Audition (Uncut Special Edition)
by Takashi Miike
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Actor: Eihi Shiina, Jun Kunimura, Renji Ishibashi, Ryo Ishibashi, Tetsu SawakiDirector: Takashi Miike
Brand: Lions Gate
Cinematographer: Hideo Yamamoto
Producer: Akemi Suyama
Producer: Jun'ichi Shind?
Producer: Satoshi Fukushima
Producer: Toyoyuki Yokohama
Writer: Daisuke Tengan
Writer: Ry? Murakami
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Japanese (Original Language); English (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 115 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-08-23
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Lions Gate
DVD Reviews of Audition (Uncut Special Edition)
DVD Review: Kiri kiri kiri kiriiiii
Summary: 4 Stars
With all the praise, I expected so much from Takashi Miike's breakout movie. More psychological thriller than horror, I was impressed and disturbed at the same time by Audition. Technically and creatively it is beautiful, but I've never been more pleased and disappointed by one movie.
According to Miike's commentary, the heart of Audition is about family, about discovering what makes a person function by examining the relationships that define their home-life. Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) is a Japanese Average Joe grieving his recently deceased wife. Aoyama bottles up his pain and loneliness, instead devoting himself to his son. Fast forward seven years into stability and a great father-son bond, and his son recommends that his father remarry.
With a casting director connection, Yasuhisa Yoshikawa (Jun Kunimura - the guy who got his head lopped off in Kill Bill), a plan is devised to find Aoyama's new woman through a fake audition. Before seeing the pool of applicants, the two men remark societal changes, the dwindling pool of traditionally subservient women who are "beautiful, classy and obedient". After reviewing several candidates, however, Aoyama sets his eyes on Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina), a pretty but haunted women whose previous aspirations to be a ballet dancer were crushed by an injury.
Immediately the two find a connection and dependency through loneliness. As intimacy increases, more of Asami's former life becomes suspect. She's incredibly sweet and demure, but the buildup progresses slowly enough that uneasiness develops amidst the foreshadowing and hints Aoyama ignores. Too bad for Aoyama.
The first 60 minutes slowly persuade viewers into forming their own mental endings, and then Miike, through his own admission, hoped that the twist would be a "psychological betrayal" leaving viewers shocked. Without going into the details of the gruesome ending, let me just say that I plan on buying a home alarm; I'll probably never go an acupuncturist; I'll always sniff my drinks before taking a gulp; and I'll always be haunted by a single Japanese word.
Ishibashi is superb as the depressed Aoyama, but Shiina absolutely blew me away. Per portrayal of a troubled psychopath is bloodcurdling. Her ability to display either apathy or glee towards what would normally elicit nausea was brilliant.
Both strength and weakness, the buildup for the final scene is difficult in two ways. One, it's excruciatingly long. It's probably the primary reason why this film is so polarizing. For over an hour, the movie drags so much that the characters' pure ennui causes boredom by proxy. On the other hand, the buildup is difficult because it allows a viewer to relate and empathize with Aoyama, to trust the rising sanguinity, making the jaw-dropping 180 so much more powerful. It's not just a gut-punch; it's a gut-punch from your father. It's completely unpredictable, and the surreal nature adds to the nauseous shock.
Once again, I'm pleased and disappointed. The beginning is agonizing; but, then again, that's what made me so susceptible to the surprise. Off-hand, I can't think of a movie that has made such a lasting impression.
DVD Review: Dating sure can be a scary thing. (3.5 Stars)
Summary: 3 Stars
Shigeharu Aoyama is a widower. Even with a son that he loves and the complacency for the life that he lives, he is still a lonely man. He wants to be in a loving relationship once again. Thanks to his job as a movie/television producer and a crazy kooky plan from his friend, he decides to hold a fake audition for a show. The casting call that the women will be on for the show is actually more like window shopping for Shigeharu to find a new girl. While looking through resumes and portfolios of the women that will `trying out for the part', he comes across a pretty girl by the name of Asami Yamazaki who he intends to keep an eye for. During the casting call, most of the women just don't cut it for Shigeharu, until Asami sits down in the lone chair across from the two producers. Shigeharu is immediately attracted to her and decides to save her phone number to ring her up later. When he finally does call, he asks her out to dinner and they begin to hit it off. He tells her he'll call her again, but he doesn't right away because he doesn't want to seem desperate. And while he waits, so does Asami, literally. Asami sits uncomfortably looking, head hung low with her long black hair draped over her face, waiting for her rotary black phone to ring. The black phone that is sitting next to the brown potato sack. When the phone rings for the second date, and the smile that eerily forms on Asami's face, we then begin to find out more about Asami's past. She has been abused by every man that she's been in contact with and all she wants now is to be loved by 100% of someone's heart and nothing less.
Audition is definitely one of those movies where at the end you will be saying "What the heck did I just watch?" And I say that in a good way. The first time I saw this, I was completely blown away by the ending. I did not see it coming at all. Well, not to the extent of what happened at least. But it left me confused because it seemed like it took too much of a dramatic turn of events. The second time having seen it, I think it was a lot better than I remembered. Though it still left me a little confused. Sure I get she was abused by all the men that should have loved her and treated her like a princess, but I honestly just didn't care for the ending that we saw (even though it was pretty awesome when it comes to being screwed up..hehe). I could understand why some of it would happen, but not the extreme situation of what we saw. Maybe it was so extreme though because no matter how much anyone loves Asami, she'll never trust that love because of how screwed up she is now thanks to her childhood. And that's how Miike wanted to prove it to you. I really don't know.
While I do like the movie, I would recommend this to only fans of this type of genre. It is a thought provoking movie, but it can be a tad to slow for some. When the end hits you in the face like bean bag from a shotgun, you're going to be doing one of two things. Saying "That was awesome" or "That was dumb". I'm only giving this a 3 stars (even though it's more like a 3.5) instead of a 4, because no matter how much I like the first 3/4ths' of the movie, the weird ending just kind of throws it off for me. Not the extreme part of the ending, but the little weird montage scenes.
P.S. - I almost puked when she was feeding someone in the end...lol. =)
DVD Review: AUDITION (LION'S GATE ENTERTAINMENT/1999)
Summary: 5 Stars
REVIEW: What appears to be a well-acted drama about a Japanese widower seeking a new wife: nose dives headfirst into a superb yet gruelling thriller on a par with "PSYCHO", "REPULSION", and "FATAL ATTRACTION". Famed director Miike is no stranger to subtlety, but the restraint he shows in the first half of the film (as he carefully builds up the seemingly normal chain of events surrounding his protagonist, T.V. producer Aoyama, and his "auditioning" a new wife in conjunction with his friend's latest project) pays off brilliantly by the film's end as we come to find out that Aoyama's ideal mate (a beautiful yet demur mystery woman named Asami - wonderfully played by actress Shiina) may not have been the best choice for a lifetime companion! The surreal quality of the final hour is deliberately hallucinatory as the revelations that confront the audience may just very well be the subconscious depiction of Aoyama's fear of re-marrying and the guilt he feels in "betraying" his love for his dead wife (the continual pleading of the Asami character to "love only me" could certainly be a reflection of Aoyama's own sense of loyalty and fidelity). It is interesting that all of the more "nightmarish" segments of the film occur after Aoyama is shown to be drifting off to sleep (and after making love to Asami for the first time). Add to that the sharp psychological portraits of these two people and how they mirror each other's emotional pain: and you have a Japanese version of Ingmar Bergman's classic "PERSONA" which dealt with a similar situation whereby two people act out their innermost turmoil against a surrealistic backdrop of film exposures. But apart from the final half hour: the most striking thing about "AUDITION" is the pall of loneliness that hangs over the film (one character even makes the comment that "all of Japan is lonely"). And so loneliness is the main theme of the story: whether it is depicted as Aoyoma sitting quietly alone at the dinner table, or Asami staring at the telephone in a bare room (well, ALMOST bare: except for the oversized burlap bag which she keeps close by...). The whole film reeks of terrible pain, tragedy, and grief. As usual with a Miike film: it is the sexual violence that is more disturbing by far (though here it is kept to a peripheral minimum) while the various horrific things that one character does will certainly make you hurl your lunch (if you've already seen the film: then no pun intended!). But again I wish to stress the emotional and psychological horror of the film which is the true core of its message, and which can also be read as a treatise against the undercurrent of male chauvinism strikingly prevelant not only in Japanese culture: but in every culture. The women who are abused, neglected, ignored, and treated with indifference or in a politely condescending tone are shown at the end of the story to be not only scarred in various ways, but also to be victims and human beings struggling against the damaging effects of such a male-dominated social structure. But aside from its philosophical and spritual implications: "AUDITION" will be forever known as the flick that garnered a record number of walk outs when it was screened at the Rotterdam Film Festival. So be forewarned: you know that when a film director gives such advice (in the DVD special feature "Director Introduction") as "If you feel sick, pause the movie. Watch the rest of it tomorrow." that you are in for a heap of gut-wrenching trouble. For certain: Hitchcock would have been please. HARSH LANGUAGE: only 3 minor words. VIOLENCE: about 11 unbearably graphic scenes of sadism and torture. NUDITY/SEXUAL REFERENCES: about 4 scenes that are fairly restrained (although a bit shocking); and a few straightforward, sex-related questions that are posed to the various candidates at the audition. DRUG REFERENCES: a couple of scenes of drinking and smoking.
DVD Review: Creepy and brilliant
Summary: 5 Stars
The genius of this movie is that it sneaks up on you. The whole thing is simply a set-up to get you to think the way they want you to about the characters, so that when they change it is subtle. The characters are realistic, so not particularly outrageous or interesting. The whole thing is very 'romantic drama' with a bunch of people that seem to have no twist to them at all. Even though I knew that the girl is a psycho killer (just look at the cover) I found myself viewing her as some normal sweet little Japanese girl. After the first time I saw her do something horrific in the movie (I wont spoil it for you) I quickly went back to thinking of her as the sweet innocent girl. When that happened, I realized that the film makers were really getting inside the heads of the audience. It works. It's not gory or overly violent, but creepy. If you want lots of blood and big creatures jumping out at you, or people that get shot 30 times before they die, watch something else. If you want real creepy, psychological horror, watch The Audition.DVD Review: Long
Summary: 3 Stars
Wes Craven said this was one of the scariest things he had seen so I bought it. There are some scary/insane parts but mostly it's a bore in between the crazy which are very short parts.
Description of Audition (Uncut Special Edition)
A middle-aged widower is urged by his teenage son & film producer friend to start dating again. They devise a plan to hold a phony film audition to meet new women. The widower falls for a beautiful ballerina with a suspicious past & their courtship veers from poilte romance to psychnightmare! Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 02/06/2007 Run time: 115 minutes Rating: UrIf you want the full sledgehammer-to-the-stomach effect of Audition, stop reading this review now. Just watch it and take the consequences. At first glance, Takashi Miike's jack in the box of a movie works like a romantic comedy: amiable widower Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) decides it's time to find a new wife, and a friend suggests holding a fake audition to find the right girl. It soon becomes clear that there is something wrong with Aoyama's choice. This is no ordinary Fatal Attraction-style thriller, however; Audition slowly and carefully builds into a wrenching exploration of both deep male fears and the stereotype of the cute, submissive Japanese woman. Audition is by no means an easy movie to watch--even hardcore horror fans may have trouble--but it will stay with you for a long, long time. --Ali Davis
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