31 Days of Horror: Audition

Audition (Odishon) 1999

I'm almost reluctant to talk about this movie - it's brilliant and horrifying beyond imagine but it works better if you don't know anything about it. It's directed by prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike. Miike has a huge cult following and since 1991 he has directed over 70 movies. His movies range from a Japanese western that was shot in hard to follow English (Sukiyaki Western Django), a children's fantasy adventure film (The Great Yukai War) to the cult favorite Ichi The Killer - a movie so gory that when it was premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, barf bags were handed out to the audience members.

Audition was based on a novel and for the first hour of the movie, it plays like a romantic drama. Widower Ryo Ishibashi has decided that it's finally time to get married again but he doesn't want to be bothered with whole courtship thing. His buddy is a movie producer who comes up with a phony audition idea so that Ishibashi can pick out the woman of his dreams without having to bother with the dating process.

I'm going to stop describing the movie right there - I refuse to divulge anymore - that's almost too much information. The movie holds up pretty good on repeated viewings but the first viewing with the initial horror of watching such a film is the best. I'm reluctantly posting the trailer. I think it shows too much - it's pretty tame but there is still too much information being shown. In fact if people want to watch this movie - they should just go out and watch it. Skip the trailer.