This is not for the faint of heart. For what appears to be a lightweight
comedy about a Tokyo widower looking for love suddenly turns very, very
nasty and has caused grown men to run from cinemas in panic at festivals
around the world.
Aoyama (Ishibashi) is a -year-old executive who has raised his son
alone since his wife’s death. Lonely and convinced that he’s losing his
looks, Aoyama decides it’s about time he look for a new wife before it’s
too late. Then a film-producer friend persuades him to participate in a
‘fake’ audition whereby he can screen young women ostensibly for the
part of the heroine in a new movie. But only one candidate strikes a
romantic chord with Aoyama, the beautiful child-like former ballerina
Asami (Shiina).
A tentative romance begins and all seems well despite Asami’s references
not properly checking out and people associated with her mysteriously
going missing. Ignoring these early warning signs, Aoyama becomes
increasingly smitten with his new love. But events move into nightmarish
overdrive when Asami, sitting motionless and alone for days purposely
ignoring her boyfriend’s calls, finally picks up the phone with an evil
smile as a blood-soaked sack on the floor behind her springs into
agonizing life.
From this point on, Audition becomes excruciating as Asami’s agenda
becomes clear. The final minutes form a drawn-out torture sequence
with Aoyama suffering indignity, amputation and emasculating abuse. Is
it all a warped dream fuelled by his memory of happy marriage? Or is it
an agonizing hallucination revolving around the fear of a new
relationship? Miike’s battle of the sexes doesn’t offer up any easy
answers. Instead he puts true horror back into the horror film and the
intense result is a punch in the stomach that will leave you stunned for
days afterwards.
OVERALL SUMMARY
With its sharp direction and grisly imagination, Audition is truly one
of the most horrific, frightening and distressing films to emerge from
the genre in years.
