Audition

Audition (“Ōdishon”)

Japan. 1999.

In Japanese.

Directed by Takashi Miike

Starring Ryo Ishibashi and Eihi Shiina

Several years before Japan sent “Ringu” and “Ju-On” (and eventual Hollywood remakes) on their international terror sprees, director Takashi Miike unleashed this torture bonanza on the world. Well known to horror fans, the unflinching relish with which “Audition” depicts the gleeful acts of an unhinged would-be fiancée is awful and miserable. The film is a slow ride through the emotional meat grinder.

Miike is a master at producing strange and terrible characters who invite a certain amount of pity…before they start sawing people’s feet off, that is. In “Audition,” Miike introduces Asami, a woman whose initial demureness belies a terrible fondness for mutilating and dismembering men who show affection for anyone but her. Asami is the winner of a fake “audition” staged by Shigeharu Aoyama, a romantically clumsy widower approaching middle age, and his friend Yasuhisa Yoshikawa, a film producer. Their goal is to find a new wife for Aoyama, who immediately becomes struck with Asami’s story of giving up her dream of dancing due to an injury. They see each other romantically several times while a suspicious Yoshikawa tries to dig into Asami’s mysterious past. In short, we gradually learn that “mysterious” means “abuse-filled,” and that Asami is a Norman Bates, grade-a person.

Dear Scarers, “Audition” contains extremely graphic images, and the movie’s torture scenes are amplified tenfold because Asami is so joyously cheerful throughout them. In one case, Asami luxuriates in filling a victim’s abdomen and eye sockets with needles while giggling. We see several feet get sawed off. The movie gets a 5/5 on the gore-o-meter (“I just vommed in my popcorn”), only because I don’t go higher than 5. The movie is wicked disturbing, and I give it a 4/5 on the scare-o-meter (“Holy cannoli that’s scary!”). My brain tends to work extra hard to forget torture scenes as soon as they’re over, so they don’t keep me up afterwards at night, hence the 4. You may feel differently.

            Given the intensity and adult nature of the film, it seems unlikely that Hollywood would ever spring for a remake. Miike is simply too twisted, too out-there for his concept to catch hold with mainstream America, especially considering “Audition” only earned $131,296 in the USA through limited releases as of this posting¹.  

             Genre-wise, Asami exhibits something of the sadist insanity of Annie Wilkins from Stephen King’s “Misery,” but warped with trademark Miike glee. Miike is a director who is truly pushing boundaries in contemporary film. The rawness and brutality of the second half of “Audition” are shocking and sickening for the viewer, but the themes of loneliness and neglect introduced in the beginning also toy with our insecurities. In this way, perhaps the movie is to be taken as a commentary on modern romance. Is finding a partner any different than auditioning for a role? And what’s to stop “chercher la femme” from becoming “femme fatale?”

            “Audition” is nasty, interesting, and well worth a watch-through or two, if you can avoid tossing your cookies and aren’t prone to getting sympathy pains. If so, skip it, and sleep with your feet inside the covers tonight!

-AC

¹As per boxofficemojo.com