PopSyndicate.com

Take the time to introduce yourself to one of the most notorious Japanese horror films of all time. 

Oh Japanese horror films, I don’t even know what to say to you.  Most people have seen at least one of these Asian shockers by now, whether it be because of one of the many American remakes or just because of your own curiosity.  The masses will know the majority of these films concern a shuffling young female ghost with stringy black hair, but that is just the tip of the iceberg.  You have not seen anything yet, until you look onto the work of directors like Takashi Miike.  This man, along with many others, take the Japanese horror film to a new level of gross-out FX, horrific imagery and spurts of blood that rival Old Faithful.  Sometimes these eccentric scenes can be a bit cartoonish and humorous, but not with Miike’s 1999 film Audition (Ôdishon).  Very little of this film is light and happy, there are scenes that have caused other horror directors to say it was so intense it took away from the overall good experience of the story.  If that isn’t a ringing endorsement let me give you my take. 

The film centers around a middle-aged man named Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) who lost his wife seven years earlier.  Since that time it has been just him and his son, who is now seventeen and does not want his father to be alone when he leaves home after school.  He urges his dad to find a new lady so he won’t be lonely, and he and a colleague cook up an idea on how to meet women.  They set up for women to come in and audition for a part that doesn’t exist, meanwhile Aoyama is looking for the type of girl he with whom he will spend his days.  The one girl who stands out is a young girl of twenty-four named Asami (Eihi Shiina).  She is very quiet, shy and yet somewhat confident and tells how she was going to be a ballerina until an injury took that away from her.  Even though Asami’s references and resume cannot be verified and seem a bit odd Aoyama is so enthralled with her it does not matter to him.  A more thorough background check would have served him well, because Asami is not as sweet as she seems. 

This film is so many things - a love story, horrifying, lies couples tell each other - but easy to watch is not one of them.  It all begins rather normally and then Aoyama begins to deceive this group of women and start a faux audition so he can find a wife.  You think “poor Asami” at first, how could he do this?  Then you realize she is not who she seems to be and the lies told were not just from Aoyama.

A couple of things will have you jump or get a bit creeped out as Aoyama investigates further into finding Asami, but nothing will prepare you for the last act of the film.  Things happen which have put Miike on the map and made him one of today’s most infamous filmmakers.  His episode of the now defunct premium cable show Masters of Horror was not aired for being too extreme.  All this on a station which airs everything uncut.  Many people have walked out of screenings of this film over the years, one woman even told Miike to his face how she believes him to be sick and evil.  I’m not so sure that what happens in this film is so bad to make you enjoy the movie any less, if nothing else it really adds to the shock of what ultimately happens, but it is definitely not a film for the faint or weak of stomach. 

This new Blu-Ray release is a welcome edition to my shelf but it does have its fair share of downfall.  The transfer is a bit of a letdown.  Certain scenes have more depth to them, deeper blacks and warmer tones, but there is quite a bit of noise and scratches on the print.  There are some cool new features like the commetary with Miike and writer Daisuke Tengan.  The second disc is a standard definition DVD with over an hour of interviews from cast members Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Renji Ishibashi and Ren Osugi, as well as a few trailers.  What we are missing are some features on other releases of the film.  Where is the interview with Miike?  He only appears in a very brief intro to the film and nowhere else.  I’ll be keeping my original Chimera release of the film from 2002 for the better extras, but since it was a non-anamorphic the Blu-Ray wins there. 

Still this release is probably worth it for the fan of the film.  The transfer’s not great, but it is a bit better and those interviews are pretty interesting.  There is even a small booklet with an essay by author Tom Mes who wrote “Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike.”  If you have yet to see the film make sure you give it a spin, it will open your eyes to a whole new world of crazy Japanese cinema, and serve as the best introduction to Miike.  Then you can move onto some of his even crazier films. 

4