You'll Die Six Hours Later

Story: Harada Mio (Yoko Maki) is approached on the street by a stranger who explains that she will be alone in six hours and die. Mio thinks this is just a bad attempt to start a conversation with her and tells the man that she will be with her friend tonight. When she then spots her friend at the agreed meeting point, she is able to get rid of the man. However, Mio's friend has completely forgotten about the date and is actually waiting for her boyfriend, with whom she wants to spend the evening. Mio is surprised and looks for the man on the way back. When she finds him, she wants to know more about her alleged death. The man introduces himself as Keishi (Takashi Tsukamoto) and explains that she will be stabbed to death at midnight. He has the gift of seeing other people's unusual deaths. Mio is inclined to believe the man, as she is actually being followed by a stalker and keeps getting calls and emails. She goes to the police, where she has already reported the stalking to detective Sawaki (Ikki Sawamura). She asks him if he has more information, and in fact, he has an address, which he eventually gives to her. In the meantime, the police are also investigating a serial murder about young women who were stabbed to death on their birthdays. The only link is a young man who calls himself a seer, as friends of the victims reported. Mio is not aware of all these circumstances, but at midnight it is actually her birthday too ...

Review: Very few people will have heard of "You'll Die Six Hours Later". After all, it is a movie that was produced for television. However, there is currently a remake from Korea, which didn't necessarily get good reviews, but whose premise at least managed to make me curious. So, why not just watch the original? It becomes clear pretty quickly what also might have been the problem of the remake. The story, based on the novel of the same name by Kazuaki Takano, may sound like a thriller, but it goes more into the direction of a drama. There is rarely any suspense, and despite some twists, the plot is not really that smart either. The movie's biggest problem might be its two-part nature, though, because as soon as you think everything is resolved, you get a second episode as if you were watching a series. This seems pretty unnecessary, and it would have been better if the movie had simply incorporated important aspects like character development into the first episode and had left it at that. Maybe the remake avoids this problem, but as mentioned before, there are other areas that need improvement too.

It's astonishing how the characters behave. For Mio it is enough that the stranger is right with his prediction that she would be alone that night for her to go look for him again. Then the entire plot is based on the fact that it would be best to find the killer in order to avoid actually being stabbed by him at midnight. Very risky, not to mention "stupid". Justified objections, like that you should simply not be at the place from the vision, or that you should spend the time with as many people as possible, are mentioned but are quashed by absurd reasoning. Of course, the story also tries to quickly steer us in the direction that Keishi might be the killer and that he only pretends to be a seer. Nevertheless, this disregards the fact that Keishi is actually able to foresee a few things. At another point, characters want to shake off the supposed stalker/killer by running from a rather busy area into a parking garage where there is absolutely no one else. At least there is an explanation for the really bad decisions, such as going to a place that looks very similar to the one from the vision, but in most cases the characters simply act as if they have a death wish.

Takashi Tsukamoto plays the man with the supernatural abilities, which he can apparently access by squinting his eyes very tightly. Sometimes this can be involuntarily funny. Other than that, Keishi lacks real characteristics. His ability seems to torment him, and he closes himself off due to a traumatic experience, but even when he seems to be a little more confident with his talent in the second half, there is hardly any depth to his character. Things are different with Mio, though, played by Yoko Maki ("After the Storm"), who actually has a backstory and dreams. She is honest about her past, but not proud of it. She seems to be a simple person, but with a good heart. Every now and then, some other traits also shine through. Although the relationship between the two protagonists hardly develops in the first half of the movie, the search for the murderer offers enough twists and turns. At the latest when we find out that it seems to be a serial killer, there is even a little bit of suspense for some time. In the end, however, the actual resolution is not really convincing, because it is quite predictable. There are simply not enough people introduced for you not to be able to figure out the identity of the murderer on your own.

It also takes some time to get used to the fact that this is a television production. It gets obvious not only when it comes to production costs, but also in terms of the acting of some supporting actors, and when there are some continuous shots without any editing. Above all, though, the camera always gets very close to the faces. Nowadays, you simply don't get to see these sorts of close-ups anymore. Beyond that, even though the director kind of manages to hide it to some extent, the fire in some visions still looks like cheap CGI that was simply superimposed on the actual shots. As already mentioned, though, the second half of the movie is the real problem. The plot could simply have been turned into an epilogue, but instead we get a whole new "case". Unfortunately, this one drags on more than the first one, and there is hardly any interesting investigative work. At this point, it becomes particularly clear that "You'll Die Six Hours Later" is more of a drama than a thriller. At least the characters get a little closer here. And the ending is also satisfying to some extent.

Hidden somewhere in the story there is also a philosophical question about predestination, fate and free will. Actually, the question is even asked directly several times, but nothing particularly interesting ever comes of it. Maybe you don't expect to be presented with new aspects at this point anyway, but the way the movie only scratches the surface is still quite disappointing. To be fair, though, you probably have to review the movie according to somewhat different criteria. "You'll The Six Hours Later" is a TV movie from 2008 and for that, it's not that bad, because it manages to make us root for its protagonist and also offers a few nice twists. For fans of thrillers with some drama tendencies, the flick might therefore be worth a watch. Personally, however, it made it clear to me that I can confidently skip the remake if it is even unable to hold a candle to this rather average original.

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