'Audition' opens with Ryoko Aoyama dying before they can take her to Intensive Care. Her son is too late in bringing fruit and flowers; he is but a boy.
Seven years later over dinner this son, Shigehiko, tells his dad Shigeharu Aoyama, he should remarry. At work his assistant reminds him she is considering getting married; there is a liaison hinted at in the past. Aoyama mentions to a TV producer friend Yoshikawa that he is thinking of getting remarried;
" to a woman that will turn a man's head, bright, from a good family and obedient with old-fashioned discipline..."
Yoshikawa sets up a fake audition to find Aoyama a wife, and looking over applicants resumes one night Aoyama accidentally spills tea on one, Asami Yamasaki. She studied piano (he feels the applicant needs a skill) and classical ballet, she seems submissive in the resume as she states, "I don't know if I can be an actress. I probably won't be selected. But I was so moved by the story I had to apply "
It is obvious he had decided on Asami even before the 'audition.' When he asks Yoshikawa what he thinks, he replies "She has an air of tension. She made me want to smoke." A very Japanese response, maybe. Yoshikawa ever thorough checks her references; the music producer she lists has gone missing.
When Aoyoma phones Asami, he plays the Hitchcock card by showing a bag about the size of a man in her room; therefore creating suspense by letting us in on a detail that Aoyama doesn't know. A shot of the couple after dinner is pure Hitchcock with its use of rear projection as they sit in a taxi.
Audition seems almost like a routine melodrama up until about the one and a quarter hour mark, where it bails on its narrative and begins to intertwine dream sequences with reality. The music becomes discordant, as Miike introduces an ex ballet instructor with no feet, the wife of the missing record producer is revealed to have been disemboweled, and they found three extra fingers, an extra ear and a tongue when they recovered the body guess what the living body in the bag is missing? We are moving towards the part of the film dealing with, "only through your pain and suffering can you understand who you are."
Audition is quite separate in ambiance and pace to Miike's other work. He has a Fassbinder like work ethic in that you can never make too many films a year (the year of Audition Miike directed six films and one TV series!). Known mainly for the violence of its closing sequences, when Asami armed with steel wire seeks retribution for the men in her life who have systematically abused and oppressed her, Audition bears comparison both aesthetically and thematically to Dario Argento's The Stendahl Syndrome. With their long hair Asami and Anna are almost mirror images, connected both iconographically and thematically in their violent resistance to oppression.
The feet sequence inspired walkouts at the Rotterdam Film Festival; however the scenes of violence are very brief, with the longest shots being the glee on Asami's face whilst performing the act. Ultimately, there are many points of view on the film; it has been praised, attacked, labeled a feminist revenge movie, or a 'screed' against Japanese societies objectification of women, neo gore film it's probably all of these things and more.
Seven years later over dinner this son, Shigehiko, tells his dad Shigeharu Aoyama, he should remarry. At work his assistant reminds him she is considering getting married; there is a liaison hinted at in the past. Aoyama mentions to a TV producer friend Yoshikawa that he is thinking of getting remarried;
" to a woman that will turn a man's head, bright, from a good family and obedient with old-fashioned discipline..."
Yoshikawa sets up a fake audition to find Aoyama a wife, and looking over applicants resumes one night Aoyama accidentally spills tea on one, Asami Yamasaki. She studied piano (he feels the applicant needs a skill) and classical ballet, she seems submissive in the resume as she states, "I don't know if I can be an actress. I probably won't be selected. But I was so moved by the story I had to apply "
It is obvious he had decided on Asami even before the 'audition.' When he asks Yoshikawa what he thinks, he replies "She has an air of tension. She made me want to smoke." A very Japanese response, maybe. Yoshikawa ever thorough checks her references; the music producer she lists has gone missing.
When Aoyoma phones Asami, he plays the Hitchcock card by showing a bag about the size of a man in her room; therefore creating suspense by letting us in on a detail that Aoyama doesn't know. A shot of the couple after dinner is pure Hitchcock with its use of rear projection as they sit in a taxi.
Audition seems almost like a routine melodrama up until about the one and a quarter hour mark, where it bails on its narrative and begins to intertwine dream sequences with reality. The music becomes discordant, as Miike introduces an ex ballet instructor with no feet, the wife of the missing record producer is revealed to have been disemboweled, and they found three extra fingers, an extra ear and a tongue when they recovered the body guess what the living body in the bag is missing? We are moving towards the part of the film dealing with, "only through your pain and suffering can you understand who you are."
Audition is quite separate in ambiance and pace to Miike's other work. He has a Fassbinder like work ethic in that you can never make too many films a year (the year of Audition Miike directed six films and one TV series!). Known mainly for the violence of its closing sequences, when Asami armed with steel wire seeks retribution for the men in her life who have systematically abused and oppressed her, Audition bears comparison both aesthetically and thematically to Dario Argento's The Stendahl Syndrome. With their long hair Asami and Anna are almost mirror images, connected both iconographically and thematically in their violent resistance to oppression.
The feet sequence inspired walkouts at the Rotterdam Film Festival; however the scenes of violence are very brief, with the longest shots being the glee on Asami's face whilst performing the act. Ultimately, there are many points of view on the film; it has been praised, attacked, labeled a feminist revenge movie, or a 'screed' against Japanese societies objectification of women, neo gore film it's probably all of these things and more.