tell her seven different stories where water is a recurring theme. In epilogue, we find out what that gift was.
Characters in these stories are very varied – from an aggressive fisher, theatre troupe and a lonely mother with daughter to rich people cruise and speleologists, who explore caves. The stories tend to scare in different ways- paranormal activity, psychological terror or most prominently a mix of those two. Every lover of horror genre will find something for themselves here.
One of the stories became a cult film in Japan and in year 2005 an American version hit the big screens starring an “Oscar” winner Jennifer Connelly. Even though western version was more popular, extreme fans of Koji Suzuki think that Japanese version was more honest to the source material. The writer himself states that he does not enjoy any horror movies at all.
The author was born in year 1957, Hamamatsu, approximately 260 km from Tokyo where he now lives with his family. Before becoming a writer he worked as a teacher in cram school where he used to tell his students short spooky stories just for fun. In a very non-traditional way K. Suzuki decided to quit his job and become a nanny for his two daughters while his wife worked on her career. That’s when he began writing and his books became popular all around the globe.
Koji Suzuki has also written a few books about fatherhood problems in Japan. He is a harsh critic of a traditional Japanese family model, where father works so much that he doesn’t see his children and only is used as a walking wallet. Some shards of this theme we can also find in his horror literature as well. K. Suzuki also writes children books and translates them from English to Japanese as he is a fluent English speaker.