Audition review

Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) has been living a dismal life ever since his wife died a few years ago. His friend Yasuhisa Yoshikawa (Jun Kunimura) presents him with a clever ploy to get a new relationship going. They stage a fake audition for a supposed acting role and interview each candidate until Aoyama takes special notice in Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina) whom he calls and they hit it off.

The Good?
Takashi Miike's suckerpunch genre twist defines this film. He paints a sweet, earnest romance where there is something a little unsettling and 180's the film into a completely different genre to intensify the shock and make the horror real.

The cast is small but effective. Ryo Ishibashi gets a good, well-fleshed out starring role, and newcomer Eihi Shiina does a fantastic job pulling off the versatility that her character requires.

It's great to see Miike go in a different, non-yakuza direction and give his film substance along with pure insanity. Scenes from this film will stick in your mind forever and haunt you. That's the best horror films can ask for.

The Bad?
Miike occasionally goes a little overboard with arty storytelling techniques and cliché methods of conveying information. The second half has scenes that are a little inconsistent and unclear, and it doesn't make us uncomfortable as it does confused.







A