Audition

Takashi Miike is a director who embraces cinematic excess, particularly the more violent extremes, most notably in Ichi the Killer and Audition. What begins as a rather sweet romantic drama takes a sudden turn into much darker territory, with an unforgettable torture sequence.
 
A widowed TV producer, Aoyama, stops off for drinks on the way home with a fellow TV executive and best friend and confides that he is lonely and would like to remarry. His friend suggests that he assists in an audition, asking for women between 20 and 35, for a film that he has basically invented to find a potential wife for Aoyama.
 

Sitting alone at home, he reads through the applications, looking at the photos and paying particular attention to the essays. One, from Asami Yamazaki, catches his eye because of her ballet training and outlook on life that strikes a chord with his loss. Having narrowed it down to 30 applicants, the audition begins. His friend does all the talking, posing a variety of bizarre questions to the wide range of women - one comes in dressed as a cheerleader and another undresses - but things change when Asami walks through the door. Aoyama finds his voice and talks to the quiet and unassuming young woman, later phoning her and asking her out for a drink.
 
They hit it off and Aoyama is smitten, ignoring his friend's warnings not to get too close when certain aspects of her application don't check out. Soon, he is ready to propose and takes her to his seaside villa to pop the question. However, things don't turn out as planned and Asami leaves in the middle of the night.
 
This is when the tone shifts as Aoyama is desperate to find Asami yet every lead is a dead end - the man she said was her agent disappeared 18 months ago, the club where she said she works is closed because the owner was murdered and cut up and then, one night, Asami comes calling.
 
Audition is basically famous for the last half an hour when Asami decides to punish and torture Aoyama in an extremely sadistic way, but there is more to it before then as you see her in a sparse apartment, empty apart from a telephone and a struggling victim in a sack. We know before Aoyama that Asami isn't the naïve young thing she purports to be, yet don't know the lengths she will go to to 'punish' the producer.
 
It had been a while since I saw Audition, but watching it last night made me appreciate the little parts of the story that I missed the first time and the quality of the acting. It is a deeply disturbing movie with a final sequence that is certainly not for the faint of heart, but is a more accomplished film than is generally acknowledged.
 

The Disc

 
Extra Features
All the disc has is the theatrical trailer, a Takashi Miike trailer reel and an 11 minute interview with him where he talks about his career in general and approach to film making.
 
The Picture
In the interview Miike says how important lighting is and the cinematography in Audition is top notch, with some superb framing and lighting. The transfer is good but not great as the contrast levels aren't as dark as they could be, but it doesn't detract from the film or what is a pretty good picture with very good special effects makeup and prosthetics.
 
The Sound
Given the choice of Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, 5.1 surround or DTS 5.1, I went for the latter but switched around later on and found that Dolby Digital provided much clearer soundtracks with less muddy dialogue and sharper surround channels. The sound design is excellent and the 'Kiri kiri kiri kiri kiri kiri!' will live with you for a while afterwards.
 
Final Thoughts
I much prefer Audition to the other Miike films I've seen as this doesn't get so hung up on extreme violence with more of a coherent narrative, probably due to the fact that it's adapted from a novel and Miike had no input in the screenwriting. The acting is excellent and the editing constantly throws you off guard, making you wonder whether what you are watching is real or a dream. Horror fans, particularly those of Asian cinema, should definitely see this if they haven't already - and if you weren't that impressed the first time, give it another try!