Premonition (2004)

While stopped at a roadside phone booth, Professor Hideki Satomi finds a scrap of newspaper with a picture of his 5-year-old daughter, Nana, under a road accident headline. He sees his wife, Ayaka, trying to release their daughter from their car, when an out of control truck hits his car killing Nana. Three years later, Ayaka, who's now divorced from Hideki, is researching paranormal events where some people claim to have read an "evil newspaper" anticipating the future. Her research reveals that these people are cursed to foresee the future, but are helpless when trying to save the victims. The more she researches, the more Ayaka believes Hideki's accounts on what happened three years prior, but when Hideki tries to change the future, he becomes seemingly trapped in a Hell from which there's no escape.Asian horror films usually have something in common in one way or another....they can be quite strange, pretty creepy, and confusing. Premonition falls into all these, and as long as you can follow it, it's actually a pretty enjoyable film. It's quite a slow going film as well, but you don't really get bored of it because you get drawn in. As long as the story is an interesting one, and you can follow it, then a slow going film isn't too bad. For me, Premonition is exactly like this.As I mentioned before, there are some creepy moments and when you add in the atmosphere of the scenes, they do a very good job of creeping you out. A couple of scenes may disturb some people namely the car crash scene and another scene that involves Nana, but they are not there just for the sake of it as they are obviously vital to the story.The story has a Final Destination feel to it as well, and while Final Destination concentrates more on the visual "jump scares", Premonition concentrates more in the psychological aspect. Overall, Premonition is a pretty good film to watch and if you're a fan of Asian horror, then I recommend giving this one a go.

"Premonition" seems to be a rather ordinary psycho thriller in the beginning that deals with paranormal activities, family dramas and destiny. The actors are very credible and add a lot to the dark and desperate atmosphere of the movie that has no lengths and develops very well with a slow tension that rises more and more. Hiroshi Mikami convinces as desperate broken hearted man that faces destiny while the beautiful and charming Noriko Sakai does a very authentic job as a desperate and seemingly strong woman that is broken underneath the fragile surface.But the true reason why this movie gets such a high rating from me are the last thirty minutes or so of this flick. They are mysterious and disturbing and you don't know what is nightmare or reality or both of it anymore. At this part, the tension rises to an extreme height, the images are intense, the acting is truly addicting and the whole movie gets an awaited kick of genius. For the experts of the genre, the final conclusion might not be surprising but that doesn't change that the whole development is well thought and crafted.I would ultimately say that is movie is maybe one of the rare Asian psycho thrillers that could be understood and accepted by the masses without losing its charm and uniqueness and that's a quite unique thing which I would like to underline. The story is not too strange and slow paced but the weirdo and high amount of creativity and atmosphere is nevertheless heavily present. I would suggest this movie to anyone who would like to slowly get into this genre. It might be an intense but not too complicated introduction to a brilliant world of horror and creativity. I'm looking forward to show this movie to some of my friends to convince and tell them of my passion for mysterious Asian psycho thriller or horror flicks and will surely adore myself watching this again to discover the high amount of stunning details in the end of the film.

Premonition is one of my Top 20 horror films that I have watched. I love the idea being used in this film, I love the originality of this movie. This movie is really very very original about fates. This movie is about a man who can see the future and when he tries to stop the future, terrible things starts happening to him. This movie is slow paced at times, but just let it grab you because for the last 20 minutes, I just could not stop watching this movie. In comparison to butterfly effect, I thought this ending was much better. The mystery elements used in this movie were just great. The scares used in this movie by the flying newspapers were great. This movie is not extremely scary, but is a show with a solid storyline. Though I had one major complain in this movie. The scene where the passengers board the train and the main character pulls his wife back and the train starts to move. I was expecting something to happen in the train but nothing happened. This movie is terrifying and scary psychologically. This movie is very original. I highly recommend this movie if you like shows such as The Time Machine or The Butterfly Effect. Score: 9/10

While stopped at a roadside phone boot for transmitting his work through Internet to the university, Professor Hideki Satomi (Hiroshi Mikami) finds a scrap of newspaper with the picture of his five years old daughter Nana (Hana Inoue) in the obituary. He sees his wife Ayaka Satomi (Noriko Sakai) trying to release their daughter from the seat-belt, when a truck without steer hits his car killing Nana. Three years later, Hideki is divorced from Ayaka, who is researching paranormal persons who claim to have read an evil newspaper anticipating the future still trying to believe on Hideki, and she finds that there are people cursed to foresee the future but without power to save the victims. When Hideki changes the future saving Ayaka, he becomes trapped in hell and he has to make a choice of his own destiny."Yogen" is another eerie Japanese horror movie, fortunately not spoiled yet by an American remake. The creepy story about a cursed professor that blames himself for not saving the life of his daughter, destroying his own life, is very weird, original and scary. The scene with the car accident is very impressive, and when Hideki is trapped in hell, the slow pace of the film changes to a frightening sequence. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "O Terror da Premonição" ("The Terror of the Premonition")