Premonition (2004)

"Premonition" is a supernatural Japanese horror film all about based on the manga "Kyofu Shinbun" which means "Newspaper of Terror" in English. The way the movie was presented would be deemed silly if it was made of an American audience but it is  perfect example of how the Japanese have a wider ability to accept and be entertained by such themes. I loved the film and found both the first two-thirds and final third of the film to be vastly different and yet effective. The film deals with receiving premonitions by a phantom newspaper, Polaroid images, and being mentally tapped into the future.

Two college professors and their daughter are driving back home after visiting their parents. The father, Hideki, needs to use a payphone so he can send an important email to work. While he is slowly sending his message, he finds an old looking newspaper clipping and reads on it that there was a horrible accident and his daughter died. He's shocked and confused and while he tries to tell his wife about the newspaper, a truck comes along and hits their car head on, with their daughter still inside. They try to save her but the car explodes and she dies.

A few years later, Hideki and his wife Ayaka are separated and living their own lives. Ayaka is working on finding out the truth about the "Newspaper of Terror" by interviewing and testing psychics. Hideki is still teaching but is beginning to have premonitions of his own, typically by writing down the events without realizing what he is doing. Ayaka seeks out Hideki when she finds the psychic that she's working with dead at home, clutching a Polaroid with his picture. Meanwhile, Hideki tries to save one of his students after reading a premonition of their death but he arrives too late. Together, the two begin to search out an expert in the field. When the find where the expert lives, they go to the house and discover that he had the power to change the future but it took a special toll on him, to the point that he eventually died. Later, Hideki saves his wife from her own death when he pulls her off a train after her car wouldn't start. Hideki shows signs of the toll and promises to not use his gift anymore.

The final third of the film focuses on Hideki having short, intense nightmares involving the victims he could have and tried to save. He then starts reliving the moment when his daughter died, experiencing the accident from several different view points and outcomes. Finally, he is able to save his daughter by sacrificing himself and then the movie ends.