KMC Forums - Audition

A friend of mine from my old BlockBuster store told me about this movie a few months ago, he told me it was the most disturbing and disgusting film ever made, and surprisingly, Blockbuster actually carried it. So, I rented it the next week, but didn't watch it. I rented again the next week, again, didn't watch it. I just didn't have time. I gave up on it for about a month, but then last week, I had my girlfriend who still works there rent it for me. It sat on my desk for several days, and finally, I watched it. And my feelings for Japanese cinema was multiplied by the time I saw it. It was simply amazing...

Some of you may have seen Ichi the Killer, which is a film made by the same director...but, you wouldn't know it by watching them, the films have two distinctly different feelings. Ichi is more of a parody of itself, it kind of combines the campiness of an old 70's kung fu flick, with the exploitation and gore of a new age video nasty, the end result was kinda botched for me, I struggled to finish it, not because the gore was over powering, but because it was just too silly, it had no feeling in it and the character development was pretty much non-existant. So when I rented Audition, I was skeptical, because I heard alot of hype about Ichi, which failed to live up to any of it. The hype was the same as Audition, Disturbing, disgusting death scenes that would make you queezy....Ichi failed in this, because, while there was alot of gore and blood, it was done in a silly manner, and because of this, it was hard for it to be effective. Audition on the other hand, was a very deep, sinister, sad and effective movie.

Audition is about a rich japanese man who works in TV and or Film, they never really make it clear which one in particular. At the beginning of the film, we witness his wife dying in a hospital, this is the prelude. 7 years later we join him back in his life, he is a widower, and he has not re-married, though he stays positive that he will meet someone in the future. He lives with his teenage son and their dog. That is his only family. Many of the scenes are simply done to show the transparant loneliness of the man since his wife died (showing him washing dishes alone in complete quietness). Anyway, his friend has an idea for him to audition women to be his new wife, and that they could make a film out of it and profit off of it and at the same time find him a new wife. He agrees to this and many many women show up, none of whome catch his eye, except one. He interviews her and decides to go on dates with her, he really takes a liking to her. However, as the movie progresses hints are dropped that she may not be as great as she seems. His friend can't contact any of the people she put as references, and shortly into the movie, we begin to suspect that she isn't completely right in the head. [SPOILER - highlight to read]: The end of the film is a 20 minute torture scene in which the womans true insanity breaks lose, and she breaks into the mans house with the sole intent of doing awful awful things to hime What this leads to is one of the most stomach churning and absolutely heart breaking finales you will ever see.

The film itself is very emotional and, very very disturbing. There are scenes of horrific torture that will get too even the most jades movie goers, and what makes it so powerful is, not only are the acts dreadful and terrible, but there is real emotion in this film. The torture scenes are done in such a grim, realistic and sadening way, that they avoid being expoitive, which is saying alot since some of the acts of torture are very over the top and overly horrible. This is also surprising because in Ichi the Killer, many violent acts are extremely exploitive, in fact, they seem to go out of their way to be this way.

Audition is really a great horror film, it's also a great romance movie, showing how strong love can be [SPOILER - highlight to read]: Even after she tortures him relentlessly, he still sobs as he see's her dead body after his sone rescues him. It's a one of a kind film, and the best japanese film I've ever seen.