Disturbingly Surreal Reality:  Audition
by Christian De Matteo

Super

The phrase, “Not for those with weak stomachs” has become, like most other things, an empty marketing phrase meant to illicit girlish giggles from men and statements like, “Dude, that’s sick, I gotta see it” for the sake of machismo.

It’s a shame that the phrase has gone that way, because Takashi Miike’s film Audition, warrants it like few other films I’ve seen before.  The last time I was this disgusted by a film was when I watched Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.  The difference is that The Cook disgusted me in total; Audition disgusted and enthralled me.

This review is rather long, so forgive me, but the film deserves the time.

I bought Audition on a whim, knowing nothing at all about the director or the film, but having heard that the “last twenty minutes was like a sledgehammer to the stomach.”  That sounded interesting (and a lovely description), and I’ve been trying to up my foreign film knowledge, so here was the opportunity.

While waiting to receive the DVD, suddenly Miike’s name started appearing everywhere, and I kept hearing more and more about this director and his astoundingly twisted visions and stories.  I became even more intrigued.  I wanted to see not only the film I was getting, but also Ichi the Killer, for which I’ve heard raves.

So last night I watched my copy of Audition… and as the credits rolled I let out a big, hearty, “Daf*ck?”  I had no idea what had happened in that stomach sledging last twenty minutes of the film.  Now, luckily, the DVD has a commentary only on the last thirty minutes, but I haven’t yet watched it, wanting to review only the film.  I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

Yes, the film is absolutely disturbing as hell.  Yes, the film is gross in a few parts and absolutely disgusting in others.  Yes, I do recommend you see it.

But why?

The film is a nightmare, but not a cheap effect nightmare that keeps riddling you with horrific visuals and scary moments.  No, it is the worst kind of nightmare, the kind that lulls you into a sense of quite peace, rocks you and coos you to sleep with the simple sadness of life, throws in a lingering sense of despair and a very, very background eeriness, that is almost imperceptible most of the time, but sits in the back of your mind, leaving you still a tad bit unsettled even as it lulls you into a sense of calm.

Leading you very intimately into the main character’s, Shigeharu’s, life, Miike introduces the story of a man who’s wife has just died, taking us into the hospital room as she passes.  A young boy, his son walks in, and then we cut ahead seven years.  The boy is 14, living with his father and recommends he begin looking to remarry.  Shigeharu takes his advice.  A sweet story, right?  Kind of Sleepless in Seattle-ish, huh?

I’m not big on explaining plot, that’s what the movie is for, so that’s all I’ll give you, just a taste of the calm sweetness that fills most of the first hour and a half of this movie.  And yet there’s something else, some other presence in the film, some lurking darkness, even among the funnier and sadder moments of the film, there’s something intensely evil present and slowly it becomes clearer until a single scene, no more than a minute long, about one hour into the film.

I would love to tell you the scene, but I won’t.  I believe it is one of the single most frightening moments in cinema ever.  A moment so horrifically shocking and beautiful that, even had I despised the film, would have made the purchase worthwhile.  I’ve already watched the scene two more times.

Throughout the first two hours of the film, Miike gives you images, eerily framed, sometimes the picture only a little square in the center of the screen, the rest pure black, that are haunting for absolutely no reason you can put your finger on.  And then they are gone, lost amidst more humanity, real life and melancholy.  Until the next, when you again remember you are still somewhat disturbed, despite the lull of the film.  Even after the astounding scene I just mentioned, Miike manages to lull you again, a much harder job this time.  After awhile, the images stop being clear depictions, and become a little more prevalent.  A few times I wondered what I was looking at, what the picture was, and yet still felt disturbed.

Even through the last frame, the melancholy is present, though it ends up taking a backseat to absolute horror.  Here is where the film isn’t for the weak stomached, here is where the background discomfort and disturbance you’ve felt through the whole film comes to bloom and overgrows the screen.  Here, also, is where the nightmare comes into it’s own, where reality slips away, not into unreality, but, even worse, into many realities, all horribly disjointed and possible.  Miike handles the surrealism of nightmares brilliantly, twisting your mind with images that almost don’t go together, scenes that are horrifically calm intermingled with images absolutely awful.  Images begin mixing, reminiscent of Amenabar’s Abre Los Ojos (Open your Eyes… and as a result, Crowe’s Vanilla Sky), until the film is so surreal you know nothing for sure, except that you are disgusted and confused.

After that the real horror begins.

Visually, the film is stunning, going from a rather well done, but still pedestrian and typical story of a depressed man missing his wife to a sensory attack so intense it’s hard to get through.  Story-wise, the film plods a bit, not badly and in a way it needs to, but takes some time to get to the punch line… and it’s a punch line you won’t necessarily want it to reach.  The slowness is necessary, strategic and well done, but slow nonetheless, and the finale is horrific in ways our culture doesn’t like its horror, and frankly can’t handle its horror… and that’s probably a good thing.  But when the credits roll, you may find yourself uttering a big fat, “Daf*ck?” wondering what it is you just saw, why it was and how much of it really happened.

As time passes you will realize you were supposed to feel that way.  The film is not neat in any way.  It’s a horror movie, in the ultimate sense of horror:  Horror is not some fantastic thing, it is real, and reality won’t always make sense.  The horror of it usually doesn’t.  Miike wishes to leave you unsettled, uncomfortable, unhappy and distraught.  He accomplishes all these things, intentionally knocking you out of your lulled sense of calmness and into reality, where we might not really be as clever, in control, and aware as we think are.

And were certainly aren’t as safe.

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HugeReviews.com's  Official Rating System:
Pathetic         Wimpy         Solid        Super        HUGE