Okay,
so stop me if you have heard this one before:
A unknown number of aliens head to Earth on a fact finding mission in
preparation for a mass invasion by the rest of their race. The
aliens first find a host body to inhabit and then find a guide to
help them gather as much information about the human race as
possible. Due to the fact that words and language are so cumbersome,
complex and easily misunderstood, the aliens prefer to steal
“concepts” from humans instead. They get a human to think of a
concept such as ownership, work, family or even love, and when they
have determined the human has a focused, complete definition of that
concept, they tap them on the head with their finger taking that
information from them, causing the human to faint in the process.
When the aliens deem that they have enough of an understanding about
the human race, the destruction of Earth and annihilation of the
human race is set to begin. Is there anything that the humans can do
to stop this event from happening??
No, this is not another review for Kiyoshi Kurosawa's “Before We
Vanish”, but rather for his companion film of that story,
“Foreboding”, which actually started life as a five part
television miniseries before being edited down into the feature
format that it is now. What is so exciting about “Foreboding” is
that it gives director Kurosawa the opportunity to tell the same base
story as “Before We Vanish” but to do so with a completely
different tone and outcome. It is such a rare occurrence to see two
variations of the same story being released by the same author at
around the same time. Personally, I am not sure of the genesis of
this project but you could imagine Kurosawa wanting to attempt to
tackle a different tone to the one that he committed to in “Before
We Vanish” and “Foreboding” has given him that chance. I guess
its a case of having your cake and eating it too, because by doing
two different projects of the same material, you can experiment as to
which approach was better, the lighter mood and larger scale of
“Before We Vanish”, or the much darker and intimate,
“Foreboding”.
As you can see above, I describe the film as being the same “base”
story because, while both films are about aliens collecting data from
humans, there are enough differences between the two stories to make
each film unique. While “Before We Vanish” is much lighter in
tone, almost to the point of being comedic at times, “Foreboding”
has been imbued with a much different atmosphere; it is dark, grim
and......wait for it.....foreboding. This version plays much more
like a horror film with the aliens themselves being much more
sadistic in their thirst for knowledge. They use their ability to
steal concepts in a way that causes much mental anguish upon their
victim, and appear to enjoy the pain they are causing. It gets to
the point where the aliens, once they feel they have reaped enough
concepts from the humans, give the sense that they are a totally
superior race and we are nothing in their eyes. Also, different from
the other film, these aliens share a physical bond with their human
guide, as they make the human's right arm numb and can supply the arm
with intense pain whenever they want. It is also up to the guide to
choose the humans that they reap from, and maybe it is this that
gives the alien a sadistic feel to them, because the guides obviously
choose humans that they aren't particularly fond of or who have
wronged them in the past.
One aspect of “Foreboding” that is very successful is the
exploration of what exactly happens to the victim once they lose a
certain concept from their mind. The big one is the concept of
“family” which is essentially glossed over and used for laughs in
“Before We Vanish”, whereas in “Foreboding”, the poor girl
who loses that concept, can no longer live or even look at her father
because she does not recognise him as such. To her, the only thing
that he can be must be a ghost, and she lives in total fear because
of this. It is actually very sad because the poor father does not
understand why his daughter, who he has loved her entire life, now
rejects him so completely. This element is one of the strongest of
“Foreboding”, however after awhile the story focuses in different
directions than the plight of the victims.
As I alluded to above, “Foreboding” is much smaller in scope than
the more ambitious “Before We Vanish”. There are no big action
scenes, no attempt by the army and governments to fight and stop
these aliens. Instead we have a more intimate story of really, only
three characters: the alien, Matsuka (played by Masahiro Higashide),
his human guide, Tetsuo (Shota Sometani) and his wife Etsuko (Kaho).
Between these characters we get an insight of the reaping process and
the potential outcome of this future alien invasion. A nice touch to
the proceedings is in the character of Etsuko, who turns out to be
something of a special human, and someone that the aliens cannot reap
from. It is within her that we sense hope for Earth. I must say
though that I was not a fan of Kaho's performance as Etsuko as she
walks through this entire story with only one expression on her face
the whole time. She is told that the world is going to end: stony
faced. She is told her husband is a slave to an alien: stony faced.
She is told that the supermarket is out of corn flakes: stony
faced. Okay, that last one didn't happen, but you get my point. On
the other hand, I thought that Shota Sometani was very good at
portraying a man struggling with the enormity of what he is forced to
do and the guilt that is associated with that. I have been a fan of
Sometani since I saw him in Sion Sono's “Himizu” where I thought
he was amazing in the lead role. Masahiro Higashide was fine as the
alien, although his portrayal was a little loose and carefree, and he
made the alien totally unlikable, but I guess that was his job.
In my “Before We Vanish” review I stated that I enjoyed it
because it wasn't as serious as I was expecting nor as is the norm
for Kiyoshi Kurosawa. In a somewhat contradictory statement, I must
say that I loved the more serious and grim tone of “Foreboding”.
Kurosawa did a stellar job at creating a very uneasy atmosphere and
even giving the film a number of horror sequences. Scenes of the
aliens walking through crowded rooms with the humans collapsing all
around them are genuinely creepy and frightening. For me though, it
was the constant uneasy atmosphere that Kurosawa built that I found
most impressive. His direction is phenomenal in this and it is very
easy to see that he understands horror and feels right at home at
creating scenes of it. While I was impressed by his direction in
“Before We Vanish”, I felt that this was at a whole other level.
Maybe that is because it played more to my sensibilities, I am not
sure, but I was so impressed. Especially when you consider the fact
that this film started life as a television series. Kurosawa is
definitely not slumming it here or even falling back on television
style courage. He shot the entire thing as if it was one of his
films and it is one of the reasons why “Foreboding” works so well
as a feature.
Where its television origins work as a negative though, is in some of
the film's pacing. At times you can feel that scenes are moving at
such a pace to fill the episode run-time, and as a result the film is
(once again) far too long. It loses a little bit of momentum in the
middle of the story, almost like its wading in water waiting for the
finale to come. When that finale does arrive though, it is does so
with aplomb. While not to the scale of the end of “Before We
Vanish”, the humans still attempt to fight back and there is quite
an impressive sequence involving some large metal pipes in a
warehouse. What I loved most though is that the ending of the two
films are completely different. Personally I think that the ending
of “Before We Vanished” is the stronger of the two, but the
ending of “Foreboding” fits everything that has come before it
and works perfectly for this version of the story.
Overall, I really had a great time with “Foreboding”. While it
shares the same base storyline as “Before We Vanish”, Kiyoshi
Kurosawa's handling of the material is completely different with its
very serious and dark tone. It is much smaller in scale than the
earlier film, but for mine, I preferred this version of the alien
invasion tale. As usual, Kurosawa's direction and Akiko Ashizawa's
cinematography are the highlights here, but I found “Foreboding”
endlessly entertaining while being both creepy and terrifying in
parts. I must admit that I have been shocked by the negative reviews
for this film, because for me “Foreboding” is another Kiyoshi
Kurosawa success.
3.5 Stars.
