Killer Blog from CyberSpace: Audition

 
I'm a bit of a newcomer when it comes to Asian horror flicks. I'm not talking about the American remakes like The Ring or The Grudge, but the originals like Ringu and Ju-on. I had heard a lot about one particular Japanese horror flick that gave people nightmares for months, so of course I had to see it. The movie is Ôdishon (or Audition), and I now forget what sweet dreams are like.


I'm not sure what Daisuke Tengan was thinking when he scripted this movie, other than how to beautifully terrorize every man in the world within a short period of time. The movie clocks in over two hours long, and unless you're "in on" the overall plot of the movie (i.e., something totally sick is going to happen), I imagine you'd be fooled into believing this is a romantic movie with one hell of a sick "twist" at the end of it all.

The bulk of the movie follows a lonely ex-film maker, Aoyama, who's lost his wife to illness. With encouragement from his son and movie director friend, he decides it's time to find a new wife. His director friend suggests they stage an audition for a fake movie, where he'd specify what he's looking for in a woman and would have involvement in conducting the auditions. He agrees, and we watch as he finds what he believes to be his true love among the unsuspecting auditionees, Asami.

Mixed in there from time to time are shots of petite Asami as she sits in a ball on her apartment floor, staring at the phone for hours as she awaits the director to call. If you're not aware of what kind of movie this is, it's around this time you'd probably think, "hm, that's an odd way to behave," and "hm, I wonder what that big sack is doing on the floor there next to her and OHMYGOD!!"

At one point Aoyama loses contact with Asami and starts to snoop around trying to find her. Strangely enough, he doesn't find it all that odd that everyone in her life is either missing or dead. Not only dead, but chopped into tiny bits.

The real horror comes when Asami unexpectedly comes to visit Aoyama at his home one night, letting herself in and playing with his cute little Beagle. Once Aoyama returns home, she drugs him and gets to work. How does she "get to work" on him? Steel needles and razor wire. Remember the hobbling scene in Misery? Yeah, that looked ticklish, and Annie didn't giggle with glee as she weilded her sledgehammer; Paul Sheldon got off easy.

Terror Level [Highest=10]: 8
Death Toll: 2
Quote of the flick: "Deeper. Deeper. Deeper."