Who payed the critics

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

This is "the goriest movie ever?" Wow. Hardly.So I've been told, anyways. Sure, it came out 17 years ago, this is my first/only viewing, I've seen so much gore in my life (movies in movies, that is) and yet, this is practically Rated PG. Well, after watching two straight nights of Asian carnage cinema: Ichi the Killer (★★★★★/10 Stars) and Dream Home (★★★★★★★★★/10 Stars,) I was recommended Audition to fall into that category and from what I was told, I agreed. Never saw it, always meant to and this would be a great trilogy in as many days to finish off with.So, with these expectations, I relished in the first 20-30 minutes that seemed so normal, so cute and so good. I saw it as a lighthearted, romantic comedy/drama that was a little refreshing from the previous two movies I watched recently. But, boy did I smile. I was waiting patiently for the big bomb to hit, the huge scare that would make me jump since it was "supposed to" get extremely violent/bloody soon.40 total minutes had passed. Then, 60. 80. And at about 100 minutes, we're still in the same sweet, built-on-a-lie love-lost story. Sure, there were hints throughout this isn't what it seems. In fact, they flat out and verbally tell you that. So, I knew I was watching the right movie, but I began to question the whole "goriest movie ever!" statement/reviews I've heard during the almost two decades since its debut.Sure enough, the last 20 or so minutes, it gets somewhat gruesome. Nothing for me to look away from the screen, which I did a ton in 2001's Ichi the Killer. (Yeah, yeah, I can only take so much. Anything to do with teeth or eyeballs are off-limits for my own eyeballs.) Not a second did I say to myself: "Well, this is from 2000, maybe it was considered gory back then " Nope. I've seen plenty that had 10x the gore and all-throughout the movie – not just in the last act. That all said, the movie I saw (minus the exploitative 20 or so last minutes) was so cute, charming, well-acted and shot, it's overall recommended. Plus, the final third of the movie isn't bad on its own. It just certainly doesn't live up to the hype. ***Final thoughts: The bridge movie in my "trilogy of terror" is the best: Dream Home and the only Asian one shot outside of Japan. If you like Asian dark humor, suspense, blood and guts, that's the Home to move into.

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.

"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?"

As the film lovers of the Western World clamoured for more Asian horror, along came Ôdishon (Audition), a one of a kind sort of pic. Its positive reputation is well deserved, though what negative press exists is certainly understandable.Run time runs close to two hours, and for ninety minutes of that time the film trundles along at a sedate pace. Director Takashi Miike is exploring the key characters, deftly providing an overlay of grief management, loneliness, sadness and even cruelty.There's a deliberately hallucinatory vibe to the narrative, with many thematic beats ticking away, though answers are not readily available, where both the lead protagonist and antagonist have blurry mindsets, or do they?It all builds to the Grand Guignol last quarter, where the film has gained its wince inducing rep. Worth the wait? Yes it is for sure, even if it is tinged with a sense of disappointment that there's one too many twists for twist sake. 7/10