Rating: 
Summary: Freaky
Review: I watched this movie expecting a scary and disturbing movie. The movie started and it wasn't scary at all. I let my guard down thinking that the movie was misleading, and it was actually a romantic comedy. After the first hour or so, the movie takes a drastic turn. It turns on a dime into a full out horror movie that thoroughly freaked me out. This is by far the most disturbing movie I have ever seen.
Rating: 
Summary: A Horrible, Disturbing Movie
Review: This is a very deceptive movie. It starts out almost like a Romantic comedy but it ends up as a shock-horror movie. A recent widow whose wife just passed away seeks to find a new wife (at the insistence of his son) and does so through setting up an audition. He meets this beautiful woman whom he falls head over heels for and then he is in for a big, horrific surprise. The director intentionally sets up the audience for the ending. Don't watch this movie if you are squeamish or do not like to be disturbed. I regretted watching this movie.
Rating:
Summary: A twisted and disturbing romantic comedy!
Review: I'm not an aficionado of foreign language films, but didn't let that put me off this Japanese production. Apart from the original Russian "Solaris," and the German mini-series "Das Boot," I can count the number of films I've read the subtitles to on one hand, and they've mostly been by Kurosawa. I purchased this movie purely on the strength of the reviews I read of it here on Amazon, the first time I've done so. "Audition" seems to elicit extreme reactions from reviewers, like Kubrick's 2001, you'll either love it or hate it... and as you can see from the 5 Stars I gave, I'm in the former category. But just so you know, my taste in film runs from, A Man For All Seasons, to the original Halloween, via the aforementioned 2001, and the original Dirty Harry! I won't go into too much plot detail, others have done so, suffice to say it's not terribly original; boy meets girl, boy falls in love, boy loses girl, girl reappears, transformed from meek and mild child-woman, to messed-up psycho-slasher with an extensive collection of acupuncture needles! The first half of the film plays out as a gentle romantic comedy. Even with reading the subtitles, and missing the undoubtedly subtle Japanese cultural references, I was smiling and chuckling as our hero, Aoyama, met, under slightly dishonest circumstances to be sure - the "auditions" of the title - and then started to woo, the girl of his dreams, Asami. But all, of course, is not as it seems. Her background is hazy, to say the least, but still, he is smitten, and plunges headlong into the relationship, only to have her disappear without trace after they have made love for the first time. He sets out to track her down, and slowly but surely his world disintegrates into a living nightmare of disturbing revelations and strange, dreamlike, meetings. This all builds inexorably to the "messed-up psycho-slasher" finale, with its extended scenes of fairly graphic torture, which, to be honest, COULD have been much worse! The reasons for all the horror goes back to Asami's childhood, and is explained in a couple of, brief though explicit, scenes of sadomasochistic child abuse! This film is not for everyone by any means, but it is one, I feel, that will reward repeated viewing. The performances, cultural subtleties aside, are warm and naturalistic, the story is solid, but it's the direction/editing that drives the whole thing, relentlessly, to its Grand Guignol conclusion. Certain scenes are repeated/expanded upon, seen from different perspectives, then repeated again 'til you're not quite sure what is "real" and what is imagined on the part of the protagonists. The final moments have an ethereal dreamlike quality... a stunning conclusion to one hell of a ride!
Rating:
Summary: Gratuitous, disgusting, and ultimately empty.
Review: Don't kid yourself...this movie is just shock-value trash. The violence is extreme, but that in itself isn't the problem. The real problem is that the violence and gore is plainly gratuitous and beyond. Yes, certain maladjusted fools get their bit of thrill by hyping things that they know is inherently offensive (in fact specifically because of it), but the truth is, this is bottom-of-the-barrel horror cinema. Those who genuinely enjoy it (more specifically, its final torture sequence) on any level above that of detached slasher-film thrills, likely need help. Those who believe the film and its disgusting visuals are really about "sexual politics" or any other innocuous-sounding "justified cause", have issues and may well be beyond it. I love Japanese cinema, and intelligent thrillers. This is neither...just shock-value garbage that passes itself off as avant-garde. Unless you have some kind of deep-rooted sadism or misogynistic anger that you're lugging around, spare yourself the aggravation and don't bother.
Rating: 
Summary: a bit too much
Review: There has been a few previous reviews stating that this isn't really a "horror" film in the truest sense, and they're probably right...but i have to say that Audition succeeded in scaring me...bad. Audition has some unbelievably frightening moments, and there is an extremely unsettling mood running throughout the entire film. In this sense, Audition is truly good. But I can't come away saying I enjoyed it. The graphic representations of torture and twisted sexual themes running through the latter part of film were just too much for me. I think this film is artistically brilliant, I really do, but some things are so disturbing that no matter how brilliant the art may be, I just can't come to terms with it. If you can handle torture and violence on this level, or can appreciate film regardless of its how disturbing it might be, then I really think you'll find Audition a superb film. I can't get past them. And it's a shame because I really want to like this film.
Rating: 
Summary: Know the definition of Horror in Japanese term
Review: Sick of Jason's Friday 13th series? or Wes Craven's Scream? Or the creepy Dario Argento Italian Movie? It is time to learn what Japanese's meaning of horror.
To me, Japanese horror is mostly not very graphical, and not much bloodshed, but it will chill you to the bone.
Like this movie, I must admit the first 3/4 of the movie is really slow, but the uncomfortable, sick atmosphere just build along the movie. At the final final part, which is the most horrific scene, may churn your stomach upside down.
Next choice: Ring the movie in Japanese version - a truly horror moive without a single drop of blood, but still can triple your heart beat.
The reasons that I don't give a 5 stars for this movie - the female lead is actually quite ... ugly. And I think the ending can be more violent (I am a sicko!!)
Rating: 
Summary: The horror of decay
Review: Like the female lead in the movie, Audition's true identity plays hide-and-seek with its audience. As a horror movie, it is passable at best. The intended shock comes from a radical change in narrative direction. What seems like a lovey-dovey romance becomes an encounter with a living nightmare. The dream/psychological sequence that marked the twist is brilliant. None of the flashbacks and explanations seems to make sense and when you think you have figured it out, there is always the lingering doubt "Is that what happened or what the protag believes happened?" The problem with Audition as a horror movie is that there are too many elements that give away the surprise finale (e.g., the overly innocent protag, the slower than snail pace first half, and foreshadows by the truckloads). Anyone familiar with Asian horror films would have been tipped off by a thin woman with long black hair in a white dress. Once stripped off the twist, it is just a long wait to the shock. Granted, the ending is gruesome. There is, however, another way to look at Audition not as a horror movie but as a commentary on the aimlessness of contemporary Japanese life. No recent Japanese movies have done as good of a job at "slumming" Japanese urban landscape as Audition has. Even the Astroturf on the rooftop putting green looks pathetic. The city of Audition is a place to be swallowed up and disappeared. To that extent, the most terrifying aspect of the movie is the decay surrounding the characters. The female lead is a personification of the social condition: beautiful, calm but deeply dehumanizing. She tears you apart with the same level of care and grace as she would serving you tea. Rarely has a movie made me think about it the way that Audition has. See it and be troubled.
Rating:
Summary: Graphic and Unsettling, but an Unflinching Work of Integrity
Review: This film made my stomach turn and heart beat faster. I've never seen pain and torture portrayed so graphically, yet so... enlighteningly onscreen. The film starts out as an ordinary tale of a widowed film producer who is encouraged by his son to date and marry again. He uses film auditions as an alibi for him to pick an ideal woman. And falls immediately under one girl's spell. This is developed as a traditional story, and makes up 2/3 of the movie. Then the film does one of the most insane 180 degrees, as the main protagonist finds out the horrible, scarred past of his new girlfriend, and is exposed to an unbelievably graphic series of tortures put upon by her. The last 30 minutes of the film are nightmarishly surreal. I thought I couldn't finish the movie because of its harsh violence, but I could not let myself not watch it, because under the context, this violence was necessary. The filmmaker completely subverts all our expectations and turns what started out as an ordinary, machismo-driven film into an exact opposite: one of the most scathing and scary cautionary tales ever on the cruel and flippant male sexual politics. It can even be called a feminist statement, as long as the psycopath girl is viewed as the avenger femme fatale. It's a brilliant move. The violence is real, but it's tempered by shots of tremendous poetry and lyricism. The psychological acuity of the director Miike is amazing, and the surreal sequences that mix real events and the subconscious of the characters have the true, sublime power of a real, horrifying dream. I haven't seen dream sequences handled with such agility since David Lynch's best work. There are loose ends and things left unclear, but it is obvious that is the intention of the filmmaker. Only after viewing the film did I realize the film was based on a story by Ryu Murakami, a postmodern Japanese writer of immense talent who does not yield easily to the readers' expectations. This is not a film you can easily love, but nonetheless, it is a remarkable testament that a film can still be made without compromising its integrity and honesty. And it's not a surprise to me that such a film is a product from outside of Hollywood. Wa-y outside.
Rating:
Summary: This one will haunt you
Review: "Audition" is a startling piece of cinema. It will draw you in and then it will subject you to some of the most harrowing, gut-wrenchingly shocking images ever committed to film. I was literally squirming in my seat, yet fascinated by the sense of sheer terror that washed over me. I never thought that a mere movie could ever have that effect on me.
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't hold together
Review: This movie was hard to follow for most of its length, which made the descent into madness at the climax shocking but ludicrous at the same time. Most of the characters aren't developed enough, and the life story of asami is too vaguely laid out to suspend disbelief and buy into what's happening. What causes her to so totally lose it? We're not given enough to go on. She seems to be gloomy and tortured, but what in her past, other than the vague pictures we're given, has moved her down this road? It would be easier to identify with her if we had a better idea of what caused her to snap. As it stands, she simply seems repulsive. Aoyama is better portrayed as somebody blinded by love to obvious hints of danger, but too much of the cast gets short shrift. The jolting reversal of tone late in the movie isn't too unusual in japanese films, but in most cases it's set up better than it is here, and the gratuitous violence appears not as a result of foregoing events but as something totally out of place.
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