Audition

Rating:
Summary: Whoa!
Review: I don't think I can say anything that hasn't been said so just stop reading this and see the movie for yourself. Eihi Shiina makes Glenn Close look like Samantha Stevens, but this is no fatal attraction and its not for the squemish.

Rating:
Summary: kidee,...kidee.....kidee.....
Review: AUDITION - directed by Takashi Miike (2001)
DVD/VHS
10/10
Japanese with English Subtitles
This film is un-rated and contains graphic violence.

I can't decide which director would enjoy watching this film best: Clive Barker, Dario Argento, or Alfred Hitchcock. All these directors I appreciate for their talents in darkness whether it is extreme or subtle. Takashi Miike has accomplished drawing the audience in slowly with subtle and well-made storytelling that turns into a roller coaster ride of white-knuckle extreme terror. At first it seems as though Miike is presenting at straightforward family drama. Husband/father Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) widowed seven years prior decides under the gentle and humorous direction of his son (Tetsu Sawaki) it is time to remarry. Simple? Well, no. Aoyama's drinking buddy Yoshikawa (Jun Kunimura) decides to hold a fake audition for a film in search of the perfect woman. The editing during this sequence has a natural rhythm and humor that highlights the whole facade as the numbers of unusual women are asked a series of questions. Enter Asami (Eihi Shiina), a former ballet dancer, who seems to have suffered in her past. Aoyama falls in love quickly, and against the warnings of Yoshikawa moves forward in quest for the perfect mate," a compliant woman is best." Takashi quickly cuts to a still shot of Asami, sitting on the floor her head bent down, her hair falling over her head so we can't see her face, a telephone in the foreground, and a very large canvas bag. Throughout soundtrack is very well done and there are very different types of music to fit each scene. At this point, however, there is total silence. Long enough to create tremendous tension. Miike takes the audience with Aoyama as hints Asami's of psychotic disintegration almost subliminally sneak into the narrative. At the midway point we become just as disoriented as Aoyama. Is love blind and deaf? In a series of well-edited montage scenes we are shown previous shots of conversations with different dialog, or simply, more direct. Asami seems to be disclosing all of her painful and tragic past. Or is she? Do we really listen when we are in love, or do we simply hear what we want to hear? Asami's lifelong forced submission and compliance have been driven so deep they boomerang ..standing these traits on their heads. I enjoyed Takashi's sense of direction. The film flows, picking up pace towards the final scenes effectively employing the lost art of giving the audience the maximum amount of tension and fear while revealing little. By then it is too late. Throw in a couple of misplaced acupuncture needles, dismembered limbs, three fingers and a tongue. Well, you can imagine the scenarios. Or can you? This is a slow burn, with a great pace and it really pays off. Not for the squeamish, faint of heart or anyone who is afraid of needles. Deeper, deeper..deeper.

Rating:
Summary: Shoots down the submissive [asian] wife fantasy
Review: An easy way to look at this film would be to describe it as something of a Japanese take on the films of David Lynch. It takes his Grand Guignol approach to what at first appears to be an everyday suburban setting.

Having seen several of Miike's films previously and having read several reviews I knew I was in for something special but by no means expected it to be similar in tone to 'Dead or Alive'. Initially it seems you are watching the wrong film, the pace is set at something resembling a Meg Ryan film only then does it take a distressing turn to the surreal.

People who dismiss the twist as implausible are in some ways correct but having spent time in Japan it is an interesting interpretation of everyday sexual politics (though Miike denies it is a feminist film).

The finale which seems to be the aspect of the film most talked about by other reviewers, is hard to watch. Miike turns a family home into an uninviting and disturbing torture chamber. Just as you think the end has come Miike again pulls the carpet from under you in a move that made me laugh out loud with relief and joy, yet months after viewing it is the aspect which still has most resonance.

Rating:
Summary: THIS IS NOT A HORROR MOVIE ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Review: People naively classify this movie as a "horror flick" when it is actually a drama that contains some horror elements.The first hour which many viewers experience as "slow or languid" is an hour full of rich character development that expresses many complex human emotions without being overly sentimental.
The protagonist is a middle aged man who lost his wife and has been living in austere lonliness since.His friend sets up phony movie auditions so he may find a future bride.He falls for a girl with a distraught past and one night after they make love she disappears.As our protagonist searches for his girl he discovers many strange facts about her and her past.I wont go into detail any further except to tell you that this movie has an incredible ending.
This film is drenched in atmosphere from melancholy to creepy to down right disturbing.I highly recomend this film,but please appreciate it for its many powerful dimensions not just the violence.

Rating:
Summary: Acceptable DVD Presentation of a remarkable movie.
Review: As many other people cover the story line, I will quickly focus on the actual DVD presentation for people who would like to know.

First we get a fully animated menu (Well designed) focusing on the Audition tapes, nice to leave on in the background before watching the film, each transition between chapters menu, audio/subs (Subs are well translated, removable and yellow making them easy to read) setup and special features plays an amount of noise and a quick snippet from the film (Very nice).

Audio quality varies, 5.1 (Japanese) is not needed for a film of this type, but it brings great clarity to the score and dialogue. "kiri kiri kiri."

Picture quality is average at best, it is quite dark so brightness needs to be upped, but generally the picture displays limited to no wear, pixellation is non existent and sharpness is good for a NON anamorphic image. There is some background noise in certain scenes, but it does not distract from the viewing experience. Some edge enhancement is present in brightly lit areas, and venitian blinds tend to alias in office settings. This might sound messy, but honestly this is the best this movie will look on DVD for English speaking backgrounds.

NOTE: There has been a new 16:9 R4 version of Audition released, but this print is the same master used for the TARTAN UK version which is bad compared to the R1 CHIMERA release.

All in all this R1 version of Audition is the BEST out on the market at the moment. The Japanese version is a tad better but has no English subs and English subs are needed for this film, if you can't understand Japanese because the film is dialogue driven.

Extras are minimal but interesting. The final 30 minutes audio commentary with Miike is very interesting to listen too.

Audtion is pure Miike excellence... Not for the faint of heart, as the unrated version is quite gruesome in some parts. Miike is still my favorite director, nearly all of his films are fantastic and I am a huge fan of Audition.

Rating:
Summary: Don't be fooled by the slow opening!
Review: Japanese cineaste of psychosis Takashi Miike turned in this remarkably subversive love-story-"come"-psyscho-story. Don't be fooled by the deceptively languid first hour; the final third of the film is excruciating in the extreme and definitely not for the squeamish.

Premise: A TV producer's wife dies of some unnamed disease, and he spends the next ten years of his life raising his son and minding his job with little or no thoughts of finding love again. He has a very specific kind of woman in mind -- sad, slightly shy, basically an amalgam of all the cliches about submissive Japanese women that are actually more the stock-in-trade of foreigners than anyone else. To that end, he contrives a kind of "audition" for a TV show that doesn't exist, and screens through the women that apply to look for a suitable wife. He finds a girl who charms the pants off him -- but...

At this point I won't say another word about the story so that I may preserve its many, many secrets. I will say that the final third is as harsh a reversal as you are likely to get in any film -- if you're used to American movies where all the horror is telegraphed way in advance, this will come as something of a shock. Good, because the movie is superb at being shocking, both in what it presents and what you're asked to think about. Just don't eat before seeing it.

Miike's brand of sadistic moviemaking peaked recently with the release of the astounding "Ichi the Killer," in which a masochist slices off his own tongue before answering his cell phone. "Audition" isn't quite that appalling, but it's not far behind.

Rating:
Summary: Not really a horror film
Review: Not everyone will like Audition -- it's too slow moving for a a horror film, and too graphic for an art film. But it says some profound things about loneliness and how human beings deal with it. While some may find the movement from sentimental domestic drama to grand guignol shocker too arbitrary, it's not that unusual in the context of Japanese culture -- from the double suicide dramas of Chikamatsu to the venerable ghost story traditions of phantom women who seduce men and destroy them. Throw in a touch of David Lynch "Blue Velvet" surrealism, and this is what you end up with. If you like the creepy atmosphere of Kobayashi's Kwaidan and have a strong stomach to boot, you can't do better.

Rating:
Summary: Dull and overated
Review: I saw the trailer of audition on the 'Ring 0' DVD and it looked dark and somewhat chilling.

At last after some months I managed to find a copy to watch and was very dissapointed.

The whole film is kind of dull and I sat in anticipation of events that would take the film into its dark ending. The first hour or so concentrates solely on the main character finding a wife, the next half hour is very confusing and at one point has you wondering "what the hell is going on".

Parts in the ending re-evaluate conversations which have suddenly changed and the main character having visions of his torturers victims. And you think if he knew all this why did he want to marry her?

The torture scene is not completely horrific but the lead actress does play the ending superbly and you can feel her insanity. Without her the torture scene would just be another bit of gore.

The movie does have its endearing moments such as the father and son scenes. However you never feel that much sympathy for the wife-seeker, even at the end.

For those that are looking for a real horror you're better off sticking with Ring.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent and Horrifying
Review: I am going to be honest. I saw this movie on a Sundance Channel Horror special for the month, and I had no idea what genre it was at the time. Through the beginning of the movie, seems like a nice innocent film, but as the end approached the gorssness of the film emerges. I was scared! I have never seen Japanese horror before that. But this movie made me fall in love with it. The story and actors were good, the only reason I gave it only 4 stars was simply because I found the movie to be confusing at some points, but those were remedied after a second and third viewing. I suggest you see it if you like a twisty plot or just enjoy horror

Rating:
Summary: When bad girls go REALLY bad
Review: This movie is like an acid filled tootsie pop. Sweet & sugary, then agonizingly painful. You know SOMETHING is going to happen, and it builds up to that point very slowly, which is definately a necessity, considering the massive shock this movie will deliver when it strays off the path of (near) innocence & goes careening headlong into a nightmarish dreamscape of extreme violence & severe consequences. I'm far from squeamish, but I was cringing for the last 30 minutes of this movie. One of my favorite aspects of this movie is that there are no "good guys" & everyone gets what they deserve in the end, to an extreme. This movie is a must-see if you want a horrific & unforgettable experience.