FOREBODING

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.