Foreboding (film)

Foreboding (Japanese: 予兆 散歩する侵略者, Hepburn: Yochō: Sanpo Suru Shinryakusha) is a 2017 Japanese science fiction film from director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. It stars Kaho, Shōta Sometani, and Masahiro Higashide. The film is a spin-off of Kurosawa’s 2017 film *Before We Vanish*. It was first made as a five-part television series for the WOWOW network, then cut down and released in Japanese theaters on 11 November 2017. In 2018, it was chosen for the Panorama section of the 68th Berlin International Film Festival.

The story follows Tatsuo (Shōta Sometani), a clinical engineer who meets a new doctor named Makabe (Masahiro Higashide) at the hospital. Makabe is actually an alien on a mission to invade Earth, and he forces Tatsuo to act as a guide, helping him collect human concepts. Tatsuo’s wife, Etsuko (Kaho), discovers she is immune to the alien’s influence and tries to rescue her husband.

The film premiered in Japan on 11 November 2017. It screened at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival on 21 February 2018 as part of the Panorama section.

Critical reception was mixed. Jessica Kiang of *Variety* called the film an unwieldy summary of Kurosawa’s gloomy themes and worst formal habits, noting it was overlong, unfocused, and had underwater pacing that made it hard to care about the human characters. Deborah Young of *The Hollywood Reporter* described it as an unnecessary variation on the first film, sharing pros and cons like eerie moments, slow storytelling, and excessive length, but lacking the earlier film’s more spectacular action. In contrast, Mark Schilling of *The Japan Times* argued that *Yocho* is quite different in story and tone, and is darker and scarier from start to finish.