Sunday, November 13, 2005
Ôdishon / Audition - 1999
Viewing Ambience: Dark if you really want to scare yourself
Intoxicants: Big Green (you're going to be confused and freaked out anyway - so why not?)
Food: Popcorn (which you won't be able to eat at certain parts)
Other: Subtitled
Discussion:
I ordered this movie from NetFlix after seeing it mentioned on the "100 scariest film moments of all time" show on the Sci-Fi channel. Although I'm not a huge fan of subtitles and was hesistant to rent a foreign horror film, I was already broken in by a dubbed version of Ju-On (one of the scariest movies I've ever seen) and the original Japanese Ringu.
These horror directors in Japan have got it down. What can I say. They have what is lacking in many of our horror movies now - not a sneering comedy, but an honest to god scare.
This movie starts off as a dramady - the main character (Shigeharu Aoyama - he goes by Aoyama for most of the film) loses his wife and he raises their little boy alone. 7 years later the father and teenage sone sit at the dinner table. Son tells father he should get married since he's not getting any younger.
The father (Aoyama) thinks on it for a while. He discusses it with his colleague (Yoshikawa) who comes up with the slapstick idea of having an audition. He offers to let Aoyama audition his new wife under the pretense of casting a film.
Thus ensues the humorous audition scene where several young women parade in and out of a room and are asked silly questions such as "how do you feel about men?" "Would you be willing to do a sex scene?" Several of the women are shown to be a bit unhinged - which works as both comedy and foreshadowing.
Near the end of the list comes Asami. Aoyama already fell for her while reading the bio attached to her photo.
Asami appears to be the perfect embodiment of all that is right about a woman. She is beautiful, sweet voiced, demurely dressed, a trained classical ballerina and seemingly grateful for the attention of Aoyama. It is then that the off key music ensues (figuratively). None of her background, although casually checked, can be verified.
Against the advice of Yoshikawa, Aoyama calls her for dinner. She seems sweet, but eventually tells a tale of a sad and abused childhood. It is then the surreality kicks in. A series of dreamlike sequences follow - this is the buildup.
The movie culminates in 30 minutes of the most horrifying and difficult to watch horror scenes. Think Misery with Katie Holmes. It was great.
We watched the end sequence with the director's commentary translated into english. That was good - still scary. Gory, without being overly bloody. This director (like Takashi Shimizu) knows that what is left out is often worse than what is shown.
I highly reccomend it.
Intoxicants: Big Green (you're going to be confused and freaked out anyway - so why not?)
Food: Popcorn (which you won't be able to eat at certain parts)
Other: Subtitled
Discussion:
I ordered this movie from NetFlix after seeing it mentioned on the "100 scariest film moments of all time" show on the Sci-Fi channel. Although I'm not a huge fan of subtitles and was hesistant to rent a foreign horror film, I was already broken in by a dubbed version of Ju-On (one of the scariest movies I've ever seen) and the original Japanese Ringu.
These horror directors in Japan have got it down. What can I say. They have what is lacking in many of our horror movies now - not a sneering comedy, but an honest to god scare.
This movie starts off as a dramady - the main character (Shigeharu Aoyama - he goes by Aoyama for most of the film) loses his wife and he raises their little boy alone. 7 years later the father and teenage sone sit at the dinner table. Son tells father he should get married since he's not getting any younger.
The father (Aoyama) thinks on it for a while. He discusses it with his colleague (Yoshikawa) who comes up with the slapstick idea of having an audition. He offers to let Aoyama audition his new wife under the pretense of casting a film.
Thus ensues the humorous audition scene where several young women parade in and out of a room and are asked silly questions such as "how do you feel about men?" "Would you be willing to do a sex scene?" Several of the women are shown to be a bit unhinged - which works as both comedy and foreshadowing.
Near the end of the list comes Asami. Aoyama already fell for her while reading the bio attached to her photo.
Asami appears to be the perfect embodiment of all that is right about a woman. She is beautiful, sweet voiced, demurely dressed, a trained classical ballerina and seemingly grateful for the attention of Aoyama. It is then that the off key music ensues (figuratively). None of her background, although casually checked, can be verified.
Against the advice of Yoshikawa, Aoyama calls her for dinner. She seems sweet, but eventually tells a tale of a sad and abused childhood. It is then the surreality kicks in. A series of dreamlike sequences follow - this is the buildup.
The movie culminates in 30 minutes of the most horrifying and difficult to watch horror scenes. Think Misery with Katie Holmes. It was great.
We watched the end sequence with the director's commentary translated into english. That was good - still scary. Gory, without being overly bloody. This director (like Takashi Shimizu) knows that what is left out is often worse than what is shown.
I highly reccomend it.
