rdoyle29 One of Miike's subtlest and most nuanced films, most of which is obliterated in most discussions of the film by a focus on the outrageously gory climax. A widower decides to remarry and is lured into a plan by his friend ... they will stage a fake audition for an actress and he'll use this to find a prospective bride. He finds a young woman who meets all his criteria, but she comes with some mighty baggage. This film is often spoke of as if it's a straightforward revenge scenario ... this man pays the price for his sexist ways ... but it's really quite a bit subtler than that. In a way, it's really about a man who has disconnected from the world after his wife's death being forcibly reconnected to another person, partly due to his own callous misdeeds, but also due to her legitimate desire to connect with him on her own terms. So ... it's really kind of a love story.

quinimdb "Audition" is an incredibly effective horror film, but most of it is not actually horror. The first hour or so of the film is literally a romantic film, which is fitting, because Shigeharu Aoyama is a hopeless romantic. He lost his wife in the opening scene of the film, but the rest of the film takes place 7 years later. Shigeharu has been alone for a long time now, and a conversation with his son in which he is told that he should remarry seems to strike a chord with him. He suddenly feels he should find a wife, and his friend in the movie business suggests that he come to an audition for a film in order to choose his potential wife. It seems that he still feels as if his wife is watching over him, and it seems his criteria for a new woman that would be suitable for him is just all of the superficial things that made up his wife. He also seems to still be attached to her, still feeling guilty for being with a new woman, but he disregards the feelings and continues his search. He finally finds someone who seems perfect. Asami Yamazaki is a thoughtful, pretty young woman who seems to have felt loss just as Shigeharu has. But something is just not right. Her behavior is strange, and as we see from shots within her house, she seems... obsessed. And it is definitely implied that she has kidnapped a human being and put him in a bag. Obviously, the audience is constantly on edge at this point. Finally, they go out on a weekend retreat and the first thing Asami does is have sex with Shigeharu. She asks that he will only love her, and then the next morning, she is gone. With no goodbye. From here, the film slowly descends into a nightmare.Shigeharu has a conversation with his friend who set up the audition. His friend, Yasuhisa, he should just give up with this one, and that he really is just a boring middle aged man. But Shigeharu cannot accept this. He yells at Yasuhisa and storms out of the room to find Asami in person, where she lives. However, all he finds is dark, repressed secrets and memories. Then, in an ingenious shot that suddenly reveals itself to be a POV shot, we realize Asami has entered into Shigeharu's home, and drugged his whiskey, all without saying a word. Then Shigeharu comes home, and all we can do now is watch with horror as the incredibly disturbing and surreal dreams and memories unfold. It is revealed that Shigeharu once slept with his assistant who had been acting strange around him for the whole film, and it was possibly an affair. We also learn about Asami's dark past of being abused and neglected repeatedly, and eventually embracing the pain. She now only accepts all of someone's love and no less, and it cannot be shared with anyone else, wince that is what she believes she is giving them. And if not... well... let's just say she forces you to have only her and to appreciate her.I won't go into detail with the torture scenes near the end, but let me just say, not only was I hiding behind my hands the entire time, but at one moment, I legitimately had to look away. I watch a lot of horror movies, and I've seen torture porn. None of it is nearly as genuinely disturbing as this. If I had one complaint with the film, it would be that it was maybe a bit too slow paced in the start, but of course the payoff is entirely worth it.The film taps not only into the deepest, darkest depths of Shigeharu's psyche, but ours. For most of the film, it seems romantic, because that is the way Shigeharu looks at the world, and it's the way we look at the world. He convinces himself he loves Asami, but he is truly just using her to not be alone, and the only reason he uses her is because she is very similar to his wife. In reality, he (most likely) cheated on his wife with his secretary, and now, while he has completely neglected to acknowledge what he did, his secretary still secretly expected something more out of him, and the hints are clearly there, yet he decides to ignore them in favor of the happier story. This is what happens with Asami, and this is why the film the structured the way it is. All of the red flags for Asami are there, and even though he sees these, he refuses to accept them, and refuses to accept that he is really just a boring, middle aged man in order to fulfill his romantic fantasies. But as he is told in his dream after the gruesome torture scene, Asami is "the real heroine, not the one is the movie". Shigeharu wants the "movie heroine", but ends up revealing "the real one". After finding out about one gruesome murder Asami committed, Shigeharu is finally confronted, in the form of a question, with what the truth he has been avoiding this whole time: "Isn't the world a horrible place?"

Sherparsa loved the concept, tolerated the so-so story, admired certain scenes and moments and the filming etc ... and there is no doubt its director CAN make watchable movies that many will applaud (as we can see by the so many positive reviews here too) but ...but i just had to quit watching it towards the end, about when the girl is alone in the room with the man, having her own ways with him ...maybe that was too much? dunno ... or maybe it's going to end much better than i expected? i doubt so 'cause the movie has finished off telling its entire story by then and left nothing to be desired unless one's into watching (and enjoying?) gore ... maybe i'll watch the rest later, maybe not ... after all, i'm not the only person who ''left the theater in the middle of the show'' when watching this movie ...back to the concept of the movie though, yes, it is a very important and sensitive issue the movie is addressing, and i am in full agreements with the writer of the story in pointing out today's emotionally troubled and "tortured" girls and women in highly advanced and materialistic societies, where art is for money and money's for the rich only, who may not care so much about the arts anyway ...only have one question here though: if badly treated women can treat potentially good men so harshly, then how would a badly treated man treat a potentially good woman? let's not forget: although "Women Are Always Right No Matter What!", we do however live in a time that many women cheat too, freely, openly, mercilessly, and at times even humiliating men to so high a degree one thinks maybe today's men are only the subjects of females historical revenge of males!? but there are quite a number of men who are cheated brutally by some women yet many of those men don't go around taking revenge on other women in such an unjust manner, do they? is the morale of this story then women are potentially more violent than men? i don't think so ...in the end, this movie is all about torture and violence and gore, and in a sick manner, unfortunately! from a really good start and rather good climax, it suddenly turns into a cheap gore movie the likes of which are so many around these days ... well, "these days" as of the 1990s and 1980s at least ... maybe this is a movie that ends that era? and tries to do it as most gracefully as possible? is it? i don't think so about that one either!that is why although i was going to mark this movie with a 10/10, i had to change my mind and gave it only 03/10 ... still would give the concept 10/10 anyway ...

tenyearreunion Well, on the strength of the IMDb rating and the desire to branch out a little more in my film watching, I sought out 'The Auditon'.Unfortunately, though I credit the acting, the gory effects and general plot, this film just wasn't for me and I can't get 2 hours of my life back.In a nutshell, if you like mind trippy films from the likes of David Lynch, go for it. Thrillers/Dramas like Jacobs ladder, Shutter Island, martha marcy may marlene (though I was a bit irked by that ending) are fine by me but this isn't one of them. I like my films to make sense. And this, just doesn't. Maybe it's on a level I just don't get. I hope not, I'm pretty switched on but there are things in this film that are not explained and are deliberately duplicitous (to me anyway). I don't mean ambiguous, I mean they left me thinking 'I don't understand! How can things happen two different ways!?' I find this really annoying, not clever, just annoying and an unfulfilled film watching experience.I try not to read reviews before watching a film, especially if they scream spoiler alerts, but in this case had I done so I would have moved onto something else. Hence in this review I have deliberately tried to avoid any specifics about the film.Hopefully it may appeal to those who like those genre of films and watch it, and bump those who are similar to my thinking onto something else!Thanks.