The Newspaper. For those of us out there who actually sit there and really read one (and I mean REALLY read it), you may or may not find this movie entertaining. Why? Well, it really all depends on what you're looking for when you read the newspaper. Some people read to keep up with the Stock Market, others read it for the "funnies", or sports scores. Then, there are those of us who read the newspaper for our horoscopes, to get some cryptic insight into our futures...

Well, in the movie Premonition - deftly directed by Norio Tsuruta - a few unlucky people get a newspaper that reports the future. A very grim future.

Hideki Satomi (played by Hiroshi Mikami) is a workaholic school teacher, who striving for his apprentice professorship is on his way home with his wife, Ayaka Tachihara (portrayed by Noriko Sakai) and five-year old daughter, Nana. Hideki needs to send an e-mail from his laptop, and compromises with Ayaka that if she turns the car around and heads for the nearest payphone, he'll sing with her and Nana about the grasshoppers.

Once at the phone booth, Nana and Ayaka are waiting across the street from the phonebooth where Hideki is sending his email. In the phonebooth, undeneath the phonebook is a piece of paper... a singed piece of a newspaper. It is here that Hideki's nightmares begin.

The story has quite a few twists and turns, and if you're not paying attention, you may feel like you missed something. This is not a movie you put on in the background. I won't go any further into the story, because it's one worth seeing. The DVD has interviews with the director, the cast, and has a making of featurette, so you can see how it was all done. I like DVDs that show what everyone involved went through in order to bring the story to life.

The original story comes from a manga entitled "Kyoufu Shinbun" (Terror Newspaper) by: Jiro Tsunoda. I feel the movie was very well done, and the subject matter was very interesting. Listed below are some Google results based on things I saw in the movie that made me want to invesitgate further. This is not a "Ring" wanna-be movie either... It has it's moments where you may think so, but if you're looking for that, then this is not the movie for you. This movie has suspense, and enough of it to make you want to help Hideki out yourself. I know it did for me!

– Brian K. James