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Dom Robinson reviews
Tartan Video
- Cert:
- Cat.no: TVD 3602
- Running time: 95 minutes
- Year: 2004
- Pressing: 2006
- Region(s): 0, PAL
- Chapters: 16 plus extras
- Sound: DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround
- Languages: Japanese
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras:Cast and crew interviews, Behind the scenes, Japanese Press Conference, Digital Effect Exposed,Tartan Trailer Reel, Trailer, Erika Franklin’s film notes
Director:
- Norio Tsuruta
(Premonition, Ring 0, Scarecrow)
Producer:
- Takashige Ichise
Screenplay:
- Noboru Takagi and Norio Tsuruta
Cast :
- Hideki Satomi: Hiroshi Mikami
Ayaka Satomi: Noriko Sakai
Nana Satomi: Hana Inoue
Sayuri Wakakubo: Maki Horikita
Misato Miyamoto: Mayumi Ono
Satoko Mikoshiba: Kazuko Yoshiyuki
In Premonition, it started off as a standard day out for the family Satomi,but as the father, Hideki (Hiroshi Mikami, right), couldn’t get a signal on his mobileso he can send an email from his laptop which contains his application to advance hiscareer as a professor at the local college, he asks his wife, Ayaka (Noriko Sakai, below-right),to go back to the phonebox they passed a while ago, since if he leaves it until they get backto Tokyo then it may be too late to get the job.
At least at home he would’ve had broadband, but while standing in the phonebox waiting for theemail to upload, a piece of paper catches his eye, trapped under the phone book. Taking it out,it’s a piece of newspaper which he reads… to discover a report about the death of his 5-year-olddaughter, Nana (Hana Inoue), who died around 8pm as a truck crashed into it when the driverhad a seizure, only… it’s almost 8pm now and she’s not dead, she’s very much alive and sat in thecar with Ayaka.
Hideki freezes with panic and turns around to face the car. Inside, Ayaka has gone into the back seatas Nana’s seatbelt is stuck fast. She sees Hideki looking frightened and goes over to him, and beforeyou know it the newspaper has told the future and their life is in ruins as their car explodes and thewindscreen glass is forced forwards and cuts Ayaka’s left cheek.
Three years later and Hideki is still struggling to come to terms with the situation. He and Ayakahave since divorced and nothing will ease either of their minds, particularly since he’s startedgetting more premonitions, some personal, some professional and one involving a train crash that resultsin massive casualities. They both work at the same college and a woman she’s brought in to helpwith some psychological research, Satoko Mikoshiba (Kazuko Yoshiyuki), gives her some informationabout the Akashic Records, basically where all this kind of weird stuff gets recorded… as well asthe hope that there may be a chance to change the past.
The man who did this research is Rei Kigata. They eventually track down his home, a series of videotapes which detail what he went through but there’s nothing that’ll prepare them for what they’re aboutto witness or experience about what he’s found out and what the consequences are.
To go into more detail would be to spoil the movie, but while it does have a final segment which containsmany twists and turns, all as intriguing as the last, and there are some genuine shocks it does definitelydrag at times and overall comes across as more like an extended episode of Tales of the Unexpected,although it is based on a cult comic book, Newspaper of Terror, but it’s still definitely worth a lookwith the best acting coming from Hiroshi Mikami as Hideki while Noriko Sakai, as Ayaka, is cute but she’sa bit wishy-washy and spends her time looking less anguished, due to her daughter’s death, but more likesomeone’s just sat next to her and trumped.
All that said, there’s more to enjoy than there is to criticise so I look forward for certain tofuture titles in this “J-Horror” collection, although one sneaky thing about this release is that whilethere’s an 18-certificate emblazoned on the cover, the film itself is only rated “12”, so the rest mustaccount for the extras.
The film is presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen and looks a bit too soft at times, but the print is clean and free of any defects. Soundwise, I went for the DTS 5.1 audio track and whenthis is required to pack a punch it does exactly what it says on the tin. In the opening scene,I’d turned up my volume so I could hear the dialogue in the quiet nighttime scene when… well,let’s just say my neighbours won’t have been very impressed but I certainly was 🙂
The extras on this DVD are as follows:
- Cast and crew interviews (23:27):Six of them here, featuring director Norio Tsuruta, who gets just over 8 minutes to talk abouthis work while around 3 minutes apiece is given to each of the cast listed above, except for thegirl who played Nana. These are all fairly standard Q&A sessions with no surprises, but make sureyou do not watch them prior to the movie as they contain on-set footage that will act as spoilers.
Behind the Scenes (39:57):Individually chaptered, this contains on-set footage of six key scenes in the movie, which I won’tdescribe here for obvious reasons, but this section dedicates a good few minutes to each to give youa flavour of how it was created and what went into it.
Digital Effect Exposed (6:02):Again, no spoilers, but when the CGI kicks in for a number of scenes you briefly see the before andafter shots, plus the stages inbetween as a scene is put together.I would say this section is where the 18-cert might play a part but it doesn’t go into any moredetail than the film itself.
Japanese Press Conference (4:34):Filmed in July 2004, this is basically a roll call for the director and main cast members, but whileit’s great for the completist, like myself, it doesn’t tell you a great deal because they obviouslycan’t talk about the plot of a movie that – at that point – they’re still filming.
Original trailer (1:29):Presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen, it gives away too much so don’t watch until you’ve seen the film,which rather kills the point of it, but there you go.
Trailer Reel:Five more trailers for other Tartan terror movies: Infection, Lady Vengeance, A Bittersweet Life,Another Public Enemy, Three… Extremes
Overall, a few interesting bits and pieces there but the real meat is in the behind-the-scenes sectionand the piece on special FX is good, but the interviews are rather bland and that is repeated in thepress conference bit. Like I said, I’m a completist so it’s good that it’s there, but are *all* pressconferences for movies like that?Inside the box with the chapter listing can be found Erika Franklin’s film notes.
There are subtitles in English only, plus the option to remove them which is good as a video would haveto have them burned into the print, just 16 chapters, and a short piece of the music and CGI on themain menu based on events in the film.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.