This is my second Takashi Miike film and it's such a hugely different film from ICHI THE KILLER. Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi, THE GRUDGE) is a widower. His son Shigehiko (Retsu Sawaki, HUSH!) is now a teenager and he wants to find a new wife. His friend Yasuhisa Yoshikawa (Jun Kunimura, KILL BILL: VOL. 1) presents an idea — they will hold a fictional movie audition for Shigeharu to meet woman. He quickly becomes enamored with quiet and shy Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina), who has had a great lose in her past.
The film is a satirical look at relationships and the pursuit for the ideal mate. With a surprising ending (only surprising if you don't know Miike really), the film has a pretty cynical view of male/female relations.
However, what makes the film a lingering presence in the mind is how Miike takes the mundane and edits it together in a way that displays how we approach relationships with certain agendas in mind. For instance, when Shigeharu and Asami begin dating, we see a string of dates that set up what Shigeharu wants to like in Asami, but when things go wrong we flashback to the same dates and see the things that should have been red flags for Shigeharu to run the other way.
The film is far slower than Miike's ICHI, which was a visceral thrill ride, however it has some of that film's vagueness, which is AUDITION's major problem. When the film should be making the story clearer at the end, it does the opposite. Miike's melding of fantasy and reality clouds his point way too much. As well, there is a huge unexpected surprise that seems cliché then doubles back on itself for no good reason.
Yet, having seen this film week's ago, I still am thinking about it. Miike is not for everyone, but he doesn't bore. This twisted look on relationships may be flawed, but it's too intriguing to miss.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
