Prémonition

Excellent Japanese psychological horror film.

Not a lot of blood or scariness; this film is a mind game.

Long time Japanese actor Hiroshi Mikami sees his daughter's death minutes before it happens. His wife, Noriko Sakai (star of the Japanese version of The Grudge 2), thinks he is crazy and they split.

But, she investigates further and finds a strange Japanese legend about premonition.

They find out what happens if you try to change it, and he has to choose his destiny.

Tense drama, slow at times, but a great ending.

A very creative Japanese horror movie, in the style of Ju-On. It's fairly slow-paced, being character and plot driven, but this is the right approach due to its clever, intelligent, and emotional script.

A man starts receiving a newspaper which predicts tragic future events, sort of the "Early Edition" TV show's premise, except in the case of the E.E., the purpose was to give the paper's recipient ample warning to prevent the tragedy. Here, by contrast, the intention is clearly evil. The newspaper appears in an always sinister way, even "chasing" the man sometimes, and forcing him to see future events, which he learns he is not allowed to interfere with; if he does, he will unleash grotesque consequences. Then the paper torments him with a story about his own family.

The characters are very easy to identify with as innocents who have been cast into this danger, and have done nothing wrong, rather than the usual horror movie victims who are evil and/or stupid. The story unfolds in a the fashion of learning new information along with the main character. The terror of the people in jeopardy is well defined, and the story reaches a touching and poignant denouement. Worth watching.

In Norio Tsuruta's Premonition, a malevolent supernatural newspaper selects victims at random and reveals to them disastrous headlines from the near-future. When family man Hideki Satomi finds himself haunted by the evil rag, he enters a nightmare world from which the only escape appears to be death.

Like Final Destination, the US horror hit that also dealt with foresight and cheating fate, Premonition is a supernatural chiller that opens with a bang: protagonist Hideki witnesses the death of his young daughter in an auto accident immediately after learning of her impending fate via a mysterious paper. It's an excellent beginning to the film: suspenseful, exciting and very harrowing.

Unfortunately, after this promising start, the plot slowly begins to lose momentum and despite great performances from its cast and one or two outstanding scares, the whole film looks set to be a huge disappointment. To his credit though, director Tsuruta picks up the pace again in the film's dying moments for a crazy finalé which sees Hideki leaping through time and space in a desperate bid to change history.

All in all, I found this inventive slice of J-Horror to be a reasonably fun ride, despite leaving me with a ton of unanswered questions (Why does the paper like to torment people? Why does it choose Hideki? Who prints the bloody thing? If it turns up on a Sunday, do you get supplements?) and fans of the Asian horror scene should still give it a go if they get the chance.

6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.

While driving through the countryside with his wife and daughter,Hideki Satomi stops at the phone booth to send an email.There he discovers a scrap of newsprint with his daughter's picture on it,and an article describing her death in a traffic accident.With a sense of horrible premonition and foreboding,he witnesses the terrifying automobile accident that had been accurately described in the article.The grieving father becomes obsessed with uncovering the mystery of the newspaper."Yogen" is the second installment in Taka Ischige sponsored "J-Horror Theater" series.The film is not as effectively creepy as "Kansen",but the acting is great and the beginning is truly powerful.The climax is pretty satisfying,unfortunately the middle section of the film leads to nowhere.Still if you like sophisticated horror films that deal with fate and its consequences give "Yogen" a look.7 out of 10.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be able to see into the future? To predict events before they happen? Well, PREMONITION presents us with the darker, bleaker side of this concept.

What if you knew about an upcoming tragedy or disaster? Would you attempt to alter the outcome? Unfortunately, in this film, there appears to be a high price to be paid, regardless of what is done. Or, not done. If your itch is scratched by stories about otherworldly events and the creeping unknown, you've hit pay dirt!...