Extreme Cinema: Day 4

Day 4: Audition (Takashi Miike, 1999)

Since 1992 Takashi Miike has made no less than fifty-two films, yet, for the most part, I bet that many, even those that are fans of not only his work but of the J-Horror movement in general, would only be able to name a handful.

I almost didn’t pick Audition as part of my Extreme cinema week. For any self respecting Miike aficionado, the first film that would likely spring to mind would be 2001’s Ichi the Killer, an obvious choice, no doubt due to its high gore quota and questionable portrayal of the extreme nature of sadomasochism (both blood and semen are sprayed liberally on screen, often at the same time) but, for all its horror, Ichi the Killer wears its intensions on its sleeve and aims to be deliberately sick. Audition, however, is more subtle.

The synopsis is as such: a recently bereaved widower (Aoyama), on the behest of his son, seeks out a new suitor. However, due to his shy nature and his still apparent grief over the death of his wife, he uses his job in television to hold an audition for a fake TV show. In “auditioning” possible partners, he meets Asami, an unassuming and meek young lady much his junior. Despite this, he immediately falls for her and a romance begins. Yet, in true J-Horror form, things aren’t quite as they appear.

For those coming into Audition afresh (as I was back when I started university), the opening hour plays out less as a horror and more like a family drama about a man relinquishing his grief. Much of it is slight, Miike bringing a non-showy hand to the proceedings and allowing the scenario to play out with minimal effort. Our protagonists, upon establishing their relationship, are both souls with baggage, yet it appears as though, with time, any ghosts either may have can be finally released, and the two can finally move on.

But it’s after the initial audition, once Aoyama finally calls Asami back, that we cut to her apartment. She is sat in an unfurnished room with nothing but a duffle bag and a phone, which she stares at intently as it rings.

The bag moves. There’s a groan from inside. And then things go very, very wrong.

One review I read of Audition, by Joe Cornish of Adam and Joe fame, called the first hour light and fluffy whilst the final hour was a descent into hell. He wasn’t far off and whilst the scenes after the big reveal (you know, that she’s mental) go agonisingly slow at times (the main reason why it’s deducted a point off its final score here), once Aoyama understands that his sweetheart is not who she appears, things get very bad indeed. To demonstrate: in one scene she opens the aforementioned duffle bag to reveal her captive, a man with his mouth sewn shut, most of his fingers clipped off and his feet amputated. She then proceeds to vomit into a bowl and feed it to him, which he slurps up like an obedient dog.

But what Audition is remembered for is its final fifteen minutes which, in essence, is what the entire film has built up to. Convinced that Aoyama is just as vile as the men who tormented her in her early life (namely her piano teacher), Asami poisons him into paralysis and proceeds to torture him without mercy. Before this, the film has made a conscious effort to creep uncomfortably under your skin yet, in its climax, it attempts to push further than most would want to venture. Asami, using her own brand of “tough love”, stabs Aoyama with acupuncture needles, very, very slowly and with a disturbing, childish glee, even placing them in his eyes. And that’s before she amputates his foot with a garrotte wire.

Many a horror director have gone on the record about their distress of Audition. Eli Roth of Hostel fames has stated it’s his favourite J-Horror film whilst American Werewolf in London director John Landis was so creeped out he didn’t like it. Whilst a lot of this hyperbole will undoubtedly ruin the film for some, who will be expecting the freakiest movie ever, there’s no denying Audition’s raw power. Not necessarily scary but you certainly feel dirty afterwards.

Ichi the Killer may be gooier but Audition is just upsetting.

4/5