Audition

Rating:
Summary: There's no Michael Douglas in this 'War of the Roses'
Review: Anyone who is afraid of horror movies, whether of the gory/slasher or thoughtful/psychological type should steer clear of this film (this is one of just a few films that succeeds on both levels). If you can take serious horror though, and don't mind a movie who's meaning is somewhat ambiguous, Audition comes highly recommended. Without giving too much away, the plot of this Japanese film concerns a man's search for a second wife, their eventual courtship, and the aftermath.

The film has a very professional feel despite the risqué and fringe material. It is well shot, with excellent acting all around. The early scenes are just ominous enough; they give us a vague sense of dread, but do not prepare us for the shocks that await us. These shocks cannot help but lure in even the most jaded of viewers. While the movie has a great style about it, I do wish the latter parts were less open to interpretation. (POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN ONLY THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH)

Having thought about it, though, I believe the director does intend for one sequence events to have been real, and the other, more positive one to have been the sequence that might have occurred if the protagonist had fessed-up about (or perhaps never embarked upon) his Audition plan. This is debatable though, and I do not feel it is to the director's credit that he stayed on the fence. Perhaps she was so damaged in the past that she would have done these things to him regardless. In any event the more you think about the film, the more the different parts (pun intended) do seem to add up, although there certainly are supernatural elements as well.

In addition to being exciting (to say the least) this film says plenty about gender roles and inequalities. More specifically the protagonist can be thought of as being called to cost for certain types of male mistreatment of women in general. And the lead female certainly shatters stereotypes about the supposed benefits of female 'obedience'. As another reviewer noted, this film strikes at the heart of male fears about loss of control and unpredictability. In this way it is most reminiscent of 'The Beguiled', and to a lesser extent 'Play Misty for Me' and 'Fatal Attraction'. Yet this film is undeniably even darker, and more occult (for better or worse) than 'The Beguiled'. (On the other hand, the psychological aspects are not as well developed here.) Regardless, as Audition is quite an original film, I suppose you'll just have to see it!

Rating:
Summary: Be Afraid ... Be Very Afraid
Review: The quiet unassuming opening of this film quickly and inexorably turns into a nightmare. A 40-ish executive, recently widowed, is nagged by his son, friends and business partner to get on with his life and begin dating again. Because he is involved with film production, a colleague suggests he hold an audition, whereby he may meet a match among the candidates. The ensuing audition is by nature a cruel but funny affair. One jewel does sparkle in our protagonist's eye, and the old adage "be careful what you wish for" here applies tenfold. What the viewer has been watching soon becomes something very different, hallucinatory, violent and pretty damn scary. If you watch this alone late at night, you may have trouble sleeping afterwards. And even if you see this with a crowd in broad daylight ... Beware! Stay with the slow beginning, the subtext for the characters is set up here, and repeated viewings will bear this out. Make no mistake, this is a horror film. It is also a rewarding and frightening experience, well acted and directed.

Rating:
Summary: An intelligent twist
Review: I prefer films, whether they be horror or psychological thrillers (and this one is sort of both), where the suspect or villain isn't beyond human and just conveniently evil for the sake of an escalating level of suspense and to draw a close to the mystery. They're more realistic in the sense that the 'bad guys' are depicted as individuals with their own thoughts, perceptions and personality, etc, and they respond to everything around them in their own way and have been affected by specific experiences and encounters from their past which have molded their overall perspective on the film scenario. When you have a more profound understanding and can feel compassion for the misunderstood antagonist - it makes them all the more fearful because they're more human and they are simply acting upon their own instincts, motivation and desire. Since you understand this and you may even relate and have a connection to the killer, in a way you want them to get away with what they're doing as though you were doing it yourself.
This film really touched me because I felt incredibly connected to Asami and the issues of isolation and loneliness addressed in this film. In fact, I felt sorry for her as much as I thought she was foolish for getting herself involved such a predicament in the first place. The whole situation could've been avoided realistically, but then when you consider Asami's devastating past and her current grief-stricken, oppressive lifestyle it makes a lot more sense. The torture scene then seems even almost romantic.
Because of this film's complex storyline and themes, I think it stands out on its own as more of a thriller and tragic romance than a horror film. I think it delivers a powerful message which is bound to touch most of us with pondering doubts and questions regarding our own identity, what we look for in relationships, and how we perceive culture and tradition.

Rating:
Summary: Romantic, crazy Dating Comedy of the Year!
Review: Recipe for a fun evening:

Find some friends, some really jaded horror veterans, who claim they've seen everything. You know, friends who say things like this: "Dead/Alive"? Ha, a cute little movie by Peter Jackson. "Dead Ringers"? Don't see it in mixed company, but it's no big deal. "Evil Dead 2"? Please---it's easy on the eyes, and it's good for a laugh, but not scary.

Invite these friends over for a little 'alternative' viewing: instead of horror, you're going to be watching an international romantic comedy from Japan---a kind of 'indie' romance. They'll love it, you say, if they give "Audition" (or "Oodishon", as Takeshi Miike's subversive little gem is known in its native land) half a chance. What's it about? It's about a widowed Japanese movie producer (Ryo Ishibashi)whose doting son urges him to get a new girlfriend---hey, it's been seven long years since Mom died, and Dad needs some fun---who decides, with the help of a director friend, to skip the dating rat-race and audition a few score women to find a lovely lady to go out with.

The catch: his friend lets the young ladies think they're auditioning for a part in an upcoming movie. Hey, let them think it, right? Where's the harm?

Now that you have your unwitting victims in place, drop the lights, and let the DVD roll. Keep a camcorder around to catch the expressions on your jaded friends' faces. Count how many of them make 'emergency' trips to the bathroom. Enjoy!

That fine little evening plan aside, I don't have much to say about Takeshi Miike's latest work of brilliance that really shouldn't be said. Honestly, if you haven't seen this fine little mixture of Arsenic, Black Widow spit, and Curare, then you're in for a rare, shivery treat, and I envy you deeply. You should approach the film without reading any reviews, and preferably without looking at the ghoulish little DVD box. Stop reading this review now, and watch the thing!

There; for the rest of you who have, presumably, survived your date with the demure, uber-feminine Asami (played right to the bone by Eihi Shiina), I think we can all agree that this is one of Miike's most understated works. I love it for the sheer fact that I haven't actually jumped out of my seat in years, and "Audition" did the trick. Miike is a masterful director, ratcheting up the pace and the parade of slippery horrors, and his creation plays with color like Argento and bizarre, haunting, diseased imagery like Cronenberg and Lynch. Ryo Ishibashi (who plays the bachelor Shigeharu) is thoroughly believable and by the time the credits run, you sympathize with him. Deeply.

But aside from recognizing Miike's prolific, creepy, haunting, phantasmagoric brilliance, the less said of "Audition", the better. Watch it, and you'll never look at dating the same way again.

Rating:
Summary: Everything you've heard about this movie is false!
Review: I saw this at the theatre when it first came out. I arrived early only to find people leaving the show before it was over, telling me to get my money back. Of course... that only heightened my anticipation of this film, of which i previously knew nothing about.
The first hour of the film was slow, like "if it were on t.v. i'd change the channel" kind of slow, although the photography and overall sense of design was top-notch. Slowly the whole film started to twist itself into a bizarre depravity, creeping up on you like an altered state of conciousness, and i was hooked. I didn't find anything overly shocking or gratuitous about this film, in fact i found a deep sense of beauty and brilliance on the part of the director for being able to flawlessly morph both the story and the viewers emotional attachment, to the point where fifteen minutes before the resolution a dozen people got up and walked out of the theatre disgusted. I, on the other hand, felt privledged to have experienced a great work of art.
However, after the film I looked up some reviews, and was shocked on how everyone else COMPLETELY missed the point by turning the premise of the movie into "a statement on the objectification of women in Japan". I can assure you that this movie has no political agenda whatsoever. It's as if anytime a director makes something that doesn't fit our standards of political correctness, then he must be trying to expose us to the injustices that exist outside of our perfect p.c. world... gimme a break.
This film is a brilliantly realized work from one of the great directors of our time. It's the kind of film that demands a response, and will stay with you for long after the credits roll. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Classic Japanese Horror
Review: This movie will blow you away. For the first third of the movie, everything feels very straight-forward. In the next third, one senses something off as the tension builds, drawing you in for the revelations to come. The last part does a complete turn around! We go from a slow and steady pace, to pulse-pounding and gruesome finally!! Very rarely have I been so completely awed by a film.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing final quarter ruins great movie
Review: Seven years after his wife Yoko died, the middle-aged Shigeharu Aoyama is encouraged by his son Shigehiko and his video production colleague Yasuhisa Yoshikawa to get remarried. Aoyama is picky, though. He wants someone who has special talents, such as dancing, singing, and being able to play the piano, using Yoko as an example. He says "Certain training gives people confidence. A lack of confidence brings unhappiness."

The solution is to use an old romantic triangle script as a ruse and to audition women. Based on the interviews, Aoyama can choose one of them. He is taken by one Asami Yamasaki, a 24-year old girl whose aspiring career as a ballerina was nipped in the bud by an injury at eighteen. She is beautiful, classy, and obedient, but something about Asami makes Yoshikawa nervous. "Something chemical. I just don't like her," he says. Not only that, but there is nobody who can vouch for her employment history, nor anyone who knows her. Aoyama is undeterred and proceeds to meet her. It turns out that he should have heeded his friend's advice. However, the montage of questions posed by Yoshikawa and the aspiring talents respond to his questions or demonstrate their abilities is a humorous moment.

There are other side characters stricken with loneliness. One of Aoyama's female colleagues clearly has a crush on him, but he is too blind to notice. Rie, the woman who does odd chores for him, isn't too happy with her married life. Yoshikawa puts it well when he tells Aoyama early on that the whole of Japan is lonely, and "it's like a survival game or a game of torture." For that reason, Japan is finished, he says.

I was quickly taken with the drawn-out leisurely pace of a study of loneliness, but the gruesome final quarter of the movie ruined what could have potentially been a new classic. And I rarely take points off for an uneven switch, but this was way too much.

Rating:
Summary: A bed-wetting experience
Review: This Japanese psycho-thriller made in 1998 was the breakout film for its director, Takeshi Miike, known far and wide for his avant garde style of film making and his creative use of gore and plain weirdness. The film is about an aging widower named Aoyama, who seeks to remarry again. His friend who is a producer suggests that they hold a mock audition to find him a new wife. During the audition, Aoyama discovers a quiet and beautiful girl named Masami, whom he soon starts a relationship with. At this point you may think "If a film was made in the United States using this premise, It would be a romantic-comedy starring Richard Gere or Hugh Grant!". However, that's when the film spirals into one of the scariest and most gruesome films I have ever seen as it is soon found out that Masami has a hidden side caused by years of abuse. If you liked films like Perfect Blue, then this film is your cup of tea. It should be noted that when this film was first screened to international audiences at film festivals, nearly half of the audience either walked out or fainted. A truly intense thriller to be watched at your own risk.

Rating:
Summary: JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH!!!
Review: OK, first, i'm a huge, gore/disturbing/splatter lover and I could say I seen it all...well, not all but alot, including real stomach destroyers like, the untold story, Dr lamb,Ebola,guinnea pig series, red to kill, all the gory eurohorror slashers italian cannibal and zombie films and lots of hardcore exploitation stuff like the Ilsa films, I spit on your grave, baise moi, I stand alone and many others...so, I have a strong stomach and a high toleranze level for disturbing, shocking and bloody imagery...but lord...this is SHOCKING!

I saw this movie on a movie screening at Rockport college of arts while I was getting my masters degree on dramatic filmmaking. I saw the ad for the audition, wich by the way, was completly diferent than the dvd cover and I thought it was some artistic film from Japan worth of watching.

I sat through the first 50 minutes of the film and I was very enetrtained by the slow paced love gone extremely bad love story. This first 50 where very visual and poetic, the characters were deep and thought provoking and the cinematography and the art direction were just stoning...then something when incredible wrong...this beautiful and slow paced movie was changing into a dark and depressing vortex of hallucinations, psychodelia and disturbing imagery and I had no clue of what was going on...then...for my confused attention to the film, the ending arrived......JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH was I shocked!!!

The Audition is not the most disturbing film in the world, but it's ending is very visual, graphic and dicturbing...I mean, I was pretty inpressed by it...and more than 80% of the theatre was quite upset and disgusted by it.-

Probably, the reason why I was so impressed and disturbed by it was that I walk into the film without knowing what I was about to watch. Nobody told me anything by it, I didn't knew it was suposed to be a "horror" film by any chance, so my mind wasn't expecting anything...So, I guess that if I happened to know what I was about to watch, I probably wouldn't like the movie ...Why? this is not your typical horror splatter film...the first 50 minutes of the movie has hardly any blood or disturbing imagery of any kind, but a slow, deep and thoughtfull sad love story about a widowed man trying to find a partner...so after the first 50..that when hell really break loose...and the ebding will disturb you so much, you wont believe it!...believe me...it was crude and shoking as hell!

Not the best movie I ever seen, but a great oportunity to watch a diferent film... and also pretty good!....so if you're a gore fan, fast forward the the first 60 minutes and you will find one of the must disturbing scenes in film history...get it and don't tell anyone what it's about...you will enjoy watching their horribly surprised faces

Rating:
Summary: Tender and brutal
Review: You've probably heard that "Audition" is extremly violent - and that's true. But what makes this violence so disturbing is the tenderness that lies in this movie's heart.
Basically, it's a story about two lonely people, in a lonly society (as one character notes - "All of Japan seems lonely"). These two people try to make a connection, and each of them fails miserably. The man find it hard to see past his ideals about what a woman should be - and misses the person in front of him, while the woman needs, probably because of her troubled childhood, demands total love.
Out of the failure of the relationship comes a climax, which is very brutal and graphic (I've found it hard to watch - and I'm a med school student and am used to the dissections...). The fact that you come to care so much about these characters, make the violence seem human, and not horror movie cartoon gore.
A spacial notice should be made to the work done by the lead actrice, Eihi Shiina. It's her first time on-screen, and acording to the director's note, a large part of her acting in the latter part of the film came from improvisation. Perhaps she was working on her inner demons, but her performance is hard to forget.
I'd recommend this to anyone who thinks he can stomach graphic scenes.