THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
If you don’t respect people more than yourself, you’re setting up a real bad future down the line.
PLOT
Based on the Ryu Murakami novel, Audition follows Shigeharo Aoyama who has recently lost his wife to a fatal illness. Not wanting him to be alone, his son Shigehiko recommends him to remarry. With the help of his friend, producer Yasuhisa Yoshikawa (Jin Kunimura), devises a mock casting for women to audition for the part of Shigeharu’s new wife. By the end of the day, he becomes infatuated with one applicant named Asami Yamazaki. It would take about four days for him to contact her afterwards due to being unable to reach any of her references. When he finally does reach her, she claims to have no expected a callback although she actually was. They would go on for several dates which would lead to Shigeharo’s intention to propose to her. When going out to a seaside hotel, Asami reveals burnt scars on her body and demands him to pledge his love for him before having sex, which he does. By morning though, she is nowhere to be found. Shigeharo tries searching for her but Yasuhisa reminds him her contacts are dead ends. He goes to the dance studio she used to train, only to find a man with prosthetic feet who confesses of torturing her when she was a child, hence the scars. Shigeharo then goes to a bar she used to work for, but finds it abandoned due to the owner being murdered via dismemberment. When he returns to his home, he collapses due to a poison in his drink orchestrated by Asami. Upon collapse, he hallucinates of his past conversations with her and recounts of how she shared being physically abused by her aunt & uncle before being sexually abused by her stepfather that was the same ballet dancer he met when previously looking for her. The hallucination takes another turn when recounting on a one-night-stand with one of his coworkers and his inner thoughts for one of his son’s teenage friends. By the time he wakes up, he finds himself paralyzed by Asami from the poison which paves the way for her to have her way with him: She injects needles on his face and severs his foot off with a wire saw. As she does this, she scolds him for using the audition to pick up women and expresses how he failed to keep his promise on his pledge and can’t tolerate feelings he has for others including his son. Before she could sever the other foot, Shigehiko returns home and is in shock to find the predicament his dad is in. Shigeharo hallucinates again and mistakes himself to still be in the hotel where Asami accepts his proposal. In reality, Asami chases his son up the stairs before the boy defends himself by kicking her off which she breaks her neck upon landing. As Shigehiko calls the police, the film ends with Asami repeating what she said to Shigeharo on their first phonecall.
THOUGHTS
I was not familiar with the catalog of Takashi Miike in advance, so I had no idea what I was in for. By the time I finished this one, I was stunned of it all. I wouldn’t identify this as straight up horror the way others identify it, no matter how violent that climax was. I instead see it as more of a dramatic thriller due to how you’re sure something wrong is happening and you can’t guarantee how wrong it could get until it all plays out. From start to finish, you’re not exactly on the seat’s edge but you’re curious on how it’ll end and when you get there, it’s totally worth it. With an unnerving combo of cinematography & editing respectively done by Hideo Yamamoto & Yasushi Shimanura, it’s hard to not feel common dread before the shock value starts. Before you even get there, the story gets the job done in expressing the fact the majority of the male gender take advantage of females by choosing to dehumanize them rather than see them as equals. If you think it’s normal to use a fake casting call for a submissive mate, then you’re part of the problem. The message is loud spoken when following a few characters who may or may not see the problem in our society. I’m sure many people don’t think when acting during a grieving period, but I don’t think Shigeharo knew what thinking was before the casting call became a possibility for him. Ryo Ishibashi shows him as a guy who has an accurate depiction of feeling rock bottom and wants to regain happiness by finding a new partner. He could’ve done something much more normal like speed dating or an arranged marriage, but felt like he’d get better results for something unorthodox. He thought he paved the way for brand new happiness, but only unlocked a door for a demon he never thought he’d encounter and pays for his one time of abuse with power exponentially. Once is enough though because that is all it takes to be so wrong. Eihi Shiina is incredibly great as Asami because she’s a character far from being a villain yet acts like one due to hiding her emotions until the cat’s out of the bag. With all the trauma that happened to her prior, she felt like she couldn’t trust any man and had to punish all that have wronged her since her step-dad, thus keeping a man in a sack that is likely the bar owner. The pleasure she expresses upon torture is diabolical yet you understand why because she’s in a mindset where she can’t let anyone live unpunished, thus not hesitating wanting to kill the innocent character that was Shigehiko. Testu Sawaki definitely showed the teen to be the true victim because all he wanted was for his dad to be happy and had no idea how he was gonna approach putting himself out there again. Had he known what he was gonna do, he likely could have avoided all the hell they went through by the end. Having said that, he was in the right defending himself the way he did because god knows how she would have her way with him. With such a dynamic threat out of the picture, I hope the incident makes a stronger bond between him and his dad which would help them overcome such trauma. In short, Audition holds up for being an impressive unconventional experience of a film. And if that is the kind you’re seeking, see this sooner rather than later.
Comments