Audition (1999)

Japanese director Takashi Miike‘s name should be familiar to most film enthusiasts, since he is one of the most creative minds in the Asian film realm. The extremely hard-working screenwriter, director, and producer has created over 100 cinema and TV productions, at times realizing up to four films a year. Through films like Ichi The Killer (2001), Gozu (2003) and Imprint (2006); Miike has shown an inability to fit into one distinct genre, but a variety of themes such as violence, gore, nostalgia, and freedom are all present in Miike’s work. His films sit on the wayside of cinematic conventions and popular subject matters. With the horror-drama film Audition (1999), which premiered in many major film festivals and is based on the acclaimed homonymous novel by Japanese author Ryū Murakami, Miike gained international fame. Yet, Audition is received very ambiguously, dividing critics and audiences alike. For some, the film is both a beautiful and brutal masterpiece, for others it is bursting with boredom and especially in the last 20 minutes degenerates into tasteless violent porn.

The beginning of the film resembles a typical drama. A little boy named Shigehiko (Tetsu Sawaki) is walking through the colorless corridors of a hospital with a homemade cardboard gift in his hands. “You’ll soon be healthy again, Mom” it reads on a piece of paper. But the doctors have given up hope, the woman dies and her husband Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryu Ishibashi) can only watch helplessly. He has to stay strong and be there for his son. Seven years later, father and son are seen fishing. The grief seems a long time away. When Shigehiko brings a new girlfriend home, he asks his father Aoyama if he doesn’t want to marry again. On an alcohol-soaked evening in a bar, Aoyama brought up exactly this topic with a friend named Yasuhisa Yoshikawa (Jun Kunimura), both concluded that many men in Japan are lonely singles because there are only “indecent and conceited women”. Aoyama’s friend, an influential businessman and film producer, has an exciting idea: Why not look for a woman on the pretext of auditioning for a large film production? A fictional audition for a fictional film that will never be realized. After initial hesitancy, Aoyama embarks on the experiment. He knows exactly what he wants: a young, good-looking and well-educated lady with artistic tendencies.

Soon, he has a pile of applications from young and beautiful women on the table. Eventually, he places his hands on the curriculum vitae of the young Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina), and is immediately fascinated by her dramatic past. Later, the audition begins: 30 women are invited for one day, but only Asami, dressed in virgin white, fascinates Aoyama. She is surrounded by a mysterious aura, a downright dark secret that needs to be explored. Aoyama senses his chance to impress as an experienced man with a shy disposition. Aoyama obtains the long-awaited chance, he begins to date Asami until the point of downright obsession. Blinded by her beauty and naivety, Aoyama finally has Asami where he wanted: in a hotel room, where she willingly surrenders to him. However, the next morning Asami disappears without a trace. As soon as this happens, disturbing details of her mysterious past are revealed. Aoyama begins to investigate and drown himself into an unexpected story of violence and torture. Nobody seems to know the young lady. Everyone who had contact with her ended up missing or dead.

Audition actually evolves as a classical love story and takes a lot of time for it. So much time that it could be a test of patience for some viewers. But in retrospect, it all makes sense. Little by little, the plot gives up more and more dark puzzles and drifts into the realms of sheer psychological horror. During its last quarter, just before the viewer actually dozes off, the film startles and shocks. When evil lifts its mask, it’s already too late- too late for Aoyama to flee, too late for the viewer to look away. Miike skillfully plays with the expectations of the viewers, only to confuse and ultimately disturb them. In terms of staging, he plays with fantastically beautiful images that lull the viewer into safety before presenting paintings of gloomy abysses with an extremely raw depiction of violence. From halfway through the running time, neither the main protagonist nor the viewer knows the boundaries between reality and dreams with the two dimensions mixing. Aoyama is plagued by bizarre visions, constantly falling asleep and waking up. At this point, Audition touches the realms of David Lynch’s cinema.

The film is a satire on our superficial craze for beauty, especially in Japanese society, where women are often degraded to objects. The roles of perpetrators and victims are cleverly played here. In the end, there is also the possibility that everything was just a nightmare. Ultimately, everyone has to answer the many questions for themselves. It is too easy to stigmatize the film as a boring and sadistic work if you just let it rush past you. During the anxious and terrifying minutes of Audition, the filmmaker deliberately draws the viewer into a dark story with a bitter ending. Miike was aware from the beginning that there would be a lot to talk about after the ending credits.

by Octavio Carbajal González