Review of Audition (2000) by Chris M — 10 Aug 2010

Now THIS is my kind of horror movie!

I learned about â??Auditionâ?? (or â??Odishonâ?? as it was originally titled in South Korea) when it kept crashing a few Internet/TV pop culture lists such as Bravoâ??s â??100 Scariest Movie Momentsâ?? (this film nabbed the No. 11 spot) and, particularly, Entertainment Weeklyâ??s â??20 Top Horror Films of the Past 20 Years.â?? In the latter list (compiled by EW movie critic Owen Gleiberman), this Takashi Miike film earned the top spot, besting far more recognizable genre submissions like â??The Blair Witch Projectâ??, â??Screamâ??, and even that critical darling Oscar-winner â??The Silence of the Lambsâ??.

Never have I been much on horror flicks because A) Iâ??m a snob, and B) quite simply, Iâ??m rarely in the mood to be disturbed by a story via blood and slashing, especially when caused by some second-rate, significantly distant cousin of one of Boris Karloffâ??s greats. These kinds of films are often so assembly line with their setups and climaxes that time might as well be spent observing an 8-year-old boy play with his â??Last Airbenderâ?? figurines as he makes them plummet from sofa-arm cliffs. Iâ??d been waiting for some filmmaker, ANY filmmaker, to devise a horror film that still kept the old hat yet successful storyboard that has become the spirit of the genre but also to devise one that feels nothing like it â?? one that not only happens to eventually reveal itself to be horror but honest horror thatâ??s well worth the wait.

Miike accomplished this precisely in 1999 with â??Auditionâ??.

If one were to tune in late to the beginning scenes of â??Auditionâ??, that viewer would be completely blindsided for what would be to come. The film opens with a death but one more in a â??Steel Magnoliasâ?? fashion; a man named Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) is seen sobbing at the bedside of his terminally ill wife in her last moments. Afterward, thereâ??s a light, sentimental piano score over scenes like Aoyama and his adorable young son walking down a city sidewalk, immediately followed by the two fishing and joking with one another seven years later, then having dinner while their puppy circles the table â?? all of this through the type of faded tint camerawork found in a number of TV movies on the Lifetime network. Donâ??t be fooled â?? this is all deliberate.

Aoyama has stayed a widower all this time and works for a movie production company. After some nudging from his teenage son Shigehiko (Tetsu Sawaki) and his co-worker friend Yasuhisa (Jun Kunimura), he decides for himself that the loneliness must end before he gets much older. Determined to marry again, he and Yasuhisa devise a thickly disguised plan of attack over drinks at a bar: run an all female open-call audition said to be for a new film in need of a starlet but secretly for Aoyama to judge and start a potential relationship with someone. The process is just as degrading toward women as it seems, but Aoyama, an otherwise incredibly nice soul, sticks with it after the headshot and résumé of Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina), a former ballerina in her early 20â??s, catches his eye beforehand.

His intuition appears to prove correct when her number in the audition comes up, though Yasuhisa initially flat out doesnâ??t trust her, unable to state a reason better than â??something chemical.â?? Aoyama and Asami begin to date and get to know one another while Yasuhisa goes through background checks on the woman in question. Both men keep hitting dead ends with her history, but Aoyama, much to Yasuhisaâ??s chagrin, allows himself to be swept up in the excitement of new love.

Those who are reading this and want to see the film spoiler-free should skip to the last paragraph now.

Before the audition, a radio announcement is made to anyone interested in it, intending to entice the female listeners by claiming they could be the next Julia Roberts. One listener we see is Asami, sitting crooked-legged and hunched over on the floor of her dank, depressing flat. We see her like this again after the first date with the film cutting to her after some of Aoyamaâ??s scenes, doing nothing else but slowly wilting until her home phone placed on the floor rings. When it finally does ring, a menacing smile grows on her face and thenâ?¦ it becomes abundantly clear she is dangerously unhinged and capable of being incognito about it in public.

After the lovebirds spend their first night together, Asamiâ??s past comes to light, and not only is it dark, itâ??s grotesque, disturbing, and shown and told through what could only be described as homage to David Lynch. From this point in the film forward, the chronology of the story goes berserk. The line that separates reality and subconscious is swiftly brushed away. Asamiâ??s horrific experiences with the opposite gender are unveiled, and before Aoyama can know the mess heâ??s swum deeper and deeper into, heâ??s paralyzed â?? short of his nerves â?? while Asami dons a shiny black rubber apron and gloves and goes to work with her fragile, lethal instruments. No joke: I actually wanted to scream â??No!â?? and â??Stop it!â?? to the torturer before the victim could.

The viewing experience of â??Auditionâ?? is ultimately a vicious animal that wonâ??t let go. Both Ishibashi and Shiina turn in phenomenal work, and Miike is a mental puzzle extraordinaire, playing with editing, narrative, and blink-and-you-miss-â??em question-raising shots to certain supporting players throughout (What exactly is the cutaway to that creeper bartender overhearing the movie honchosâ?? out-loud planning implying? Does the appearance of Shigehiko's new girlfriend in Aoyama's dreams allow him to further realize his crucial mistake of wanting women to be compliant?...). The filmâ??s jumps are carefully calculated, but they all become small potatoes compared to the final blood-curdling 30 minutes they so superbly lead up to. â??Auditionâ?? is both an examination of how coldly common it can be for men to objectify women and a revenge flick courtesy of a damaged human being that we the audience can terrifyingly comprehend to. This may be the closest one can get to feeling the same rush that people felt when they saw â??Psychoâ?? on opening day.