Aoyama's wife dies at the hospital. He races his son all alone. When his son becomes a teenager, he asks if his father can re-marry. Aoyama consults this idea with his friend, but he was not sure how to find the "right" girl. The solution was an "Audition" for a fake movie. Aoyama was stuck upon a beautiful girl. He was so impressed by the girl. But, his friend was not quite happy, he felt that something is wrong with her. Aoyama promise to him that he will never call her again. But, can he keep his promise? The magical journey though surrealism is the highlight of the movie. It is difficult to define the margin of dream and reality.All horror film fans should watch this movie. Highly recommended.#KiduMovie

Well, on the strength of the IMDb rating and the desire to branch out a little more in my film watching, I sought out 'The Auditon'.Unfortunately, though I credit the acting, the gory effects and general plot, this film just wasn't for me and I can't get 2 hours of my life back.In a nutshell, if you like mind trippy films from the likes of David Lynch, go for it. Thrillers/Dramas like Jacobs ladder, Shutter Island, martha marcy may marlene (though I was a bit irked by that ending) are fine by me but this isn't one of them. I like my films to make sense. And this, just doesn't. Maybe it's on a level I just don't get. I hope not, I'm pretty switched on but there are things in this film that are not explained and are deliberately duplicitous (to me anyway). I don't mean ambiguous, I mean they left me thinking 'I don't understand! How can things happen two different ways!?' I find this really annoying, not clever, just annoying and an unfulfilled film watching experience.I try not to read reviews before watching a film, especially if they scream spoiler alerts, but in this case had I done so I would have moved onto something else. Hence in this review I have deliberately tried to avoid any specifics about the film.Hopefully it may appeal to those who like those genre of films and watch it, and bump those who are similar to my thinking onto something else!Thanks.

As the film lovers of the Western World clamoured for more Asian horror, along came Ôdishon (Audition), a one of a kind sort of pic. Its positive reputation is well deserved, though what negative press exists is certainly understandable.Run time runs close to two hours, and for ninety minutes of that time the film trundles along at a sedate pace. Director Takashi Miike is exploring the key characters, deftly providing an overlay of grief management, loneliness, sadness and even cruelty.There's a deliberately hallucinatory vibe to the narrative, with many thematic beats ticking away, though answers are not readily available, where both the lead protagonist and antagonist have blurry mindsets, or do they?It all builds to the Grand Guignol last quarter, where the film has gained its wince inducing rep. Worth the wait? Yes it is for sure, even if it is tinged with a sense of disappointment that there's one too many twists for twist sake. 7/10

AUDITION is a film I knew little about before watching - modern Japanese cinema is something I'm not very knowledgeable about and Japanese "horror" films even less so. I had heard about AUDITION being extremely dark, brutal and disturbing with some amazing twists during its cinema run, so out of curiosity I had to rent it. What I got was a mixed movie, sometimes gripping but definitely not one I would call "entertaining" to watch. For the first hour and twenty minutes, it's a slow-paced tale of romance with some mystery aspects which keeps you watching through some interesting, subdued direction from Takashi Miike. This gives the film its realistic edge, and it also incorporates some strong acting on the parts of the two leads; Ryo Ishibashi creates a portrait of a sad, lonely middle-aged man so that you have a ton of sympathy for his character and can relate to his desperation. In comparison, Eihi Shiina's almost unearthly look - there is something very fragile and beautiful about her - sits well with her mysterious and unexplained character whom nobody else in the film seems to know much about. Shiina is excellent in the role and deserves to go on to a big career in Japan.For the first hour and twenty minutes - normally the running time for a "normal" Western film - there isn't much horror here to tell about, other than a few flashy disturbing images of a severed tongue slapping on the floor, a man getting his head slowly and deliberately sliced off, and a great shock sequence involving a moving bag. Then, at around that eighty minute mark, the film begins to change and become colder and disturbing. Dreams are mixed with reality to create a visually confusing film and Miike delights in tormenting the viewer with a hideous image of a man in a sack with no feet and few fingers. You begin to wonder what the hell is going on, and then the films ends ambiguously making you wonder whether what you just watched really happened or not.Before that ending comes one of the strongest - in terms of physical torture - segments of a film that I've yet to see, which is tough to sit through. Basically it's a scene of a paralysed Ishibashi being slowly and deliberately tortured by Shiina, who delights in getting as much pain as possible from her victim. First via the use of strategically-inserted needles, and then in the film's most stomach-churning moment, she actually saws his foot off - in graphic detail. This is far stronger and darker stuff than many of the shoddy and amusing video nasties that were prosecuted in the early '80s, yet is released uncut today in Britain - it shows how much our society has changed. The realism of this sequence makes it pretty nauseous and you can't help but be grateful when it's all over. So did it really happen? I don't know, and I don't plan on watching this film again anytime soon to find out. It's very interesting stuff and highly disturbing, as well as being well-made, but an entertaining movie it is not.