Premonition

Tri-Star Pictures

Sandra Bullock in “Premonition.”

Time not on their side in ‘Premonition’

I didn’t know what to expect from my double-feature evening.
But I knew the titles would be easy to remember. They’re both called “Premonition.” One is the original, the other being a remake from 2007 starring Sandra Bullock.
Both deal with the death of a loved one who at some point, isn’t dead anymore.
This isn’t ghosts or horror. The films are about the juxtaposition of time.
The original “Premonition” dates all the way back to 2004. If you are wondering why only a three-year gap, it’s because the original is a product of Japan.
It’s actually called “Yogen.”
And let me tell you, there’s few similarities between the two.
“Yogen” has a compelling opening.
Professor Hideki Satomi, played by Hiroshi Mikami, is riding home from a vacation with his wife and young daughter. Mom and daughter are singing a kiddy song. He is engrossed in finishing an important report in the backseat on his laptop.
Unfortunately, the cell connection isn’t working, so they stop at a roadside telephone booth so he can transmit his report.
Mother and daughter are across the road in the car. As he waits for the file to finish uploading, he sees a scrap of newspaper. A story states a young girl was killed by a truck along a roadway.
The girl is his daughter and the accident is scheduled to happen at 4 p.m., just seconds from now.
And boom, he watches in horror as the runaway rig slams into the car. The daughter is trapped inside. Mother can’t get the child’s seat detached. The car bursts into flames and the child dies.
The result is the parents split up and the Satomi character learns about others who received premonitions based on future newspapers.
In the Americanized version, Bullock is a housewife who gets a knock at the door. It is the sheriff informing her that her husband was killed in a traffic accident while away on a business trip.
Bullock’s character had just gotten a cryptic voicemail from her husband, played by Jim Hanson. She’s numb as her mother and a friend try to help her get through the ordeal.
She must inform the children. She must handle the funeral.
The next morning she awakens to find her husband brushing his teeth in the bathroom, alive and well.
Boy, she thinks, that was some realistic dream.
But it turns out her timeline has turned upside down. One day she awakens to a time a few days before the crash. The next she awakens to find him dead and people downstairs awaiting the funeral.
She finds some prescription drugs dissolving in the sink one morning. Another morning she dumps them there.
Making a chart, she determines each morning where she is in the time continuum and learns the circumstances leading up to the inevitable crash.
Both Bullock and Mikami, essentially playing the same character in the two pictures, try to use what they learned to eventually stop the deaths.
The Japanese version is more harrowing and suspenseful. At various points the father finds himself in the car with his daughter trying to get her loose before the truck hits.
You’ll get jolted when things switch and he’s in the runaway truck with the unconscious truck driver and Mikami can’t pry the driver’s head away from the steering wheel.
Both have shocking endings. Neither is happy. But my prediction is you’ll like the Japanese version more. It is darker and more exciting.
Premonition (2004)
• Directed by Norio Tsuruta, starring Hiroshi Mikami and Noriko Sakai
• Rate R for disturbing images
• In Japanese, runtime 95 minutes
• 3 stars out of 4
Premonition (2007)
• Directed by Mennan Yapo, starring Sandra Bullock and Julian McMahon
• Rated PG-13 for some violent content, disturbing images
• Runtime 96 minutes
• 2 1/2;2 stars out of 4
This appeared in the Star Beacon January 25, 2008