Summary:
A widower takes an opportunity to screen girls at an audition arranged for him by a friend to find a new wife, only the girl whom the widower chooses to date is not at all who she seems.
My Thoughts:
Anyone who goes out of their way to watch weird, disturbing, or controversial films is bound to eventually hear about “Audition”. The controversy surrounding this film revolves around one violent sequence towards the end of the movie (more on that later); that sequence was so talked about and so hyped (I wont say over-hyped- that sequence is pretty rough) that it deterred me from watching this movie for a long time; I wasn’t sure I could handle it, honestly. I have no problems with extreme violence in horror films, but when the violence is approached in a way that glorifies sadism or masochism, I start to check out. I didn’t know what I was getting into with this movie, so, I avoided it up until recently.
Now, having watched it, I’m glad that I’ve seen it; this is a pretty darn good movie. But I would urge extreme caution for those who are squeamish; it’s reputation for being disturbing is wholly warranted.
“Deeper. Deeper. Deeper. Deeper.”
Seven years after the death of his wife, Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi, “The Grudge (2004)”) decides that he will start dating again. Shigeharu’s friend Yasuhisa (Jun Kunimura, “The Wailing”), a movie producer, sets up a faux audition that allows Shigeharu to screen a number of girls whom might be to his liking. After the audition, Shigeharu approaches Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina, “Tokyo Gore Police”) for a date, and the two hit it off. Shortly after, Asami disappears, and Shigeharu goes searching for her, in doing so he discovers Asami’s unusually dark past.
(SOME SPOILERS FOLLOW)
So, the thing that this movie is most known for is the torture sequence at the end, but from the extreme rumors I’d heard surrounding this movie, you would’ve thought that the torture sequence took up half the film’s runtime. In reality, that sequence for which the film is best known is only about ten to fifteen minutes long. It is brutal; it is disturbing; it is incredibly uncomfortable. I’m not going to pretend like this is an easy film to watch, but it’s also not as bad as I anticipated.
This film is a predecessor to those films like “Saw”, “Hostel”, and “Martyrs”, but it’s also a notch above those films, in my opinion. Movies like the one I mentioned put the horror genre into an odd state of arrested development during the early 2000s- people were okay with films just being gory, and just providing gore does not necessarily make a film scary, it just makes it more graphic. Gore can be used in wonderfully creative ways, as demonstrated by the many films Tom Savini worked on in the 70s and 80s (“Day of the Dead” being one of the best examples), or Sam Raimi’s “The Evil Dead”. Unfortunately, the gory movies in the 2000s didn’t do anything to move the genre forward cinematically. What’s scary about pigs getting ground up and using their guts to try to drown a person (that’s an actual scene in “Saw III”, by the way)? Well, nothing, if you do nothing to set up the tension; it’s just a mindless bloodbath without any sort of artistic merit.
Graphic violence needs context, and this film provides that. The first hour and a half of this movie builds up to that violence and the end of the film, and in doing so, it provides some wonderful mystery and drama surrounding Asami’s character. As we fall deeper into the labyrinth surrounding her character, we reveal more and more disturbing details about her, and each disturbing detail makes us want to know more. That inevitable draw towards the reveal at the end is expertly executed.
(MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW)
My biggest qualm with this film was how Asami’s backstory is revealed. Unfortunately, the sequence is needed, because without it we wouldn’t know why Asami does what she does, but the way that we’re told that backstory doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The backstory is revealed in a dream sequence, but the protagonist dreams the dream, so I’m not sure how he actually gleans any of the information given to us at the end. The dream sequence is also a bit long and sort of holds up the pacing right before the climax of the film. It’s not horrible, but I think it certainly could’ve been handled differently.
Verdict:
After years of putting this off, I finally watched it, and I am glad I did. For fans of extreme cinema, I’d go so far to say this film is pretty much required viewing. For people who just like their horror flicks to be slightly spooky, maybe steer clear of this one; it’s a bit rough at times.
Review Written By: