Review of Audition (2000) by Marc L — 04 Nov 2010

My original review apparently was unfinished so Ima re-review the movie again as the month of October I mostly watched horror flicks. You know as much as I love Japanese movies (and foreign movies in general), I've never been all that big on J-horror.

I'm mostly talking about the J-horror ghost movies, like Ringu and Ju-On. I've always found ghost stories to be slightly boring. Off the top of my head I can only remember really liking El Espinazo del Diablo, but that's more than just a ghost story.

It's far more of a drama than a horror movie. The thing with these J-horror ghost movies is that while they do have unique stories and unique settings. Everything else surrounding that is sort of dull, in my opinion.

It's like "This woman killed herself in this building when she found out her lover was cheating on her so she's haunting this place because she hasn't found some closure" or some such bullshit as that.

And I've just never responded to that type of movie. It just bores me. In fact, I'm trying to think of J-horror ghost movies I've liked and I can't come up with one at all. So when I say that this is my favorite J-horror movie, it's not like it's saying much but at the same time it doesn't make this movie less effective because of it.

This is one of the few movies where I can safely say that I was disturbed as fuck when everything sort of reveals itself. It is a very disturbing story. The thing I liked about the movie was how until before Asami disappears, this movie paces itself like a romance movie.

So it's not absolutely all about horror. It's about that and how Shigeharu sort of wants an old-fashioned Japanese woman and how they sort of explore those themes of subtle sexism. This is done in a very effective way.

Eihi Shiina is awesome in her role, she's one scary lady in this movie. And considering her inexperience at the time, she did one HELL of a job. Of course, this movie is basically a build-up to the torture scene and goddamn was it ever effective.

The blood and gore is a bit outdated by 2010 standards but it's still as unflinching and disturbing as ever. I wasn't disturbed by the torture scene at all, though it was hard to watch in a way.

Again, I was mostly disturbed at what MADE Asami become the way she did. That shit was fucked up. As much as I love Takashi Miike, and as much as I love this movie, I don't think this is my favorite movie of his.

I still stand by The Happiness of the Katakuris as the best Miike film I've seen. That's not to say this movie's bad. Hell it might be one of my favorite horror movies of all time and you should all definitely watch it.