takashi miike pulls no punches in this movie that is clearly not for the squeamish. the movie is devious and gory, yet credible enough to keep the intelligent viewer wondering.
The PLOT: aayoma, the lonely widower, meets asami a pretty single young woman through an audition set up for the purpose of helping aayoma find a suitable girl. as aayoma begins to fall for asami hard, there is more to her innocent pretty-girl looks than meets the eye. a dark sinister secret surrounds her and her demanding love results in a tragic and incredulous end.
The ANALYSIS: Audition has its shock value, but is there more to the movie than that? definitely. the plot (based on the infant terrible of Japanese literature, ryu murakami's novel) which starts off in a linear narrative hurls the audience through an impossible vortex as it hurtles through a horrifying finale, where the narrative spans through time and reality back and forth, leaving the viewer guessing what is real and what is a dream.
PLOT BREAKDOWN -(SPOILERS herein): Aayoma falls for asami, he goes on a date with her, they spend a weekend together at a resort where he proposes marriage, she accepts, he wakes up while in bed with her having a nightmare, she realises that even while in bed with her, his thoughts are not entirely hers. asami's brittle and disturbed mind takes this as a sign that he doesn't love only her. presumably sometime he has discussed with her how much he loves his son too. anyway, he wakes up the next morning to find her missing. he investigates, finds out about her, her lies, her past involving her uncle, her aunt (who she probably mutilated and murdered, it is upto the viewer to decode and understand this). her record company agent has incurred her wrath too and he gets 'suitably' punished by asami. asami sneaks into aayoma's house and drugs his drink, kills his dog. in the drugged state, even as aayoma's subconscious is beginning to unravel all this information mixing up his own personal inner demons with the realisation about asami that he is figuring out, asami enters to wreak havoc. she is not done with aayoma yet. she begins to inflict serious torture on aayoma, including amputating his feet. enter aayoma's son and he saves his father from suffering more. end of story.
FINAL VERDICT: Audition is an audacious movie, it subverts the viewer, throwing sadistic images and thoughts at him. However what makes it work is the study of alienation, childhood abuse, loneliness and the subtle insights into the working of a sick mind, what makes it so compelling is that the sick mind hides in the body of a gorgeous woman (Eihi Shiina who plays asami is a former model). Audition is a sick metaphysical tour de force, that leaves the viewer gasping for breath, while the beginning is a bit too slow-paced it is essential in shocking the viewer by lulling him into a sense of complacency leaving him totally unprepared for the sick mayhem that follows.
A definite must-watch, but only if you have the stomach and heart for some very scathing cutting-edge cinema
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