Yogen
*½/**** Image B Sound A- Extras C-
starring Hiroshi Mikami, Noriko Sakai, Maki Horikita, Mayumi Ono
screenplay by Noboru Takagi, Norio Tsuruta, based on the comic by Jiro Tsunoda
directed by Norio Tsuruta
by Travis Mackenzie Hoover I could spin many a yarn about the kernel of goodness trapped inside Premonition. As the tale of a teacher named Hideki Satomi (Hiroshi Mikami) who finds supernatural newspapers that predict horrible events, it's poised to say plenty about the information age, the anxiety of which is manifested in the fact that Hideki is either helpless to stop the events or winds up physically wasted as a result of trying. But the point of mentioning that is scotched by the production team's total obliviousness to thematics, which makes any exegesis purely symptomatic. There's a swell sociology paper somewhere in Premonition's context within the rest of the J-Horror canon, but its pleasures are largely as an artifact rather than as something to be enjoyed on its own terms.
Obliviousness, it turns out, is the major source of comfort for this comfortless film, in which the torment of knowing constantly bedevils our man Hideki. Having seen a phantom headline predict the death-by-truck of his five-year-old daughter, he's naturally skittish when presented with actual news–but three years later, tattered fragments keep showing up, and their horrible predictions start coming true. He has no luck trying to save a young student from a killer, but a little digging with the aid of ex-wife Ayaka (Noriko Sakai) turns up the fact that warnings do help–although they simultaneously degenerate the visionary who utters them. The metaphor is strong: the more you know, the more powerless and world-weary you become.
A first-rate filmmaker would have put this potent (if anti-intellectual) concept at the fore. But director Norio Tsuruta is not a man for such subtleties: he's largely for surface issues of grieving families and love for one's children straight out of the Ron Howard handbook, ready to squelch anything that lies outside of the domestic cocoon. Fittingly, he's an astonishingly bland stylist, prepared to render everything in a brightly-lit haze that's more concerned with hitting up a boring suburbanite mentality than in defining a look and feel of its own. He's a domestic type, and his film tediously reflects that. One stares in stupefaction at the missed opportunities as Tsuruta repeatedly goes for the obvious instead of standing back and taking in the possibilities.
Compensatory pleasures are confined to Mikami, proving a disquieting, arachnid presence as the everyman at the film's centre. Looking tense and pulled tight even while he's supposed to be relaxed, he's the one eccentric element of an otherwise by-the-book movie. It's frustrating to watch him pour his energies into the family guff that drives the plot, since he clearly deserves the implications buried under the marshmallow whip–and if he doesn't get what he deserves, neither do we. I didn't think it was possible to make Ringu look like a masterpiece, but that founding J-Horror text is brilliant by comparison–regardless of whether we have it to blame for this inferior knockoff. Premonition is of interest to fanboys and theorists alone–genuine pleasure-seekers had best search elsewhere.
THE DVD
This second title in Maple/Lion's Gate's J-Horror series of DVDs has its ups and downs as a transfer. Grain plagues the 1.85:1, 16×9-enhanced image, which also has a pallid, pasty appearance; another pass through the telecine couldn't have hurt. The Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, however, is more than adequate: though Premonition's sparse sound design doesn't call for much fireworks, you really appreciate it when trucks smash into cars and low rumbling fills the full surround roster. Meanwhile, if you think that pointless and vapid DVD extras are a purely Western phenomenon, you'll be comforted to know that the Japanese are just as adept at wasting your valuable time. The surprisingly wide array of supplementary material breaks down as follows:
Interviews
Director Norio Tsuruta is the big winner in this selection of brief interviews, explaining over the course of eight minutes how he resurrected a 30-year-old manga and shifted the focus from a junior high student to a teacher. He's mostly vague and silly, happy to describe his "horror melodrama" approach in sub-Syd Field generalities. Cast segments come in 3-minute bites. Hiroshi Mikami offers the interesting statement that he was challenged by the "sureness" of the genre, while Noriko Sakai believes that the theme is "many unfortunate things happen, and life is short." Teenage victim Maki Norita relates her relationship with Tsuruta, with whom she has worked before, and Ayaka's fellow academic Mayumi Oto claims to have been fascinated by the supernatural as a child, but decided "being ordinary is best." Finally, psychic photographer Kazuko Yoshiyuki reveals a supernatural incident in which her dead father came to see her. She's pleased at the tastefulness of the production.
Making-of Featurette
Not actually one feature, this is a menu with access to six scene breakdowns: "Boys Sick Room" (5 mins.) offers a fellow news-reader in an advanced stage of deterioration (and heavy make-up); "Crash Scene" (13 mins.) focuses on the initial tragic crash and its various re-hashes at the movie's close; "Satomi's Apartment" (8 mins.) considers the best way to represent the newspapers; "Train Station Platform" (4 mins.) features Steadicam action of Hideki trying to keep his wife from catching a train; and "High School Classroom" (3 mins.) encompasses Norita's major scenes in class and her eventual appointment with death. It's remarkable how these meander–one part of the shooting will start, only to drift into another element without comment or segue. This is perhaps more like actual shooting, but as it doesn't nail down what you need to know about what's going on, it's bemusing at first, completely irritating by the end.
Press Conference (4 mins.)
Producer Taka Ichese launches his second J-Horror Theatre series by running down the events following Ringu's worldwide popularity, ending with the inauguration of his series. The remainder is I-will-strive banalities from Tsuruta, Mikami, Sakai, and Norita. No real insight, just a colossal waste of disc space.
FX Footage (4 mins.)
The one genuinely interesting special feature, this shows the devious ways in which a deserted back road suddenly sprouted trees and power lines while characters were hit by cars and trucks they never really touched. Fascinating, and completely disturbing in demonstrating that what you think is a genuine location is actually a digital composite.
Trailers for Undead, The Devil's Rejects, Infection, Ju-On, and Alone in the Dark complete the platter.
95 minutes; R; 1.85:1 (16×9-enhanced); Japanese DD 5.1; English subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; Lions Gate/Maple
