Audition

Rating:
Summary: Eihi Shiina
Review: This is the sickest movie I've ever seen. Eihi Shiina plays her role wonderful. If u finally want to be scared again by a movie, you'll have to watch this one. Takashi Miike created a kind of new horror with this movie, not that stupid teenage horror. A really intelligent,good movie. You'll scar your bones off.Wanna bet?

Rating:
Summary: Deeper
Review: I hadn't seen anything by this director before I saw this film at a horror film fest in North Carolina and I must see more.
Audition starts off like a cheesy romantic comedy about a middle-aged movie producer trying to find a wife in a modern Japan that's nothing like the one he grew up in. So a friend of his suggests to hold a audition for a film that may or may not be made. He takes a liking to waifish Eihi Shiina, classicly trained and obedient. And they appear to hit it off, but as he checks out her past we see events spiraling towards a gruesome end. Lynch-like in it's dream sequences and Argento-like with it's horror; Audition won't let you look away or leave no matter how much you want to.

Two words you'll understand after you see the film-canvas bag.

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.

Rating:
Summary: Audition
Review: The other reviews will give you a description of what the film is about (though probably too much of one), so I won't dwell on the subject. It's a film that Should be seen and not described anyway. This Is one of my all time favorite films, so I am going to be incredibly biased. This film is excellent: Takashi Miike (the director) is perfectly in his element with this kind of film. The best way, I think, to describe this film is to say that Audition is to Japan, what Silence of the Lambs or Psycho is/was to America. The lead actress, Eihi Shiina, does a frighteningly great job in her film debut. Simply put, Audition is an awesome and exceptional film :).

Rating:
Summary: Hot! Thought Provoking!
Review: Without waxing to anecdotal (or pseudo analytical), I have to admit I had not idea what to make of Audition. The perplexity in a way is a good thing as it made me think. Here goes... Not sure whether this movie was `art house' or `sensationalism' or `shock value' I stuck with it. Based on the novel by Ryu Murakami, Takashi Miike's rendition defies easy explanation. Audition is a yarn of a middle-aged, widowed TV-producer's looking for a wife (or partnership) through bogus auditions of youthful actresses. According to some research this is in line with Miike duality juxtaposition of `attractive/repellent,' `fascinating/disgusting.' After a really long first hour that smacked of soap-operaish melodrama we are presented with a tour-de-force of rapid-fire violence. Granted Miike sets this up a `collision' I'm still confused as to what to walk away with. In the special features where Miike is interviewed he denies any social commentary. Fair enough, however, one cannot help but read into the movie (if looking at the movie `as text') much like `Fatal Attraction' one sees a certain critique of men's viewpoint of the objectification of women which get brutally repaid by their own gullibility (or is it ignorance). I certainly read it as a denunciation of the Japanese male's mind-set towards women. As un-intellectual as this sounds, take into account a widower who wants a beautiful, unsullied, submissive, youthful and wife, but does not hesitate to run the prospective entrant through a `meat market process' - such as an `Audition,' where we are supposed to accept that she is willing to wait in line with others in order to expose her breasts for two `Oyaji' she has never met - and like it. The candidate is somewhat unaware that this is all because the men folk are so socially inept that they cannot meet well adjusted women in a real world scenario - where the power relation is a little bit more - shall we say - `balanced.' I hate spoilers so I won't do one here. However, we get a sense that this fellow is not so bad and Miike, I think, tries to make us sympathize with this `awkward' individual - who apparently doubts his action (but goes through with it anyway). Aoyama doubts his actions and we are supposed to commiserate. His persona (I think we are supposed to allow for) is a `gray area,' so this is not supposed to be a film as condemnation of `either/or' but more like `both/and.' So Aoyama is both pathetic AND reflective - we are not supposed to judge him. In a way, what I found disturbing was how during the audition scenes, we see him somewhat `uncomfortable' while his associate, who created this whole scenario to begin with is unreflective. As a somewhat `redemptive' aspect of the film as the movie progresses we get the sense that Aoyama is the victim in this whole thing as we are presented with Aoyama's feelings for Asami as genuine and that he might be the way out of her `issues.' Not likely I guess from the outcome. Hard to expect that relationships that spring from such dysfunctional beginnings (no matter how linear my thinking) can be expected to succeed. As a psycho thriller this movie is nothing short of a tour-de-force. Moreover, if it but stops and makes us consider our objectification then Miike may have succeeded beyond his sensationalist roots.

Miguel Llora

Rating:
Summary: OVER REATED MOVIE!!!!
Review: I bought this DVD almost $60.00 because all these reviews and hip and hop an all these things about this movie ,i saw it once i dont wanna see it again..stupied movie dont make any sence only in end and little gory part an all about it...is kinda movie u see it once , U dont wanna see it again...anyway my email is [e-mail], i sell this junk DTS sound and view once for $45.00..if u want to have it email me,and at least i get some my money back...

Rating:
Summary: Excruciating
Review: Unless you love gore, avoid this film like the plague. I speak Japanese well and routinely enjoy Japanese cinema, but this movie has little redeeming merit.

It is far too disjointed. While I enjoy putting together pieces of a puzzle, I'd rather not work from a box in which random pieces from five different puzzles are jumbled together.

Needless gore combined with mindless stream-of-consciousness film-making. Ugh. I don't quite have the words to describe how much I disliked this film. Caveat emptor.

Rating:
Summary: Homebrewer
Review: I will not go over plot points already covered in other reviews, but rather add another dimension to the discussion of the horror / gore aspect of the movie.

In my view, the horrific and gory scenes of Aoyama being drugged, dismembered and so on are all dreamt. That is, everything between Aoyama being covered with a sheet after entering the bed with Asami and his waking up to fetch a glass of water is a dream. The dream continues after he goes back to bed.

To put it simply, at the surface level, the movie is a psychologically acute and well acted drama about the growing relationship between Asami and Aoyama. Now, just as vintage horror fans will tell you, that which is implied is far more subtly terrifying than simple splatter and gore. The torture and punishment Aoyama undergoes at the hands of Asami is a nightmare firmly rooted in the narrative of the so-called boring build-up to these gut-wrenching scenes.

An attentive look at the first three quarters of the movie reveals how motifs, phrases, and the emotional 'baggage' brought by each protagonist to the relationship are reworked in Aoyama's subconscious into a terrifying nightmare.

It is to the writer's credit that this nightmare follows dream-logic in a way that is still cinematic and accessible. It is a dream which reveals much about the character of Aoyama, and nothing at all about Asami. (In fact, through the whole film, she is more an object of his gaze and interpretation than a subject narrating her own experience.)

Does this mean that this movie should not be classified as a horror film? In my view, it is better seen, and only makes sense, at the level of an insightful, character driven drama about the guilt-complex of a traditional middle-aged man decided upon marrying a younger woman with some baggage of her own. Her 'baggage' is, of course, only alluded to, but it is enough for Aoyama's imagination to work into a powerful expression of his own fears and sense of guilt. And, likeable as the character of Aoyama is, there is enough for his guilt to chew on: he has used the artificial and deceptive 'audition' to find himself a wife. He was against the idea but talked into it by his coworker. Is it so strange that his subconscious should reproach him for it? He is remarrying after the death of his first wife through illness. Is it so strange that she should reappear in the dream sequence to warn him against Asami? And Asami herself is somewhat of a mysterious character. She is marrying a far older man. Why? And why isn't she already involved with someone. She has had a difficult upbringing. What emotional scars might it have left on her? The character herself, so brilliantly acted, also conveys a negative 'vibe' in the way some people just seem to do.

This is a movie in which the 'male' gaze is very much the primary one. The story is told from his point of view. But the female has her own revenge. She intrudes through the workings of his subconscious, complicated by his doubts and his repressed sense of guilt. If she must be objectified in the manner she is, an unattached female drawn out of a short-list of viable female candidates and turned into a dutiful wife, then she might just become, potentially a rather nasty object. In the strange, reverse world of the dream, she has become the active subject, and he is the drugged and immobile victim of her tortures and punishments. .

Why, then, is the movie always referred to as a horror film? In short, it needed to be promoted as such to get an audience. If the reviews here are anything to go by, it certainly seems to have been received as such.

But it is so much more than a horror flick, one-and-a-half hours more in fact. It is NOT a horror film with good characterization, but an insightful romantic drama with a violent undertone of personal and cultural repression. In fact, I would say that it is unique in standing between the two genres, linking the two and transgressing the bounds of both, for if horror films are so often characterless splatterfests, then romantic dramas are also often guilty of being superficial, sugary twaddle. To see it any other way is to overlook what the film achieves at once so brilliantly and so terrifyingly. Whether this was a fluke or intended as such, can only be answered by the director himself. I like to think, that like Asami, this movie can take on a life of its own in the viewer's mind. A+++ of an movie!

Rating:
Summary: gruesome yet compelling
Review: takashi miike pulls no punches in this movie that is clearly not for the squeamish. the movie is devious and gory, yet credible enough to keep the intelligent viewer wondering.

The PLOT: aayoma, the lonely widower, meets asami a pretty single young woman through an audition set up for the purpose of helping aayoma find a suitable girl. as aayoma begins to fall for asami hard, there is more to her innocent pretty-girl looks than meets the eye. a dark sinister secret surrounds her and her demanding love results in a tragic and incredulous end.

The ANALYSIS: Audition has its shock value, but is there more to the movie than that? definitely. the plot (based on the enfant terrible of japanese literature, ryu murakami's novel) which starts off in a linear narrative hurls the audience through an impossible vortex as it hurtles through a horrifying finale, where the narrative spans through time and reality back and forth, leaving the viewer guessing what is real and what is a dream.

PLOT BREAKDOWN -(SPOILERS herein): Aayoma falls for asami, he goes on a date with her, they spend a weekend together at a resort where he proposes marriage, she accepts, he wakes up while in bed with her having a nightmare, she realises that even while in bed with her, his thoughts are not entirely hers. asami's brittle and disturbed mind takes this as a sign that he doesnt love only her. presumably sometime he has discussed with her how much he loves his son too. anyway, he wakes up the next morning to find her missing. he investigates, finds out about her, her lies, her past involving her uncle, her aunt (who she probably mutilated and murdered, it is upto the viewer to decode and understand this). her record company agent has incurred her wrath too and he gets 'suitably' punished by asami. asami sneaks into aayoma's house and drugs his drink, kills his dog. in the drugged state, even as aayoma's subconscious is beginning to unravel all this information mixing up his own personal inner demons with the realisation about asami that he is figuring out, asami enters to wreak havoc. she is not done with aayoma yet. she begins to inflict serious torture on aayoma, including amputating his feet. enter aayoma's son and he saves his father from suffering more. end of story.

FINAL VERDICT: Audition is an audacious movie, it subverts the viewer, throwing sadistic images and thoughts at him. However what makes it work is the study of alienation, childhood abuse, loneliness and the subtle insights into the working of a sick mind, what makes it so compelling is that the sick mind hides in the body of a gorgeous woman (Eihi Shiina who plays asami is a former model). Audition is a sick metaphysical tour de force, that leaves the viewer gasping for breath, while the beginning is a bit too slow-paced it is essential in shocking the viewer by lulling him into a sense of complacency leaving him totally unprepared for the sick mayhem that follows.

A definite must-watch, but only if you have the stomach and heart for some very scathing cutting-edge cinema.

Rating:
Summary: I never want to see this movie again!
Review: Don't get me wrong; the movie is great. The directing, the acting, the script, all first rate. A brilliant work.
Its just too creepy! I was truly disturbed by it. I felt almost betrayed by the cast and director to some malignant plan that had manipulated my sense of expectation.
I saw it once. It'll be in my head until the day I die.