User Reviews

In this post I'm going to cover some important points of the progression of the movie, that were not cut and dry.

There are a few different parts where the movie takes its sharp turn into believing that Asami is a mentally scarred torturer, some of which could be considered a dream sequence or a hallucination. As the movie progresses, it becomes clear that most of them could be viewed as a dream sequence- but the problem is, not all.

When Aoyama gets in bed with Asumi, it can be assumed they do what we'd expect them to do, and then falls asleep, which would allow him the chance to dream, which could encompass the entirety of Asami disappearing without a trace, meeting the old stepfather, going to the shut down restaurant and the surreal torture sequence, save for the brief moment where he 'wakes up' to be back in bed with Asumi and goes to the bathroom.

This is fine, and works with the exception of the foreshadowing clip of Asumi answering the phone call for the second(?) date, where the slave in a bag rolls across the floor and moans. This is before the dream sequence, and there is no reason for Aoyama to be hallucinating or dreaming at this point- he is just at work and decides to make a phone call on his way out. Also, he doesn't seem the least big perturbed by this vivid hallucination he has, as they go on a date anyway. The placement of this scene tells us the slave, and Asumi's vile intentions are all real.

From there, you have to assume that it is Asumi's disappearance, the crazy old man, the slave in a bag and the torture scene that are all real. The 'waking up' in bed with Asumi is a fantasy. This is supported also by Asumi's body language as she undresses- her movements are slow, and angered, and then she returns to her submissive facade as she faces Aoyama again.

At that point all of the happenings between when Aoyama gets drugged and hits the floor are hallucinations that just don't happen, mixed with the pieces that Asumi told Aoyama while they were going out on dates. For the most part, nothing that Aoyama experiences while falling down drugged is new to him, or couldn't be pieced together inside his head at that point. Also, Aoyama was drugged, so Asumi's little speech after her neck was mangled by her final fall could have been hallucinated as well.

"For the most part", however, doesn't include that Aoyama vividly hallucinates the slave in a bag while falling down from being drugged. If the slave in a bag exists, then he couldn't possibly hallucinate something he has no experience with to that sort of detail. In this description of the progress of events, there is no point where Aoyama is introduced to the slave in a bag, nor is there time for him to be.

That brings us to a binary choice about what to think of this movie: Either Aoyama was hallucinating vividly, without any precursor, of awful things about Asumi that he didn't believe while in no state to do so (which entails that Asumi really is just a tortured girl, not a sadistic torturess)... Or Aoyama vividly dreams something he doesn't know about, that actually does exist. This could be either a super lucky guess, or some mental link between Aoyama and Asumi, or maybe some good old voodoo. This would entail that Asumi actually is the evil torturess, really did cut off one of Aoyama's feet, and possibly died when she hit the floor after sailing over that flight of stairs.

If anyone can piece together the movie so it doesn't have either of these blatant holes in the plot, then I'd be happy to go onto a deeper discussion of the meat of the movie.

** Spoileresque ** It's difficult to know what my reaction to this film is. I have several, they're strong and they're pulling me in different directions. Let me explain. This film sets off at a gentle pace. A bereaved husband and father sets out to look for a new wife when his son says he's looking lost. A friend of his in the film industry sets up an 'audition', superficially trying to discover an unknown actress but actually trying to find him the young, trained, traditional Japanese wife he would like. Just like his previous partner and not at all like those awful young, loud, girls in bars. He falls for one; an ex-ballet dancer forced to give up dancing because of a dodgy hip. But his producer friends thinks something's amiss, and he's not wrong...

And so the film goes by. The director has said he set out to bore the audience for the first two thirds of the film. The producer in the audition asks one candidate if she has 'seen any films by Tarkovsky'. I'm assuming this is an aside to the audience saying 'yes, this is deliberately slow, please gently fall asleep in your seats, get used to it'. I, determined to be stubborn, enjoyed it. It sets up the characters well, especially the lead. A damaged soul, still hurting from the loss. Cajoled into looking to fill that gap by those around him, he cheers up. He fishes for her, hoping for the big catch. He looks like getting lucky. He dares to have hopes. A new life beckons and slowly builds. I didn't really think it was that slow or boring. But then I like Tarkovsky.

The purpose of this alleged boredom of course, is that it all ends up with acupuncture nightmares, missing persons, child abuse and discarded digits all in graphic technicolour terror vision. If you didn't know it was coming, you would have ended up with your popcorn all over the person in front of you, including the popcorn you were contentedly digesting.

It would be easy to read this film as a misandrist/gynophobic horror. It might be taken as a more specifically culturally Japanese lament for the passing of a way of life, a la 'Tokyo Story'. You could note that the jumbled chronology or hallucinatory structure of the horror segment could indicate uncertainty. Did it really happen or are those his fears? You could note that it's his son that kills Asami, the traditional (albeit psychotic) being destroyed by the newer generation. You might think that Asami is a Nemesis, born from the violent suppression of women through time.

You could do all of these things however, I think it's a cut and shunt job. I like both sections on their own, but stick 'em together and it feels like I can still see the tape holding the two sets of spliced film stock together. These themes deserve exploration and I'd love to see the missing two halves to the two parts we've seen. Together it's a dislocated joint in my brain, albeit a well-executed and compelling one.

Imagine the sensation if the loss and hope in the first half could have made it through to be confronted by the psychosis and nightmares of the second. Instead they're misplaced somewhere in the confusion of a drugged glass of whisky and the director's desire to stupefy us into submission. Despite Asami's philosophy of getting at reality through pain, I don't think this film was painful enough, although I can't think of any part of it I didn't like. My reactions to the film may be contrary but they don't hurt enough. Deeper, please.

It's probably an exaggeration to describe Audition as extreme (its mixture of gore and realism is nowhere near as bad as in, say, Irrerversible or A Hole In My Heart), but that shouldn't sidetrack from what is ultimately a very challenging and unorthodox film. While the idea of a film changing genres midstream is nothing new or radical in itself (From Dusk Till Dawn is a good example), the way in which Audition suddenly hits you with its own surrealistic brand of Freudian horror is wholly untypical because the change in genre is not just a gimmick (likein aforementioned Dusk Till Dawn) but is used to directly comment on whatever has preceded it during the storyline.

One thing which struck me about Audition is how complete and accomplished it all seems. I say this because most of Takashi Miike's work (including films I sincerely enjoyed, like Ichi The Killer or Dead Or Alive) does appear a bit rushed at times. No doubt this is in part due to Miike's notoriously insane work rate - an average of three films a year - but it makes Audition all the more remarkable. This is in no way meant to downplay Miike's other work, it's simply to emphasise the strengths on display with Audition: nigh-flawless acting, stunning cinematography, a very intelligently and thoughtfully constructed narrative, and some of the most memorable (albeit disturbing) imagery I've ever seen on film.

To regard the final third of Audition as a feminist revenge fantasy is true to a degree, but I think it's also to oversimplify the more cerebral aspects of the narrative. Graham White made some excellent points in his review of the film here, and it's difficult to add anything of substance, but I personally interpreted the final third as a physical illustration of the mixture of guilt and fear Aoyama feels towards both his old and new wife; guilt at his late wife for remarrying, and at Asami for holding a fake audition and furthermore lying to all women involved during the audition (a point where Aoyama himself says he feels like some sort of criminal). In any case, people who take this film at face value are missing the point because the final third is an extended metaphor (even if the myriad of different interpretations we can arrive at illustrates how richly textured the narrative is).

Unfortunately the film's ingenuity is often ignored due to its violent content, and as a consequence Audition is stuck in a double bind of sorts, too violent for serious movie goers and too intellectually challenging for gore fans. This is probably a gross generalisation of its audience, but the fact that people constantly bicker about its "boring" start and it's violent ending, while very little attention is paid to the thematic elements of the narrative, seems to suggest that this film has largely been misinterpreted in what it actually set out to achieve. Audition does not simply aim to comment on the state of relationships between men and women, it also aims to challenge our perception of film genre by playing around with conventions to such an effect that it deliberately shocks and destabilises its audience. Ultimately, this is what makes Audition such a challenging movie. We as an audience have become so accustomed to the lazy generic categorisations of movies that when we see a love story we want a romance, and when we see horror we want gore. Finding the two mixed up challenges our expectations and demystifies the notion that everything about a film can be summarised by the one genre it's meant to fit into. I hate using the word post-modern, but this is what ultimately what this film is, since it's very conscious of the conventions it plays with. Furthermore, this is not simply a case of romance mixing with horror, but also with realism mixing with extended metaphors, and the latter eventually taking over the narrative completely - it's very rare that this sort of thing happens in film, but needless to say it only adds to the clever originality on display here.

If a mainstream audience is willing to dismiss a film as radical and wonderfully uncompromising as this simply because it does not meet their narrow expectations of what films are meant to be, and if they are unwilling to embrace a different kind of film making and widen their scope, then I expect the fault not to rest with the film itself but with the audience that has rejected it. I for one am glad to have seen it,

This is a difficult film on many levels.

Describing the plot is difficult for several reasons. One is that I should not give too much away. Another is that the plot is difficult to get a handle on. By the end of the movie, we are not sure what is going on. Like "Rashomon" and "La locataire" ("The Tenant," by Roman Polanski), I don't believe what the camera is telling me.

The gist of the plot is that Shigeharu Aoyama (played by Ryo Ishibashi) has been a widower for seven years, and his son has encouraged him to get a girlfriend. The fortyish Aoyama has no idea how to go about it, so he talks to his friend Yasuhisa Yoshikawa (Jun Kunimura). Yoshikawa is a film or television producer. They concoct a scheme to call in about thirty young women ostensibly to audition for a role. Among the thirty is Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina), and Aoyama is quite taken with her. He asks her out, and the tale spins into a maelstrom.

The movie was directed in 1999 by Takashi Miike based on the screenplay by Daisuke Tengan. The movie is set in Japan, and some of my confusion is undoubtedly based on my unfamiliarity with that culture. For example, Aoyama is the owner of a successful company, and one of the women who works there walks him to the elevator to announce her engagement. Aoyama is surprised she's telling him and congratulates her rather awkwardly. She responds awkwardly, and he leaves. In another scene, it's clear she has some interest in Aoyama, but I never figured it out. Her character and reason for being in the film were never resolved as far as I could tell. I have no idea whether Miike was telling his viewers something or not.

Some of the time, I was reminded of Freud's concepts, but I have no clue whether Freud's ideas are cultural and limited to Europeans or whether they would apply to Japanese people as well.

"Audition" starts out as a straightforward flick about a man who loved his wife; she died in his arms in the hospital, and he raised his son alone. Aoyama and Yoshikawa have a conversation about loneliness in general and the loneliness of the Japanese in particular. Aoyama is urged by his son and by Yoshikawa to get a girlfriend. Yoshikawa's scheme of auditions for a movie strike Aoyama as dishonest, and at one point he describes the plan as criminal. It's my understanding that Aoyama feels guilty for deserting his wife, even though she's been dead for seven years. And I believe Aoyama feels uncomfortable with Asami's age of 24; at one point he's referred to as an old fool.

The problem is that as we are sucked with Aoyama down the whirlpool; we can't tell whether the director is lying to us about what's going on. Is Miike commenting on Japanese mores and culture of submissive women (Aoyama calls Asami obedient)? Or is the movie about Aoyama's guilt over "leaving" his wife for the much younger woman? In the end, because I think Miike misleads us, I'm unable to tell. I think Miike intentionally makes the last third or so of the movie ambiguous, so feel free to insert your own meaning into the end.

It's no secret that most, if not all, of the best horror films being made today are being made not in Hollywood but overseas: namely Asia. Stories not about ghosts, but about the simplest of acts, are being told with horrific overtones, and this is one of the best.

Real horror is not about the actual confrontation between the hero/heroine and the monster in the attic, but about the anticipation leading to that encounter where we see an impending sense of wrongness, of something terrible lurking just around the corner that may have an equally horrible gift in tow.

Takashi Miike, the true star and ringleader of this disturbing foray into terror, brings us a (deceptively simple) set-up about a TV producer, Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi), who is looking for a bride by the use of an ruse: an "audition" for a "film." (It all has the lighthearted tone of a romantic comedy of manners, depicting sexual attitudes in a totally different culture.) Once he settles for a shy girl dressed in complete, virginal white, Asami, (Eihi Shiina), the stage is set for their subsequent meetings as he is drawn closer to her allure despite the fact that her resume has some seemingly glaring holes -- people she's been associated with have gone missing.

When Aoyama decides to call Asami, we're introduced to the most disturbing scene in the movie: her empty apartment, her figure seen sitting by the phone and a large canvas bag (seen near the background). Once the phone rings, the canvas bag suddenly jerks, Asami coldly smiles, a scene that totally switches the romantic tone of the film and makes a screaming left turn into what can only be considered a surrealistic nightmare or a bad acid trip that is devoid of "true resolution" -- by Miike's own words. And by doing so, ODISHON becomes Asami's story, her reenaction of a trauma inflicted on her by a sick older man, with Aoyama as her newest victim.

This is definitely a powerful film with layers of subtext and a study on how to create a convincing horror story in which we are the monsters and agents of our own entrapments, and that even monsters who re-enact their crucial split with reality were themselves once battered children. Of course, I would not recommend this as a movie to watch if one is "getting to know" their date. There is something revolting of not knowing the reason that a flapping, disembodied tongue just happens to be in front of the front door of your date's apartment.

Let me just say that I don't see what the whole fuzz is about. This movie sucks, and is boring as hell.

The last 15 minutes aren't even worth watching. The hype surrounds the climax of the film, and that's not what ruins the film. The dream sequences made no sense, the story seemed to drag on forever, and the final scene is uninteresting because the whole thing is just boring, and they just decided to end the film with a torture sequence.

If you want to see a horror film with a shocking climax, I strongly recommend the French horror flick Inside. But stay as far away from this as possible.

Rating: 0 out of 10.

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. Essentially I agree with the points point forward by the reviewer 'tedg' from Virginia Beach.

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, any 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 an 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.

The main reason I saw this film was because I kept on hearing reviews saying that it was incredibly extreme horror, how people found it unbearable to watch, fainted during screenings, etc.

I thought, this is a film I must see, since I've not yet had to stop a film due to being grossed out or scared, or at least not in my adult life.

In fact it isn't really as hardcore as I had been led to believe. If you've seen films like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or even a recent mainstream horror film, then you're probably going to be able to handle this. It's just a bit more sadistic.

It's perhaps a shame that it has such a horror reputation. Judging by the video sleeve (girl with syringe), this looks like it's going to be a cheap gore-fest. Actually it's quite a classy film. The first three quarters build the tension very well, with a subtle script, good performances, and so on. It's an interesting movie, treading an unusual line between drama, thriller and horror, before eventually deciding to be an all out horror flick in the last quarter.

My main disappointment would be that I actually preferred the first parts of the film to the horror last parts. It's shaping up as a fascinating psychological thriller.

Asami's character is being developed into a very interesting one, who you feel sympathetic for at the same time as afraid of. The relationship between the hero (whos name I forget) and Asami is very well presented. It's a bit of a shame perhaps that in the end she is basically reduced to a psycho slasher, and the nuance is dumped as a result.

Definitely worth a look. I'll probably watch it again.

For some movies it is best to know nothing about them before you see them. No review, no trailer, no reading synapsis and in the case of Audition not even looking at the movie poster. Since you already did the mistake of searching for this movie and started to read a review about it I can tell you why.

At first glance "Audition" seems to be a pretty straight forward story, which it kinda is. If you read the synapsis you know that it's about a guy who lost his wife a while ago, having an audition in order to find new love. Its tagged as horror and the movie poster shows a girl holding a syringe of some sort.. I wonder what's going to happen.... Some might say it's the most straight forward story there is, that is when you rule out the ending of the movie. Now I want to go into spoiler territory since I want to talk about the ending of the movie and go deeper into analyzing it, because that is actually why I am making this "review"... I want to analyze the ending. If you haven't seen the movie I highly recommend doing so and then come back and finish this analysis.

The movies straight forward element kinda got mixed up by 2 inclusions that were made. For one the Symbolic imagery in the dream sequence the main character "Aoyama" experiences after supposedly drinking poisoned alcohol and the second one being the scene near to the end where he suddenly wakes up after being tortured. In this waking up scene it seems like all of the previous events were just a dream and the girl he fell in love with isn't a psychotic maniac who likes to torture people. Now after the scene, they continue with the torturing scene, or at least what's been left of it and you see the psychokiller version of Asami (the girl I mentioned before) dying because she fell down the stairs.

I read a few reviews online claiming that the "waking up'-scene was just him (the main character) falling asleep, or fainting in the heat of the moment and he later wakes up and the events at the end occur in the real world. I couldn't disagree with that more. It for one doesn't make any logical sense, since he wouldn't just fall asleep in a moment where his son is in danger; he also doesn't strike me as a guy who would faint... the guy endured his foot being cut off a few minutes ago. Also this theory would also make that all the symbolism in the dream sequence was utterly meaningless. You know all the imagery shown, Asami as a child giving a crippled man her own vomit to eat, the reason you see her as an adult willingly getting tortured by her uncle, the reason why you see Asami killing her uncle while he plays the piano. All of this would be utterly devoid of meaning if we look at this movie from this angle.

You see, there is another interpretation I have for this movie, maybe you have it as well, I haven't seen it anywhere online so I think it is rather unpopular: That all the events after Aoyama slept with Asami until the moment he woke up at the end, where just his imagination, him dreaming If you will. Now why would that be and what would that mean? It first of all means that Asami is not a psychokiller, that Aoyama just imagined her being a psychokiller. In order to understand why he would imagine her to be a psychokiller we first have to understand his character and for that, lets recall everything we know about him:

Aoyama, the main character is the one we actually know the most about. The important parts are that he (of course) had a wife who had some sort of training (i imagine she played the piano) and that this was obviously a trade that he liked about her. Having a training or a skill such as "playing the piano" or "dancing ballet" is admirable for him and he feels himself drawn to such people (maybe because of his wife, maybe he liked it before he knew her). We also know that he likes Asami because of that reason, so it is rather logical to assume that he likes Asami because she reminds him of his former wife. This is also where our main source of reasoning comes into mind. The later shown imagery highly suggest that one part of his inner psyche is not over the death of his wife and feels guilty for trying to replace her with this younger version of her. This inner self of his tries to prevent him from finding love with his new relationship. Asami is just a normal girl basically, one with her own past experiences, the things she doesnt talk about. This is why this fear of her being a psycho killer comes into place. You see it is very easy to make yourself believe that something is wrong with someone if said person is very introverted and doesn't talk much about herself. This is why Aoyama is frightened to open up to her. What if she is a psychokiller who will eventually kill me, or worse even hurt my son? What if I am doing the wrong choice in finding new love? I shouldn't be so selfish if it ends up hurting me. This movie has a clear turning point of him being exited and full of longing of Asami and then being repulsed and disgusted by her. And the dream sequence of his is exactly this turning point.

Basically the dream sequence purpose is the inner fight between the 2 personalities Aoyama has. His damaged self, represented by the man in the bag, scarred from the loss of his wife, searching for nourishment and closure. Which makes him do things he later regrets like sleeping with his coworker, or having sexual thoughts about his sons underaged friend. And on the other side you have his side that loves his wife and what she represents, that fears for his family and for the unknown. This side is represented by Asami's foster father. The side that would stop at nothing to make him stay loyal to his dead wife that doesn't want him to find someone new. The side that even would create an image of an abused psycho killer to make Aoyama leave his new found love. And through this dream you see which side is winning the fight. You see Aoyama being disgusted and shocked by his damaged side and the moment his abusive side repeats his own words (where he says "ore wa subarashi" or "you are amazing"), while playing the piano you know which path he has chosen and which side he has killed in the process.

Everything after that comes as he wants it to come. He is being tortured by Asami because in his mind that's what might happen if he stays with her and his son being killed by her which would also be inevitable in his mind.

And in the continuation of his dream at the end, where Asami is later killed, it is basically the continuation of his relationship with her. His fear for himself and his son's life will lead him to abandon her, wanting to never see her again. The things she says at the end would make a lot of sense if they are said after she hasnt heard of him for a long time and maybe met him by accitend on the street. It also works as a reminder of what he lost because she repreats a few lines she already mentioned.

I could go deeper here and really take apart each shot and each dialogue spoken, but I just intended to give you a general idea of the symbolism of the movie and I hope I inspired you enough to do that yourself the next time you watch this fascinating movie.

Spoiler Warning - While Miike Takashi's "Audition" has garnered much fame for its over-the-top ending, I was relieved to discover that despite reviews to the contrary, "Audition" is not as gory as Miike Takashi's other well known movies such as Koroshi No Ichii (AKA Ichii The Killer). While the torturous ending involving foot dismemberment and acupuncture were a bit harrowing, I found the scenes quite tame, relatively speaking (the torturous scenes in movies such as "Misery" I thought were more brutal). Many have complained that the first half is slow and uninvolved but I found it more interesting than the much hyped ending. The whole mystery behind who Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina) is was quite involving and had me hooked. Ishibashi Ryo is at his subdued best as the widowed and lonely Shigeharu Aoyama who naively thinks that finding a date is as easy as holding an audition. I'm still a bit confused with Yamazaki's motives and why she went through all this trouble to bait and torture poor Aoyama. "Audition" recalls themes covered in other movies such as "Fatal Attraction" and "Last Tango In Paris" but coupled with Miike Takashi's unique brand of twisted imagery and gothic tone. I'm not a huge fan of Miike Takashi but found "Audition" much more palatable than his other more outlandish works.

I admit it, I got all caught up in the hype of this movie and was let down. It's not a "Bad" movie, just not what I thought. It's not gory or scary at all, contrary to what's been said. Some parts can be said to be "disturbing", such as the female villain throwing up in a bowl and feeding it to her victim, but nothing that should shock most. This movie had all the pieces to make a better flick, but did not put them together thoroughly enough. Some things were not explained thoroughly enough, as to most of the reasons why anyone did what they did, leaving waaay to much open to interpretation, which is what I suspect is what the director wanted.

As a huge horror fan, it seemed like a crime that I had never seen Takashi Miike's "Audition." I kept seeing it in Blockbuster and Best Buy. I own several of Miike's films including "Ichi the Killer," "Full Metal Yakuza" and "Imprint." I've seen a bunch more of his stuff and I have liked most of it.

I found "Audition" to be boring and jumbled, messy and incongruent, and ultimately a let-down.

The basic premise is a guy loses his wife and holds an audition to find a new one. A friend and colleague assists him in the process and the our protagonist is immediately drawn to one of the applications. As to why, I have no idea...but he passes over several 'normal' seeming women and manages to dig up the freak. He falls for the broad, and she ends up being a psycho. We are given a very vague indication as to WHY this broad is so crazy, but basically she was abused by a former dance teacher and possibly some family members. In the end, she ends up graphically torturing and maiming our protagonist, punishing his body and pummeling his psyche; destroying him and mauling him.

"Audition" plays like so many other J-horror flicks for the most part. I was expecting it to be a little more clear. It was murky and I still don't really understand the whole reason for the woman being such a nut.

I did think there was sufficient comedic value in this flick, as with most of Miike's work. The part where the son comes in and finds his dad missing a foot and looking like a pin cushion made me laugh. Maybe I'm sick!? It's easy to see why modern movie-goers are impressed with this kind of bland drivel when films like "Hostel" and "Saw" garner huge box office numbers and millions of dollars. But for me, I'd just as soon pass it up for some of Miike's way more inventive films, or better yet, something like "Oldboy" or "Ju-On" which offers a true STORY and not just another dose of torture porn. Maybe I've seen too many Italian and Japanese horror flicks.

4 out of 10, kids.