Reader Recommendations: Audition

I usually am turned away by foreign movies, not because I am racist but more due to the fact that I like to hear and not read dialogue. But since I have seen Itchi the Killer, I wanted to see more Japanese films, in particular ones from Takashi Miike. Both a reader (Bill) and a co-worker of mine, who is also a big fan of Miike, told me to check out the amazing "Audition". It was his favourite films, but did tell me that this was a horror and not an action movie like Itchi the Killer. And I do love Japanese horrors; I find them a lot more entertaining than some of the ones we get here. So here is my take on “Audition”.

The movie takes place years after the death of Aoyama’s wife. His son suggests that he should remarry, but as a busy and old business man, it is hard for him to find anyone to share a lifelong love with. His co-worker suggests he hold auditions for an actress, and just pick out the ones that he likes most. The one that caught his eye the most was Asami, a beautiful ballerina that’s maybe a bit too young. But nevertheless he asks her out and they hit it off right off the bat. But after digging deeper into the details of Asami’s resume, Aoyama’s co-worker finds something’s to be fishy and warns Aoyama to stay away. A bit curious, Aoyama does investigate further and find out some deep dark secrets about his new lover, and even suspects her to be a serial murder.

Most suspenseful part of the movie. WHAT'S IN THAT BAG?!

This is by far one of the creepiest movies I have seen all year and maybe my life. It is by far not as bloody or violent, but the terrible things I saw cannot be unseen. But the great part of this movie is the build-up; it is long and thoroughly. I really got to know how Aoyama is, what he is like and really got familiar with the character. This got me the opportunity to get personal with him, which was really pays out in the end. So from a 2 hour movie the first hour is getting to know Aoyama and his situation. The following thirty minutes is him investigating and the last half hour is the best part of the movie, the creepy horror scenes.

If you were planning to go see this movie, you should stop reading here and skip this and the next paragraph, I might spoil some key points. So we find out that Asami has a dark history and could be a serial killer, so the half hour investigating her victims is creepy. The scenes of her victims decapitate tongue and a pool of blood is a shocker, and they show this a lot. It gets worse, when you see the actual victim still alive, missing a tongue, three fingers and an ear. To top it all off, he lives with Asami, in a sack and is fed her vomit daily. Yes you see all this, and he was the kicker to the first thing that freaked me out. Let me set this scene up, the phone is ringing at Asami’s place and all you see is the sack and telephone. The logical part of my brain says the sack is full with potatoes until the 8th or 9th ring and the sack flies off screen and you hear a loud groan. Creep me way out!

The horror scene is absolutely batshit scary. It is a whole scene on how Asami tortures Aoyama and how she feeds off his pain. She justifies everything she does, cutting off his foot so he can’t run away, etc. But to see her using a wire to cut off his foot, or poking needles into his eyes is some wack images I don’t want to remember. I was utterly silent and sat motionless for the whole twenty minutes. It was by far the most horrific thing I have seen.

Female in latex = attractive. With a wire saw != attractive.

I have to note the amazing story telling method of this movie. This story was not told in a linear fashion, there is a lot of flash back and ‘in dream’ moments that made me question myself if the scene I was watching was happening presently or just a dream. I love seeing this and it kept me from getting too bored.

I really liked this movie; it might be my favourite horror film. I am starting to like Miike and would love to see more of his movies. I have heard he has some children’s movies, those can be interesting to check it out. If you are into horror and creepy movies, this is a defiantly a must watch. It rewrites how horror movies should be!