Audition (7/10)

Directed by Takashi Miike
Genre: Drama/Suspense/Horror?

I had never seen any of Miike's movies before, but one of my friend's kept talking up his horror movies as the most shocking he'd ever seen; "Nothing offends this guy." Well, lo and behold, Audition was a surprise for both of us, but not necessarily in a bad way. It's just that a) the film holds a strikingly low budget but surprisingly real feeling, and b) this is most definitely not a horror movie, at least not in the naturaly sense of the word.

The basic premise is actually pretty lame (what a surprise? Japan has given us a movie about a video that kills you, a website that kills you, a video game that kills you, and the Grudge), but don't write the movie off just yet. The main character, who's name has already slipped my mind, loses his wife at the beginning movie, and is forced to raise his son alone. Seven years later, he decides to remarry. So his friend, a movie producer, writes a movie plot in which the main female role is exactly what our protaganist is looking for in a woman, and then holds auditions. Long story short, our hero meets his dream woman and falls in love, but she apparently has some very strange secrets.

Spoiler Alert. Anyway, the film is very slow moving and has some really strange cryptic dialogue, but in the end, and by the end I mean the last 10 minutes, the girl suddenly turns sadistic and starts torturing the main guy. It's very graphic, but surprisingly real looking, despite the low budget look of the film quality, etc.

Ultimately, I felt sort of strange about this movie. It didn't rub me the right way as an obviously good movie, such as Eternal Sunshine would. But I still can't write this off. For a slasher director, this movie has a suprising amount of depth and maturity, seemingly showing infinite patience (the movie runs for nearly an hour and a half without anything significant happening). The dialogue, while cryptic (probably in part due to errors in the subtitle translation), is very clever and dark, and runs very deep. The acting might not be the greatest, but I think it's perfect for the film. I'm forever on the fence. Rent the film, and tell me what you thought.