Audition

"Sneaky" Miike, director deluxe of transgressive film, delivers one of most restrained visions of horror with Audition. Generally known for his lack of subtlety in films like Ichi the Killer (which a video store clerk introduced to me by promising to clap if I made it to the end) and Visitor Q, Takashi Miike is a prolific powerhouse, producing up to 4 movies a year in his native Japan. The level of quality varies, and he has made some stinkers; when he hits the mark, it is always a bullseye.

The premise is Hitchcockian, which is to say deceptively simple: a widower's film producer friend sets up auditions for his new wife, which lead him to meet a beautiful woman with a mysterious past. During their first date, he is naturally curious to know more about who she is, to which the woman responds, "If I told you the truth, you might think I'm a heavy woman."

His producer friend has a bad feeling and warns the man to stay away. "What's wrong with her?" asks the hapless suitor, whom we know by dint of movie logic must pursue the woman no matter how dangerous she appears. "Something chemical," answers the producer.

This is as fitting a description for Miike films as I've heard: there is something chemically wrong with them. Initially I thought they were weird because of a cultural gap, that his work was so "Japanese" that I as an occidental was excluded from its finer aspects. Having watched a bounty of his films, my conclusion is that even Japanese must find these stories disturbing and alien. They are endowed with a wicked chemical imbalance that gets under your skin and pollutes your blood, reaching your brain and exploding with dream-like urgency.

Audition is no different. It is presented with uncharacteristic restraint, which lends it a hypnotizing allure. Nevertheless, this is a film I recommend with strong cautions for those with sensitive stomachs.