Some very light scuffs on the disc, pre-viewed for quality and played fine. A code in thin tip black marker is on the label side. Case has a faint sticker shadow on the lower left cover. Movie is slightly windowboxed so you can use one of your zoom modes on newer sets to increase the picture size a little more.

No longer being pressed it is going Out Of Print and becoming rarer. This is the original version (from the writing and directing team of 'the Ring') that Hollywood re-made.

Recently divorced Yoshimi Matsubara (Hitomi Kuroki) finds herself scrutinized by lawyers when her ex-husband seeks custody of their five-year-old daughter Ikuko (Rio Kanno). Accused of being mentally unfit, the woman admits to once suffering from depression after proof-reading a string of graphically violent novels;

however, yellow-hued flashbacks tell us that her disturbance goes back much further--to the time in her childhood when she was neglected by her divorcing parents. With the law tenuously on her side, Yoshimi is allowed to keep her daughter (for a trial period), and after a long day of apartment hunting, the two end up at an old high-rise in a poor section of the city.

The building is dark, dank and dingy, and their are puddles in the elevator and halls, but being unemployed, Yoshimi can't afford anything better. Soon after moving in, Ikuko draws her mother's attention to an ugly water stain on their ceiling, which grows larger each day. The apartment superintendent is informed, but apparently in no hurry to fix it.

As the days pass, Yoshimi catches fleeting glimpses of a small figure in a yellow raincoat wandering the halls and hears the pitter-patter of little feet coming through her ceiling, even though the flat above them is supposedly unoccupied. Worst of all, a child's red purse keeps popping up in unexpected places no matter how many times it is thrown away.

Thinking that her ex-husband is playing cruel jokes to break her down, Yoshimi hysterically confronts him during one of their mediations. A sympathetic male lawyer warns her to pull herself together: "If you continue along this path, growing weaker by the day, it will be nearly impossible for you to gain custody."

Meanwhile, Ikuko, who has taken to playing with an imaginary friend, collapses during a game of Hide and Seek, sending a frantic Yoshimi to her kindergarten where a child's drawing catches the woman's eye. It's little more than a stick figure, but with its crayon impressions of a yellow dress and a bright red bag, the portrait is unmistakeable. A scrawled message reads, "Come home soon, Mitsuko." "Her mother abandoned her," offers the school principal. "You never heard of her...the girl who disappeared two years ago?"

Later, as she sleeps by Ikuko's side, Yoshimi's face is touched by the dripping from the dark stain above her head and she has an eerie dream about the faceless Mitsuko entering their apartment building during a torrential rain. When she awakens, Ikuko is gone. After a frantic search, the child is found sleepwalking in the apartment above, which is ankle-deep in water cascading from open faucets. As Yoshimi carrys her daughter out, she feels compelled to look at the names listed above the door. What she reads sends her heart racing:

"Shoji and Mitsuko Kawai." Unable to convince anyone that the building is haunted without appearing insane, Yoshimi reluctantly resigns to solving the mystery of Mitsuko's death and appeasing the restless spirit before it can supersede her ex-husband's efforts and take her daughter away forever.

Optional original Japanese or English dub soundtracks. Has the inserts included.