Review of Audition (2000) by Crystal C — 22 Jun 2010

What the hell is in that bag?!

Audtion is a Japanese film by Takashi Miike starring Ryo Ishibashi, a widower, and Eihi Shiini, a mysterious and beautiful young girl. The plot is simple. Aoyama (Ishibashi) is talked into dating again by his teenage son and his best friend. Their method is a bit unorthodox. They decide to interview and look at portfolios of 30 women under the guise of producing a movie and looking for a young starlet.

This is when Asami (Shiini) steals Aoyama's heart with her delicate beauty sad countenance, and disappointed past. The 30 interviews are amusing and justly render the awkwardness of meeting someone for the first time. Aoyama tried to forget Asami but fate keeps bringing them together and he finally decides to pursue the young woman. That's when things begin to get a bit strange....

The camerawork in this film is amazing. The beginning tone and ambiance is also very effective. The translated subtitles are sometimes poetic, so I can only imagine that they would be even better in the original. This film succeeds in making me care a lot about the main character (something horror movies generally leave out of the equation) and by using quiet suspense that builds with every strange occurrence that accumulates. MY stomach literally began to feel sick wondering what was going to happen to the protagonist. This is a long movie - almost two hours - but I was never bored although the pacing is sometimes a bit sketchy. The performaces are great and several scenes still give me goosebumps just thinking about them. However, the first half of the movie was better than the last half. It began with such a sombre and poetic tone that I wasn't quite prepared for the switch to gore that occurs in the latter parts of the film. I saw Thirst after seeing this film and think that if you enjoyed it you will probably enjoy this movie as well. Just be prepared for the switch from a terse drama to B horror - think of From Dust til Dawn but not comic : ).