Audition
1999
AUDITION is an art-house cult horror film that will be talked about for a long time to come. Ryo Ishibashi stars as Aoyama, a single father who has not dated since his wife died seven years earlier. To help find another woman to bring joy into Aoyama's charmless life, his best friend, television producer Yoshikawa, convinces .. Read more
| Starring | Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Tetsu Sawaki, Jun Kunimura |
|---|---|
| Director | Takashi Miike |
| Genres | Horror, World Cinema |
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Audition
AUDITION is an art-house cult horror film that will be talked about for a long time to come. Ryo Ishibashi stars as Aoyama, a single father who has not dated since his wife died seven years earlier. To help find another woman to bring joy into Aoyama's charmless life, his best friend, television producer Yoshikawa, convinces Aoyama that they should add a fake part to a show they are auditioning actresses for--a role that will become Aoyama's real-life companion. After a series of comical auditions, in walks a woman whom Aoyama thinks is perfect--Asami, played by former model Eihi Shiina. But when Aoyama proves too tentative in his courting--and starts learning odd things about Asami's past--she decides to exact a revenge that filmgoers will never forget.
Director Takashi Miike's film, based on the novel by Ryu Murakami, begins like a slow-moving romance, carefully developing the characters and their maturing relationships. But suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, the mood and pace change, smashing viewers over the head with fast cuts between the past and the present, with dreamlike images that turn into torrid nightmares, with screams and shouts where there had been soft-spoken whispers, with blood and violence that replaces love and longing. The last section of the film is one of the most brutal torture scenes ever put on celluloid, and it is definitely not for the faint of heart. But even in its gore-filled shockingness, the film is beautiful to look at, a monumental achievement by a director willing to take chances and challenge his audience.
| Starring | Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Tetsu Sawaki, Jun Kunimura, Renji Ishibashi, Miyuki Matsuda |
|---|---|
| Director | Takashi Miike |
| Studio | PALISADES TARTAN |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 51 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Collections | 100 Top Thrillers |
| Genres | Horror, World Cinema |
| Language | DVD: Japanese |
| Subtitles | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 24 Sep 2001 Production year: 1999 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (4)
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Containing scenes of surreal violence and excruciating torture that many will find difficult to watch, this controversial psychological horror from cult Japanese director Takashi Miike could be a warped dream fuelled by tormented memory or an agonising hallucination revolving around the fear of a new relationship. It begins like a typical romantic comedy: a lonely Tokyo widower (played by Ryo Ishibashi) is persuaded to start looking for a new wife. With a producer friend, he holds a fake audition so he can screen a group of beautiful women — ostensibly for the part of a heroine in a new movie. But when the widower picks out an ex-ballerina (Japanese model Eihi Shiina) and tentatively begins to woo her, events take a terrifying turn. Like David Cronenberg, Miike doesn't provide his audience with easy answers, emotional respite or a safe conclusion. Instead, using stunning imagery and a mounting sense of puzzled dread, he puts true horror back into the genre. If you can stomach it, this profoundly moving film will leave you dazed.
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"...With a quiet that's meticulously transformed into moodiness and then fear-filled tension, the director Takashi Miike eases us in slowly....AUDITION doesn't let you down..."
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Most helpful member's review
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61 out of 63 people found this review helpful
The Art of Suspense
Audition starts and remains, for about three quarters of the film, incredibly slow. There?s no two ways about it. It is deliberate. Audition is so slow, it actually leads you in to a false sense of security and possibly even touching on sleepy.
And then bang!!!!! The final quarter of the movie is the reason that you hire it. Shocking, sick, full of blood and all the other things we craze from horror movies of this ilk.
I recommend you watch the movie in Japanese with English subtitles; it adds to the suspense and there is a lovely juxtaposition between the soft Japanese accent of a beautiful young woman and her subsequent acts of barbarity. There?s little else to say without giving the game away, except that it is a dark movie indeed.
If you liked Audition be sure to hire Ring and Ring 2. -
Most recent members' review
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1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
Audition
Having looked at several reviews of this film I really was expecting to be thoroughly scared.
Disappointingly the scary moments culminate at the end of the film in a frenzied sado-masichistic style attack. The first two thirds of the film are very B-Movie style, not sure if this was the intention and the translation was truly awful. Not that I speak Japanese - the formality of the translation had the effect of making the film quite comedic. It was either a first translation for someone or someone with a strange grasp of the English language.
The ending is squeamish and leaves the viewer unclear to the characters futures. The premise of the film is interesting if not slighlty concerning (ie, someone actually conceived the idea!!) Certainly not the scariest thing out there.... -
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Audition
AUDITION is an art-house cult horror film that will be talked about for a long time to come. Ryo Ishibashi stars as Aoyama, a single father who has not dated since his wife died seven years earlier. To help find another woman to bring joy into Aoyama's charmless life, his best friend, television ...
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