Audition

Director: Miike Takashi

Screenplay: Tengan Daisuke

Minutes: 113

Year: 1999

Score: 4.00

Release: Arrow Films

One aspect of movies that I love is how the same person can enjoy the same thing at different points on their life journey and get a different outcome. Sufficient time has passed since I last watched Audition that it was like watching a completely different film.

From Arrowfilms.com: (US)   

One of the most notorious J-horror films ever made, Takashi Miike’s Audition exploded onto the festival circuit at the turn of the century to a chorus of awards and praise. The film would catapult Miike to the international scene and pave the way for such other genre delights as Ichii the Killer and The Happiness of the Katakuris.

Recent widower Shigharu Aoyama is advised by his son to find a new wife, agreeing Shigeharu seeks the advice of a colleague having been out of the dating scene for many years. Taking advantage of their position as a film company they stage an audition. Interviewing a series of women, Shigeharu becomes enchanted by Asami, a quiet, 24-year-old woman, who is immediately responsive to his charms. But soon things take a very dark and twisted turn as we find that Asami isn’t what she seems to be…

Pulling the audience into a story that will lead to one of the most harrowing climaxes in cinema history, Miike twists and turns us through delirious editing and shocking visuals for one of the most depraved nightmares of all time!

It has probably been 18 years sincerity my last viewing of Audition. Obviously, the movie is exactly the same, but the format, and my maturity, have changed. The first time was VHS, but that isn’t an issue since most of my 18 year old memories are a little fuzzy with tracking issues*. Maturity on the other hand, well, there are certainly those who would argue that I haven’t matured enough, but Audition certainly confirms that I have.

This is difficult to talk about the film without a level of spoilers so I will go on the record early and say that I highly recommend this film, and tell you that this Arrow Video release is as comprehensive as we need. Maybe stop reading here if you have not watched the film, watch it, and maybe also come back later if you would like a better understanding of your humble writer.

With that out of the way film writer Anya Stanley posed a question about whether Aoyama should be considered “to be a bad guy/culpable in any way,” with the options of yes, no, or good guy; did a bad thing. This question is affected by two variables; gender and maturity. While I certainly cannot answer as a woman I do feel that my maturity could help me to empathize with a female perspective.

As a young man in my twenties, when I first watched the film, I saw a man using his career as a method to find a wife, one of which violently attacked him. At that time I didn’t recognize the impact his action had on the outcome. I watched the entire film and was given all of the context, but I had no tools with which to interpret the depth in the story. I am older now, I have made friends with incredible women who have called me on my bullshit enough to educate me and mold me into who I am today. After I read Anya’s question I knew that I needed to watch the film again.

I saw so much more to the film this time that is was a new experience. The character of Aoyama is of a good man whose arc is the result of being by his wife’s side as she dies. He appears to choose raising his son while being a filmmaker was the life he was meant to live. It is with the prodding of his son and a friend that, maybe 12-13 years after his wife dies, he should find a new wife. His friend suggests that, since they are filmmakers, they hold an audition for a female lead in a film that will not be made. During the process of the audition Aoyama intends to find an accomplished woman to court as a bride. So, yes, the motivation is very sleazy.

Before the actual audition scene the friend conforms with Aoyama whether he wants to do the audition, or is he wants to go the arranged marriage route. A little research taught me that throughout the 1990s 30% of marriages in Japan were arranged through matchmaking services.

This is where I see the audition start to fall into a gray area. To be clear, Aoyama and his friend deceive and lie to the women so it is clearly in bad faith, but I can also see the possibility that Aoyama sees the audition as a way to directly control the matching service. Again, repugnant motivation and unacceptable intention,but my initial answer is that Aoyama is a Good man who did something bad.

Before the auditions even take place, he finds and falls in lust with a former ballet dancer named Asami, and after the audition he pursues her. From the beginning to now the film plays out like a Judd Apatow middle-aged comedy. We soon learn that Asami has had a very hard life where she was physically, and probably sexually, abused by her ballet teacher. Miike shows us the physical abuse but suggests the sexual as it was a broken hip that ended her ballet career, it could be a performance injury but I assume that it is more likely to be rape.

Miike uses a broken time-line to hold back portions of various conversations for a scene of everything falling into place, as Aoyama falls to the floor. After Aoyama and Asami go to bed together, Asami sneaks out and leaves the hotel while Aoyama sleeps, and he is then forced to search for his new love. He tracks down all of the references Asami listed on her initial audition resume, most of which were dead ends that lead him to understand less and less about the object of his affection. This is where we see the film shift from a pseudo-romcom into a pure horror film.

As Aoyama falls to the floor, paralyzed, the most telling clip from the montage is of him explaining to Asami that he staged the audition to meet a possible wife. Considering the film afterwards I think that this explanation triggers a flood of trauma to explode in Asami and she views Aoyama as no better than her ballet instructor and decided to take action before he can abuse their relationship. In his interview, Tony Rayns suggests that the mutilation could be an homage to Misery and that Asami is try to keep Aoyama from leaving, but I think it more likely that she is taking his ability to make a move likely her ballet instructor did to her.

But, in the last moments, even as Aoyama and Asami are both lying on the floor staring at each other it almost seems like Aoyama is still smitten with Asami. Even after the torturing and mutilation, and her attack on his son, Aoyama still appears to have compassion in his eyes. It leaves me torn, even if I don’t really understand why.

I prefer the movie as a more mature adult. The depth that Miike captures is next level and I expect that Audition will now be one of the benchmark films by which I will judge all others. It is rather incredible.

You can read Anya’s article here but I am going to publish this before I read that so I cannot use it as an excuse for cowardice.

Special Features:

• Brand new 2K restoration of original vault elements
• Original 5.1 Dolby Surround Audio
• Optional English subtitles
• Audio commentary with director Takashi Miike and screenwriter Daisuke Tengan
• Brand new commentary by Miike biographer Tom Mes examining the film and its source novel
• Introduction by Miike
• Ties that Bind – A brand new interview with Takashi Miike
• Interviews with stars Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Renji Ishibashi and Ren Osugi
• Damaged Romance: An appreciation by Japanese cinema historian Tony Rayns
• Trailers
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin

Director: 10 – Cinematography: 6 – Edit: 7 – Parity: 5 – Main performance: 10 – Else performance: 6 – Score: 9 – Sound: 8 – Story: 6 – Script: 9 – Effects: 10 – Design: 7 – Costumes: 7 – Keeps interest: 10 – Lasting: 10

* A joke only those of a certain age may remember.