Rated 5 out of 5!
Romantic, crazy Dating Comedy of the Year!
Recipe for a fun evening: Find some friends, some really jaded horror veterans, who claim they’’ve seen everything. You know, friends who say things like this: "Dead/Alive"? Ha, a cute little movie by Peter Jackson. "Dead Ringers"? Don’’t see it in mixed company, but it’’s no big deal. "Evil Dead 2"? Please---it’’s easy on the eyes, and it’’s good for a laugh, but not scary.
Invite these friends over for a little ’’alternative’’ viewing: instead of horror, you’’re going to be watching an international romantic comedy from Japan---a kind of ’’indie’’ romance. They’’ll love it, you say, if they give "Audition" (or "Oodishon", as Takeshi Miike’’s subversive little gem is known in its native land) half a chance. What’’s it about? It’’s about a widowed Japanese movie producer (Ryo Ishibashi)whose doting son urges him to get a new girlfriend---hey, it’’s been seven long years since Mom died, and Dad needs some fun---who decides, with the help of a director friend, to skip the dating rat-race and audition a few score women to find a lovely lady to go out with.
The catch: his friend lets the young ladies think they’’re auditioning for a part in an upcoming movie. Hey, let them think it, right? Where’’s the harm?
Now that you have your unwitting victims in place, drop the lights, and let the DVD roll. Keep a camcorder around to catch the expressions on your jaded friends’’ faces. Count how many of them make ’’emergency’’ trips to the bathroom. Enjoy!
That fine little evening plan aside, I don’’t have much to say about Takeshi Miike’’s latest work of brilliance that really shouldn’’t be said. Honestly, if you haven’’t seen this fine little mixture of Arsenic, Black Widow spit, and Curare, then you’’re in for a rare, shivery treat, and I envy you deeply. You should approach the film without reading any reviews, and preferably without looking at the ghoulish little DVD box. Stop reading this review now, and watch the thing!
There; for the rest of you who have, presumably, survived your date with the demure, uber-feminine Asami (played right to the bone by Eihi Shiina), I think we can all agree that this is one of Miike’’s most understated works. I love it for the sheer fact that I haven’’t actually jumped out of my seat in years, and "Audition" did the trick. Miike is a masterful director, ratcheting up the pace and the parade of slippery horrors, and his creation plays with color like Argento and bizarre, haunting, diseased imagery like Cronenberg and Lynch. Ryo Ishibashi (who plays the bachelor Shigeharu) is thoroughly believable and by the time the credits run, you sympathize with him. Deeply.
But aside from recognizing Miike’’s prolific, creepy, haunting, phantasmagoric brilliance, the less said of "Audition", the better. Watch it, and you’’ll never look at dating the same way again.
