A widower begins to surreptitiously audition attractive
young women for a new role: potential spouse. But who is interviewing whom?
Director Takashi Miike turns the horror convention upside down by delivering a deliberately
paced psychological drama that walks the razor wire’s edge.
Shigeharu is a successful businessman and a lonely single
dad who loves his teenage son; both are well-adjusted and bright individuals.
Miike begins his masterpiece of sadistic horror by developing our protagonist
as an empathetic and complex person; he refuses to allow clichéd melodrama to
intrude upon the narrative. Though Shigeharu’s methods are morally
questionable, his intentions are quite sincere. His mistake is in wanting to be
a savior instead of seeking an equal partner, falling victim to his own male
egocentrism which becomes a violent condemnation of Patriarchal mores. He is intrigued by one specific applicant
because of her honesty about her traumatic past, her triumph over adversity,
and he focuses his attention upon the beautiful and seemingly delicate Asami.
But he is being manipulated from the very first word, being reeled in like a
prize-catch by a tormented young lady who is victim…and victimizer.
Miike holds our suspense hostage in a burlap sack while
revealing subtle clues that question our heroine’s virtue. He utilizes
flashbacks and flash-forwards to startling effect, not as a slick gimmick but
to engulf us in existential dread, to feel the dark chill of the abyss nipping
at our nose…and under our eyes…and tongue…fingers, ears, and feet. Asami plays
her role perfectly as Shigeharu becomes the final act and the bloody stage her
world. Yet, through the sadism, this cruel confusion of love and pain, we sense
her victimization and can connect on some primal level to her suffering, a deep
spiritual malaise that has habilitated her into a gruesome torturer. This
should not alleviate Asami’s guilt but Miike isn’t concerned with questioning
her motives; he wants us to experience her pain vicariously through Shigeharu,
to confuse our emotional loyalties and discard easy personal judgments.
AUDITION is about power and control, the absolute authority
that one human being can wield over another. Asami’s final breath exhales the delicate
and fermenting vapor of the tomb, a genial acquittal, an unburdening of all
responsibility, and we wonder if Shigeharu can ever bring himself to hate
her.
FINAL GRADE: (A)
