Premonition

Horrorphile

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Yogen (Premonition)

February 1st 2010 03:29

Premonition (2004), a supernatural J-Horror directed by Norio Tsuruta who made Ring 0: Birthday (2000), has a great premise and some excellent set-pieces, but is marred by overwrought acting and a very ordinary visual narrative that makes the whole movie feel like a television episode to some less-than-stellar Twilight Zone-styled series (which curiously it is: J-Horror Theatre Series 2).

Hideki Satomi (Hiroshi Mikami) is traveling in the car with his wife Ayaka (Noriko Sakai) and daughter Nana (Hana Inoue). His laptop runs out of battery power, and he urgently needs to email some work documents, so his wife returns to a payphone by the side of the country road where he can make the transmission through dial up.

Hiroshi Mikami as Hideki Satomi

In the phone booth Hideki sees a newspaper story of a tragic road accident: the victim is his daughter Nana. He is confused and concerned. Supposedly his daughter dies after a runaway truck ploughs into the car. Hideki watches as his wife tries to unbuckle Nana from her seat, but Nana’s dress is caught in the buckle. Hideki sees the truck bearing down …

Noriko Sakai as Ayaka Satomi

Three years later Hideki is now divorced from Ayaka, but cannot escape the past. A student of his, Sayuri Wakakubo (Maki Horikita), has seen the same newspaper page declaring her own death. Later that night Hideki also sees the newspaper page, it is menacing him. He tries to warn Wakakubo, but is too late. The premonition curse is spreading. Hideki is desperate to learn why and to halt its course, but fate is fate, destiny is destiny, and Hell is on Earth, which is where Hideki finds himself after he manages to avert the future and save his daughter. Or so it seems.

Like a nightmarish Groundhog Day, Premonition builds steadily and further into darkness as Hideki grapples with his ever-changing reality, past, present and future. Can he actually save his daughter? Can he save his wife? Can he save himself?? Hideki is trapped in shifting realities, unsure which is the real now.

Premonition Hiroshi Mikami and Maki Horikita

Hideki and Sayuri (Maki Horikita)

I wanted to like Premonition more so, but I couldn’t get past the terrible acting from Hiroshi Mikami. Noriko Sakai wasn’t much better. The pair of them acted like they were straight from some part-time school for soap opera wannabes; all wide-eyed and furrowed brow. For the movie to be genuinely unnerving the acting needed to be well above average. This is a psychological horror, dealing with the tragedy of a ruined family, the sacrifice of a tortured father, the haunting of the future foretold; a high level of engagement is paramount, but denied.

Based on the manga Kyoufu Shinbun (Newspaper of Terror) by Jiro Tsunoda, Premonition is strictly fare for a rainy day, plagued by more trappings than highlights. Still, there are a handful of excellent shock moments (the newspaper plastered to the window, the young woman’s brutally torn face), but a pity virtually all the special effects are low-rent CGI. Great poster art I might add, although that specific image never features in the movie, it’s more metaphorical.

Here's the trailer:

Premonition DVD is courtesy of Madman Entertainment, many thanks!

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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18 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by The Master

February 1st 2010 17:41

"I wanted to like Premonition more so, but I couldn’t get past the terrible acting from Hiroshi Mikami. Noriko Sakai wasn’t much better. The pair of them acted like they were straight from some part-time school for soap opera wannabes"

ROFL!!!! that was classic, unfortunately that also covers most of the actors of today. I'd still watch it and perhaps like it though, my Horror DVD collection also includes Japanese Horror.

Comment by Bryn

February 2nd 2010 00:04

February 18th 2010 04:19

Horrorphile

I liked the vulnerability she portrayed in that movie. A solid rainy day bittersweet comedy you can watch with the Mrs.

Comment by The Master

February 18th 2010 19:17

Never finished seeing it all the way

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