Audition

For those of you unfamiliar with Takashi Miike’s portfolio of films, I’ll give you a high-level overview (reminding you I’m not an expert, I’ve just pieced some things together from conversations with friends and interviews with Miike). Takashi Miike loves horror films, but the ones being cranked out by Hollywood over the past decades haven’t impressed him. So he began making movies that would scare him – so imagine a really scary movie, then multiply it exponentially, and then add in some sprinkles of WTF. Audition is about a guy whose wife dies and he would like to find a new one. He and a coworker decide to stage a fake movie and hold auditions for his new bride-to-be. After a ton of auditions, he finds the one he wants and begins courting her. Things seem normal to him, but we get to see weird freaky things she does. And none of her stories line up with what she put on her resume. Here is what I wrote to a group of friends about it: “I would not recommend to anyone, unless you love Miike's work. The theater where I watched it has Saturday midnight movies every week, so they kind of have a clientele who shows up just because they're lame. This movie starts out really slow, and then there is a huge jump scene. Like to the point where M.Giant and I almost shit our pants. Seriously, and I'm not a jumper. Bam, out of nowhere, I'm all adrenaline-hyped. Then you're calm again for a short while thinking, what the hell is going on and then it goes about 13 steps beyond weird and horrific and people started leaving because it was so violent and weird. Bone saws/piano wire and acupuncture needles and chopping and spraying. People were unable to deal with it. It was awesome to see, but seriously disturbing. Hilarious.”