Audition (1999 film)
| Audition | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
|
|
| Directed by | Takashi Miike |
| Produced by | Satoshi Fukushima Akemi Suyama Toyoyuki Yokohama |
| Screenplay by | Daisuke Tengan |
| Based on | Audition by Ryu Murakami |
| Starring | Ryo Ishibashi Eihi Shiina |
| Music by | Kōji Endō |
| Cinematography | Hideo Yamamoto |
| Edited by | Yasushi Shimamura |
|
Production
company |
AFDF
Creators Company Connection Omega Project Inc. |
| Distributed by | Vitagraph Films (US) |
|
Release dates
|
2 October 1999 (Vancouver International Film Festival) 3 March 2000 (Japan) |
|
Running time
|
115 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Box office | $131,296 |
Audition (オーディション Ōdishon?) is a 1999 Japanese horror film, directed by Takashi Miike and starring Ryo Ishibashi and Eihi Shiina. It is based on a Ryu Murakami novel of the same title, from a screenplay by Daisuke Tengan.[1] The film was screened at the 1999 Vancouver International Film Festival[1] and was released theatrically in Japan on March 3, 2000.[2] Over the years, the film has developed a cult following.[3]
Plot
Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi), a middle-aged widower of seven years, is urged by his 17-year-old son, Shigehiko (Tetsu Sawaki), to begin dating again. Aoyama's friend Yasuhisa Yoshikawa (Jun Kunimura), a film producer, devises a mock casting audition in which young women audition for the "part" of Aoyama's new wife. Aoyama agrees to the plan and is immediately enchanted by Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina), attracted to her apparent emotional depth.
Yoshikawa develops misgivings about Asami after he is unable to reach any of the references on her résumé, such as a music producer she claimed to work for, who is missing. However, Aoyama is so enthralled by her that he pursues her anyway. She lives in an empty apartment, containing a sack and a phone. For four days after the audition, she sits perfectly still next to the phone waiting for it to ring. When it finally does, she answers pretending that she never expected Aoyama to call. After several dates, she agrees to accompany him to a seaside hotel. Asami reveals that she was abused as a child and shows burn scars on her body. A deeply moved Aoyama pledges his love. In the morning, Asami is nowhere to be found.
Aoyama tries to track her down using her résumé, but as Yoshikawa warned, all of the contacts are dead ends. At the dance studio where she claimed to have trained, he finds a man with prosthetic feet. The bar where she claimed to work has been abandoned for a year, following the murder and dismemberment of the owner. A passerby tells Aoyama that the police found three extra fingers, an extra ear, and an extra tongue when they recovered the body. Meanwhile, Asami goes to Aoyama's house and finds a photo of his late wife. Enraged, she drugs his liquor. Aoyama comes home, pours a drink, and begins feeling the effects of the drug. A flashback shows that the sack in Asami's apartment contains a man missing both feet, his tongue, one ear and three fingers on one hand. He crawls out and begs for food. Asami vomits into a dog dish and places it on the floor for the man. The man sticks his face into the vomit and hungrily consumes it.
Aoyama collapses from the drug. Asami injects him with a paralytic agent that leaves his nerves alert, and tortures him with needles. She tells him that, just like everyone else in her life, he has failed to love only her. She cannot tolerate his feelings for anyone else, even his own son. She inserts needles into his eyes, giggling as she does so. She then cuts off his left foot with piano wire. Shigehiko returns home as Asami begins to cut off Aoyama's other foot, and they struggle. Aoyama has a dream that he is waking up after he and Asami made love, and that his ordeal was only a nightmare. He awakes from the dream to see his son still struggling with Asami. Shigehiko kicks her down a flight of stairs, breaking her neck. Aoyama tells his son to call the police and stares at the dying Asami, who repeats what she said on their second date about her excitement on seeing him again.
Cast
- Ryo Ishibashi as Shigeharu Aoyama (青山 重治 Aoyama Shigeharu?)
- Eihi Shiina as Asami Yamazaki (山崎 麻美 Yamazaki Asami?)
- Jun Kunimura as Yasuhisa Yoshikawa (吉川泰久 Yoshikawa Yasuhisa?)
- Miyuki Matsuda as Ryoko Aoyama (青山良子 Aoyama Ryoko?)
- Toshie Negishi as Rie (リエ?)
- Tetsu Sawaki as Shigehiko Aoyama (青山 重彦 Aoyama Shigehiko?)
- Shigeru Saiki as Toastmaster (酒場のマスター Sakaba no masutā?)
- Ken Mitsuishi as Director (ディレクター Direkutā?)
- Ren Ohsugi as Shimada (芝田?)
- Renji Ishibashi as Old man in wheelchair (車椅子の老人 Kurumaisu no rōjin?)
Release
Audition had its world premiere on October 2, 1999 at the Vancouver International Film Festival.[4][5]
Reception
During screenings of the film, audience members would on occasion exit the theatre before the film's end. When shown at the 2000 Rotterdam Film Festival, one enraged female viewer confronted Miike, shouting at him, "You're evil!"[6]
On Rotten Tomatoes, Audition is "Certified Fresh", with 79% of critics giving it a positive score, with an average rating of 7.2/10.[7]
Among filmmakers featured on US TV channel Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments (on which the film appeared at number 11), notable horror directors Eli Roth, John Landis and Rob Zombie claimed to have found the film very difficult to watch,[8] given its grisly content; Landis said that the film was so disturbing that he could not enjoy it at all. Bloody Disgusting ranked the film fourteenth in their list of the top 20 horror films of the 2000s, with the article saying, "Considered by many to be Takashi Miike's masterpiece, this cringe-inducing, seriously disturbed film boasts one of the most unbearable scenes of torture in movie history... It's revolting in the best possible way; the prolific Miike goes for the jugular here, and he cuts deep."[9] In the early 2010s, Time Out conducted a poll with several authors, directors, actors and critics who have worked within the horror genre to vote for their top horror films.[10] Audition placed at number 18 on their top 100 list.[11]
Remake
In June 2014 Deadline reported that executive producer Mario Kassar had begun work on an English language adaptation of Audition.[12] Richard Gray was brought on to serve as the remake's director and screenwriter.[13] Filming is expected to begin in fall 2014.[14] The film's storyline will be taken from the Murakami novel and the film's plot will take place in North America.[12]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
