Review of Audition (2000) by Xing W — 07 Nov 2009

As Takashi Miike's most acclaimed work, I must give Audition the utmost credit, this really is a horror movie. It is a slow and steady degradation into total madness. The film begins unassumingly and closes in a scene that would disturb even the most jaded audience. I find that it is this quality, which aids Audition in its ability to horrify. Then again, I do typically prefer a slow degradation to immediate senseless gore. Audition tells the story of widower Shigeharu Aoyama, who has just lost his wife to disease. Seven years later Aoyama begins a search for a new wife, and with the help of a friend is allowed to sit in on an audition where he can screen the girls out to find one he likes. After an arduous several auditions, the final girl catches his eye, Asami Yamazaki, and he proceeds to pursue her in a blind loving furor. Unfortunately, one is not always able to see the full picture with eyes clouded by love's deceit.

One of the most vital components of Audition is in fact its camera work. It is shot in a heavily saturated style which creates an atmosphere of uneasiness that is present long before the audience realizes that something strange is occurring. Also, the style of shot creates an interesting realism that makes both the romance and horror mix all the more effective. I am drawn to mention a certain scene which takes place in the dank slanted staircase of the Stone Fish, a restaurant where Asami previously worked, where between the camera angle and the blending of camera saturation with dark deep reds evoked a horrific feeling in me that outmatched the tone in the acting for the sequence. The scene set itself up to radiate the emotion of the gruesome story told to Aoyama, but did so in a way that the verbal component of the sequence was not needed to understand the tone. I believe that this is something that is very hard to pull off, usually directors depend solely on their dialog or their shock value to relay the tone without paying attention to cinematographic details.

Another important aspect of the film is the tone created by the acting and dialog. I would not call Audition a masterwork of acting, however I would say that every role is fulfilled properly, particularly that of Asami. Her character was for lack of a better word psychopathic, and was easily the best acted role in the feature. More importantly, the dialog set a tone of loneliness, the most basic component for any horror film. If one is alone, then there is no hope, and no matter how hard one strives to change that sometimes it just wont change. That is the principle on which Audition is built; no matter how much Aoyama doesn't want to believe it, his friends understand something is wrong. They try to warn him, but Aoyama remains hopeful because he is so lonely without a lover. A certain conversation towards the beginning of the feature between Aoyama and his friend who set up the audition reflects the theme of loneliness, and Aoyama's opposition to it.

As a horror film, Audition is easily one of the best. Few other films are able to create the atmosphere and tone that Audition provides successfully. Unfortunately, Audition is not perfect, however I can point out little that is truly wrong with it. The pace of the film is very slow, but that was also a portion of what made Audition so gut wrenching upon its conclusion. In fact, it is the horrifying conclusion that gives me pause. This is incredibly violent, but that is not the problem. Simply, Audition ends upon reaching its climax, which is both a positive and negative. The story ends somewhat abruptly, but the ending is incredibly powerful, so it is a double edged sword. It does not rely on music, and most of the time the use of sound and music is appropriate. Also there is a definitive lack in unnecessary scenes that add to its length; perhaps one scene that was particularly long could have been removed. Alas, Audition is a very powerful and incredibly disturbing view into horror. I give Audition 8.0 stars out of 10.