THN HalloweenFest Day 8: Audition

‘She always gets a part’

Director: Miike Takashi

Starring: Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Tetsu Sawaki

Plot: Widower Shigeharu (Ishibashi) agrees to a special audition to find a new lady. But his choice Asami (Shiina) may not be as perfect as she seems.

For those unfamiliar with Miike Takashi he was at the forefront of Japanese shock horror in the late 90s and early 2000s. ICHI THE KILLER (2001), and GOZU (2003) cemented his position as one of the most original and odd filmmakers around, but it’s his debut AUDITION (1999) that has the power to shock the most.

What Miike does so well is to create a human story: Shigeharu is a broken man, lonely, and desperate for a partner, and we want him to find happiness despite Yoshikawa’s (Kunimura) pessimism towards Asami. When Asami is uncovered as a murdering, torturous psychopath – she dismembers and kills her old boss, and removes limbs from a man kept captive in her apartment – we empathise with his plight, and want him to turn her round. Miike uses dream sequences to take the viewer down one path, then a bolt back to reality to keep the human touch and it works spectacularly.

Asking questions of the audience like few films are able to – how blind is love? – AUDITION set the benchmark for shock-horror that has never been reached. DARK WATER, RINGU and the like each added something new, but it is Miike’s debut they all have to thank for pushing the boundaries and making horror clever again. AUDITION is brave, tremendous filmmaking. You may not go back for a second viewing but it is a film you will never forget.

Horror Highlights: Undoubtedly the initial release of the man in the sack. Asami vomiting into a bowl and feeding this to him shows a desperate man, and a cold, calculating woman obsessed with power.

Biggest Scare: Maybe not for everyone but the fact I still fancied Asami at the end of the movie…. just me?

Keep it THN for all your HalloweenFest needs.