PREMONITION

(A.k.a. YOGEN; J-HORROR THEATER VOLUME 2)

Hideki (Hiroshi Mikami, PARASITE EVE) types away furiously at his laptop as his wife Ayaka (Noriko Sakai, JU-ON: THE GRUDGE 2) drives him and their daughter Nana (Hana Inoue) back from her father's.

When his laptop fails to send an important e-mail, Hideki requests that they turn the car around and go to a phone box they recently passed. At the phone box Hideki stands waiting for his e-mail to send, when suddenly he notices a piece of old newspaper wedged beneath the telephone. When he unfolds it he is horrified to see an article telling him Nana has died in a road accident.

In the car, Nana's seatbelt has become jammed and Ayaka cannot release it. She crosses the road to get Hideki's help - and a huge truck comes smashing into the car, prompting it to burst into flames.

As the emergency services and media gather at the scene, Hideki searches frantically for the newspaper - but it's gone.

Three years later, Hideki and Ayaka are divorced but still keep in touch. Hideki is a lecturer at a college, while his wife is a scientific researcher. She is studying the clairvoyant abilities of a medium, and in particular presses her for any information on a phenomena known as "the newspaper of terror". The medium warns Ayaka off investigating stories of people who've seen the predictive newspapers - saying it is far too dangerous to get involved with.

Meanwhile Hideki begins to see the newspaper again, this time foretelling of a student in his class who will become the latest victim of a random knife attacker. Plagued by guilt over not reacting soon enough to his last premonition, Hideki resolves to try and save the girl.

Ayaka, in the meantime, receives a sinister call from the medium that says "It's too late". She rushes round the medium's house to find her dead, face down with a photograph of Hideki in her hand. While at the medium's dwelling Ayaka also finds the telephone number of a researcher renowned for his studies into the newspaper phenomenon - Rei Kigata.

For the first time in three years, Ayaka believes Hideki's story of the newspaper, and vows to help him come to terms with his curse, and to solve the riddle that threatens to kill him.

There's a seemingly never-ending slew of Asian horror films nowadays, and most of them are too slick and polished (not to mention slow) to have the desired effect. PREMONITION is slightly more interesting, at least to begin with, thanks largely to the emotionally engaging performances from Mikami and Sakai.

The early road accident scene is genuinely jolting, and sets the scene nicely for some creepy goings-on in the film's first half. But, the deeper the characters delve into the mysterious Kigata's past, the sillier the film becomes. What starts as intriguing and quietly disturbing stuff turns into corny horror fare with hallucinations, nightmares, ghostly images - the full works.

The film loses points for it's ending too. While the finale does serve a thematic purpose it also fails to resolve much. There are too many questions left unanswered.

Still, PREMONITION is marginally better than the last few Asian horror films I've sat through, and held my attention throughout. It's keenly shot and superbly lit, with good performances and a pleasantly brisk pace.

Tartan have treated the film very well on DVD.

PREMONITION is presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 and looks superb. The Japanese audio, available in 2.0, 5.1 and 5.1 DTS mixes, is equally impressive - as are the easily readable removable English subtitles. The film can be accessed via 16 chapters.

Extras commence with a selection of interviews. We get six of the cast members discussing their characters, and director Norio Tsuruta (SCARECROW; RING 0: BIRTHDAY) talks of the film's short-story origins. Each cast member gets 3 minutes onscreen, while Tsuruta talks for 8 minutes.

A behind-the-scenes featurette boasts plenty of interesting on-set/on-location footage, with occasional commentary from Tsuruta. It's obvious from this footage that it was a relaxed shoot, with lots of joviality in-between takes. At 43 minutes in length, this is a substantial extra.

DIGITAL EFFECT EXPOSED is a 6 minute featurette revealing how some of the film's CGI were developed, and is fairly interesting.

There's also 4 minutes of footage from the original Japanese press conference for the film's release, with Tsuruta taking questions from the media.

All of the above extras come equipped with removable English subtitles.

Elsewhere on the disc is the original trailer (which is actually creepier than the film), plus trailers for A BITTERSWEET LIFE, LADY VENGEANCE, INFECTION, ANOTHER PUBLIC ENEMY and THREE EXTREMES.

An impressive disc for a flawed, but better than average, Asian horror.

Review by Stu Willis