Film Of The Week #24 - Audition

Karl Hungus

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0235198/

I'll be honest, I didn't expect this would be awarded FotW. Not that it isn't an absolutely astonishing film, and it certainly deserves it, but rather that I would've never expected it would win out over the much more popular Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, and I know there's a few people who don't like the film at all.

However, I'm glad to see it up here. I'm a big fan of director Takashi Miike, and this is easily one of his best. It's a masterpiece of chilling cinema, part thiller, mystery and horror, and overall, an experience. If you've not seen it, then I would urge you to do so.

One note though, as I always try and make clear to people who haven't seen it yet, is don't watch the film expecting a gore-fest. The film is really more of a slow-burning art-house flick than anything else, and I've noticed that people who didn't like the film almost always seemed to have the wrong expectations about it.

Bottom line, it's an astonishingly good film, but don't watch it with the wrong mind-set.

Dont be at yourself

I wouldn't describe it as a classic, but it was a refreshingly different movie.

It was a very unusual film in that it was essentially two distinct films mashed together, with very little unifying the two. On the one hand, you have a drama about a man trying to find a new wife, and on the other, you have some of the sicked, most disgusting scenes ever committed to celuloid.

This is both where the film fails and where it succeeds - the affects of the last act are magnified hugely because they come after an hour of slow-burning, low-key drama. But at the same time, that slow-burning drama isn't very captivating at all.

Necronomicon

Not his biggest fan, but I do love Audition.

As mentioned above, not a fast-paced gore flick, that's not a bad thing. The film starts quite slowly with

the director of the flick developing an attraction to one of the actresses auditioning

and for about half an hour or so you're wondering if you're really watching a Miike movie. But when it does begin to resemble one, it's ultimately rewarding.

MarkHall

An enjoyable flick that left me with an aversion to needles more so than I had before.
This scene is quite hard to watch and that Kiri noise is aweful creepy.
Spoiler zone entered.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A8UYTH1EZsTH1EZs

johnny_ultimate

Wow. When I nominated this I didnt expect it to get through but it obviously has a big enough cult following round these parts to warrant it's deserved FotW status.

Can't really say much more than everyone else has pointed out. I entered expecting an all out, Oldboy style, limbs flying everywhere kind of deal. I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a slow burning horror film masquerading as - of all things - a romantic drama, which really did disturb me. The last ten minutes are intense, and I can honestly say 'that' sequence is more disturbing than any amount of Saws or Hostels.. It's an original, terrifying horror movie that Eli Roth and co. really should watch.

The only other Miike film Ive seen is the loopers 'Happiness of the Katakuris', which was good in a completely different way. By the looks of it, the rest of his work is more OTT than this, which is why Ive always been reluctant to dip into his back catalogue. But then if there is anything near this quality, I really must investigate further.

Karl Hungus

johnny_ultimate wrote:

The only other Miike film Ive seen is the loopers 'Happiness of the Katakuris', which was good in a completely different way. By the looks of it, the rest of his work is more OTT than this, which is why Ive always been reluctant to dip into his back catalogue. But then if there is anything near this quality, I really must investigate further.

Miike's a very odd director indeed. A lot of his films are so vastly different that if you watched a few of them without knowing he's behind the helm, you'd almost never suspect they're by the same director at all.

He is probably best known for his more OTT titles, that's true, but if you see a film like Rainy Dog, it's got much more in common with a Takeshi Kitano film than what you'd expect from Miike, so I'd generally try not to have any expectations about him. His work spans from very sombre drama, to serious yakuza thrillers, to horror, to David Lynch-esque wierdness, to all out non-sense, and some absolutely off the wall violence.

johnny_ultimate

Karl Hungus wrote:

Miike's a very odd director indeed. A lot of his films are so vastly different that if you watched a few of them without knowing he's behind the helm, you'd almost never suspect they're by the same director at all.

He is probably best known for his more OTT titles, that's true, but if you see a film like Rainy Dog, it's got much more in common with a Takeshi Kitano film than what you'd expect from Miike, so I'd generally try not to have any expectations about him. His work spans from very sombre drama, to serious yakuza thrillers, to horror, to David Lynch-esque wierdness, to all out non-sense, and some absolutely off the wall violence.

Hmm I must check out some of his other stuff then.
Would you reccomend DOA or Ichi the Killer? Seem like the easiest to get a hold of. That said, looking at his IMDB profile, he seems to make at least three films a year. I suspect the quality ratio is somewhat inconsistent?

Karl Hungus

johnny_ultimate wrote:

Hmm I must check out some of his other stuff then.
Would you reccomend DOA or Ichi the Killer? Seem like the easiest to get a hold of. That said, looking at his IMDB profile, he seems to make at least three films a year. I suspect the quality ratio is somewhat inconsistent?

I think for the amount of work he does, he can be suprisingly consistant. He's got a few misses here and there, but just about everything of his I've seen, I have enjoyed on one level or another. Anyway, if you're going for DOA or Ichi the Killer, both are some of his more violent films. I think Ichi is one of his masterpeices, but it's possibly one of the most extraordinarily violent movies I've seen. DOA is worth a watch too.

If you want something a bit different from him, I cannot recommend Rainy Dog highly enough.

I own pretty much every Miike film currently available on DVD, and I've owned Audition since the day it was released yet I've never gotten around to watching it. It's the only one which I have yet to watch and I can't for the life of me figure out why.

Must give it a watch either tonight or tomorrow. I'm sure I won't be disappointed.

spacecoyote

Nice to see a movie like this make the list i must say! Its a film i stumbled across by accident late night on TV, and it stuck with me from the first viewing. As mentioned before, i think people who hear about the more excrutiating scenes tend to have the wrong expectations seeing this movie. I'd never heard of the movie, or Miike at the time, and it was a great introduction to his work. Both Ichi & DOA are worth a look alright. All different movies, but all equally entertaining

Sad Professor

I just watched this last night. Man, that

torture

scene is horrific :eek: :eek:

I'm not sure if I liked the film or not but it was certainly interesting...

EARMUFFS

Have to say when i saw it first i couldn't get over how extremely low key the whole film was. A couple of the scenes are extremely well executed. Especially in the antagonists sparsely decorated apartment. On a second viewing i must say i enjoyed it(if thats the correct word to use).
Ichi the Killer is on a different planet compared to audition but both are well worth watching for the style and panache of the directing. Obviously if you have a dodgy stomach don't watch either of them!

berengar

how anyone watches this sick crap is beyone me . sick sick sick

something wrong with your brain if you enjoy films like this ..

Karl Hungus

berengar wrote:

how anyone watches this sick crap is beyone me . sick sick sick

something wrong with your brain if you enjoy films like this ..

Why do you think that? Care to explain the logic behind that statement at all?

Eirebear

berengar wrote:

how anyone watches this sick crap is beyone me . sick sick sick

something wrong with your brain if you enjoy films like this ..

Thats a ridiculous statement.
Audition for me is comparative (in style) to Pshyco, in the way it marries the two genres together to effectivley make the second half all the more shocking to an unsuspecting viewer.

Phsyco shocked many people in its time (and still has a certain scare factor about it) Would you shoot Hitchckock down for the same reason? Of course not, because you havnt been subjected to the same media "video nasty" style scaremongering that Miike recieves from some areas.

Oh yeah, go and watch the film before you hit us with your BS yeah?

Karl Hungus

You know, with all the nonsense about 'Torture Porn' and people being sick sickos, I am absolutely glad as I could be that this film was so well thought of and popular that it got FotW. Just goes to show that there are people out there who can enjoy a film for what it is, what it wants to acheive, and not get caught up with a media buzzword.

johnny_ultimate

Indeed, Karl.
The difference between Audition and Hostel is simple: one is terrific film-making. And that one is not set in Eastern Europe.

Karl Hungus

johnny_ultimate wrote:

Indeed, Karl.
The difference between Audition and Hostel is simple: one is terrific film-making. And that one is not set in Eastern Europe.

Ah, the differences are huge. Apples and Oranges really, and the films shouldn't be compared at all. The fact is, there's only the one torture scene in Audition, but because of this, it kinda gets lumped in with other, seriously inferior films.

I've yet to watch it but I plan on setting an few hours aside over the coming days to watch it properly.

Karl Hungus

Deleted User wrote:

I've yet to watch it but I plan on setting an few hours aside over the coming days to watch it properly.

You're worse than me, you know that? I thought I was bad, seeing as I've got The Grudge (Original!) on DVD here since it was released in October 2004 (!) and never watched it, but Audition was released in September 2001. You've had a film for nearly 6 years that you've never watched!?

Madder than even me.

Karl Hungus

Karl Hungus wrote:

You're worse than me, you know that? I thought I was bad, seeing as I've got The Grudge (Original!) on DVD here since it was released in October 2004 (!) and never watched it, but Audition was released in September 2001. You've had a film for nearly 6 years that you've never watched!?

Madder than even me.

Think that's bad I got The Blair Witch Project on R1 DVD when it was released back in 1999 and I've yet to watch it. I've also yet to watch the Grudge which I bought the day it was released.

Karl Hungus

Deleted User wrote:

Think that's bad I got The Blair Witch Project on R1 DVD when it was released back in 1999 and I've yet to watch it. I've also yet to watch the Grudge which I bought the day it was released.

You're remarkable... I've made a small list of films that I own on DVD that I haven't watched yet, and that numbers around 20 films. I remember you saying something about the amount of films you own that you haven't watched, and it's quite an amount as far as I recall. Are there any other Miike films you own but you've not seen yet?

Seriously though, get to Audition as fast as you can.

Karl Hungus

Karl Hungus wrote:

You're remarkable... I've made a small list of films that I own on DVD that I haven't watched yet, and that numbers around 20 films. I remember you saying something about the amount of films you own that you haven't watched, and it's quite an amount as far as I recall. Are there any other Miike films you own but you've not seen yet?

Seriously though, get to Audition as fast as you can.

I made a list awhile back and there were 115 I have yet to watch. I have a number of Mikee films to watch, Dead or Alive 3, One Missed Call and Graveyard of Honour. I do plan on watching Audition soon, hopefully this weekend.

MooseJam

who awards fotw ? is it a vote ?

Karl Hungus

MooseJam wrote:

who awards fotw ? is it a vote ?

Yes. The link to vote is in my sig.

Karl Hungus

Deleted User wrote: »

I made a list awhile back and there were 115 I have yet to watch. I have a number of Mikee films to watch, Dead or Alive 3, One Missed Call and Graveyard of Honour. I do plan on watching Audition soon, hopefully this weekend.

So, did you ever get around to watching Audition?

Davei141

Seen this a few years ago, didnt really enjoy it at all, definitely a ****ed up film though.

Makaveli

There's a Dead or Alive 3?

Karl Hungus

Karl Hungus wrote: »

So, did you ever get around to watching Audition?

I have'nt had a chance yet due to a lack of free time. From September till now I've only had 7 days off work. I'm finially going to be getting some time off and plan on watch it first chance I get. Screw it, I think I'll watch it tonight.

Karl Hungus

Makaveli wrote: »

There's a Dead or Alive 3?

Yes, there is. Haven't seen it though.

Deleted User wrote: »

I have'nt had a chance yet due to a lack of free time. From September till now I've only had 7 days off work. I'm finially going to be getting some time off and plan on watch it first chance I get. Screw it, I think I'll watch it tonight.

For shame Darko! For shame!

So, did you watch it?

Karl Hungus

Karl Hungus wrote: »

For shame Darko! For shame!

So, did you watch it?

I managed to watch the first 30 or so minutes before falling fast asleep. This whole work thing is really eating into my film watching time. Hopefully I'll get around to it this weekend, I really am looking forward to seeing it.

Karl Hungus

I'm afraid after so long you might be dissapointed by it.

CrazyTalk

Fantastic film, even after all the hype and intrigue that surrounds the film, I still managed to enjoy it immensely. Not the bloodbath I had presumed, but something a lot more layered. Makes me wonder why movies like this aren't made in the west, where we have to endure bull**** horror movies like The Fog.

I vote The Fog as the next movie of the week. ¬_¬:rolleyes:

Karl Hungus

CrazyTalk wrote: »

Fantastic film, even after all the hype and intrigue that surrounds the film, I still managed to enjoy it immensely. Not the bloodbath I had presumed, but something a lot more layered. Makes me wonder why movies like this aren't made in the west, where we have to endure bull**** horror movies like The Fog.

Glad you weren't dissapointed. I find a lot of people who watch it expecting a bloodbath end up bored to hell, but you're quite right, it's certainly more layered, a great sense of suspense and intruige in the film.

It is a pity that Hollywood is remaking everything in sight, instead of making some original films.

Otis Driftwood

I was lucky to see this a few years ago on film 4 when I hadnt heard a thing about.
Watched it again recently and it is still disturbing as hell.
Miike is a God IMHO.

The Bollox

finally got around to watching Audition (and Battle Royale actually, shocking that I hadn't seen that until now)

I was very impressed with Audition though. very nicely paced and then POW right in the kisser. The Asian method of horror film making is so vastly different from western types. with the western ones they try to keep you on your toes with constant scares, but the Asians like to let you simmer for a while before turning the dial to 11, which is a far better experience

throughout the film I was waiting for a "really horrible scene with a fire extinguisher" I was positive I had heard a user talking about audition and using that sentence, but it must have been a different film, anyone know what it could be? (I think it was Visitor Q, can anyone confirm?)

The Bollox

The Bollox wrote: »

throughout the film I was waiting for a "really horrible scene with a fire extinguisher" I was positive I had heard a user talking about audition and using that sentence, but it must have been a different film, anyone know what it could be? (I think it was Visitor Q, can anyone confirm?)

That would be Irréversible.

The Bollox

thanks man, have you had a chance to see Audition yet?

tman

It was recommended to me by someone a couple of years ago, I finally got around to getting a copy a couple of months ago but have yet to watch it... FotW is just the push I need to get stuck into watching it tonight

/edit
Big fat "meh" from me