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The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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Horror film with finesse

One night, not too long ago, my girlfriend asked me to rent a movie of my choosing, as long as it was nice, sweet and, most importantly, not a horror movie. Her hatred of horror movies, after all, is the stuff of legend. Besides, she’s still sore at me for telling her “28 Days Later” wasn’t scary.

I’d heard Takashi Miike’s “Audition” was a romantic comedy “with a twist,” so I thought it would be the perfect movie to help smooth things over. The film, based on a novel by Ryu Murakami, is about a single father, Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi, “Dog Star”), who has not dated since his wife died seven years earlier. After his son suggests he remarry, Aoyama’s friend, television producer Yoshikawa (Jun Kunimura, “Umizaru”), comes up with the idea to create an audition for a fake show, so Aoyama can “cast” himself a new companion. Strange then that I didn’t find this date-movie gem in the “Comedy” section of my local video store. Someone mistakenly filed it under “Horror.”

“After all,” I thought, “how could a film whose cover shows actress Eihi Shiina, wearing black latex gloves and holding a syringe with a needle the size of my little finger, be anything but whimsical?” Touting quotes like, “What it must have been like to see ‘PSYCHO’s shower scene back in 1960,” “The most shocking fright since the punchline of ‘CARRIE'” and “A total freakout…prepare to feel creepy,” I knew “Shakespeare in Love” had met its match.

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What do these quotes have in common? You’re right if you say they all describe “Audition” as one of the best romantic comedies of the year. Sure, it’s not “The Wedding Planner,” but what is?

Seriously folks, the film’s packaging totally ruins its surprise. Even the Menu screen on the DVD permeates an aura of dread. And even if it didn’t, Miike’s direction establishes early on that “Audition” is no romantic comedy. Problem is, for the film truly to fulfill its promise of being the “sadistic breach of contract between filmmaker and audience of which Hitchcock could only dream,” we’re supposed to think it is.

Take the opening scene: Aoyama watches over his sickly wife in an ominously lit hospital room while his son walks down an ominously lit hallway, carrying a “Get Well” card from an ominously high camera angle, arriving at his mother’s room just in time to hear her flat-line. In fact, Miike films the entire thing, well, ominously. Had “Audition” actually pretended to be a romantic comedy, had the packaging, Main Menu screen, musical score, lighting and direction all coalesced in such a way as to convince viewers they would be watching “10 Things I Hate About You” before revealing itself as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, then the film would be fantastic. That Miike reveals his hand too early reveals two things: He should never play poker, and he doesn’t have the necessary patience for this type of film…yet. Anyone who has watched a Takashi Miike film knows patience and subtlety are not his strong points. Remember the subtle-as-an-A-bomb “Dead or Alive?”

Aoyama’s love interest, Asami (Eihi Shiina, “Sky High”), first pictured in virgin white, is seen early on crouched by the telephone, her back slumped over, revealing the protrusions of her spine. Behind her sits a huge canvas bag holding, oh I don’t know…a lot of laundry, a great deal of mail or, maybe, could it be, a body?

The film’s final act — throwing viewers into a surreal nightmare of conflicting realities, half-truths, scenes replayed in different contexts or dialogue and hallucinations within hallucinations — is undeniably effective, especially with the DVD’s new digital transfer, and again proves Miike’s talent for staging scenes of psychotropic discomfort. Imagine “Fatal Attraction” with a methodical feminist revenge ideal and genuinely stomach-churning ending.

Miike knows his third act is the most interesting. It’s the only one where he provides commentary. One can almost picture the director chomping at the bit, waiting for the time he can “surprise” the audience from under the film’s (flimsy) romantic façade and let loose with arterial blood sprays, flying limbs and vomit. Eihi Shiina, it turns out, is a method actress — think Divine Brown during “Pink Flamingos'” dog walking scene.

Miike’s assertion that he wanted to end the film before the grueling torture sequence is obviously a joke. He takes too much glee in describing it, giddily awaiting Asami’s use of piano wire and the sound it makes as it grinds through bone.

The supplemental interview with Miike (conducted by Dennis Bartok and Chris D. at the American Cinemateque Theatre) is interesting, albeit drenched in adulation. In it, Miike says he wants his audience to feel betrayed at the end of “Audition.”

“I’m sick of doing the same things over and over again,” he says.

In a way, though, “Audition” is more of the same. Miike’s films, if anything, seem consistent in content. With the exception of “Happiness of the Katakuris,” I can’t think of one Takashi Miike film that didn’t contain over-the-top scenes of violence, brutality toward women, masochism, sadomasochism or necrophilia (To be fair, though, the number of Miike films available on DVD is limited, and their content does not necessarily represent his entire oeuvre).

In “Dead or Alive,” a woman is drowned in a kiddie pool filled with her own feces. In “Visitor Q.,” a man gets “stuck” while having sex with a corpse. In “Fudoh: The Next Generation,” a schoolgirl assassin shoots darts from her vagina with deadly precision. The list goes on. With “Audition’s” grotesque ending, Miike is essentially doing the same thing over and over…with one exception.

While many of Miike’s internationally released films (and Cat-III Asian films in general) show men brutalizing women, “Audition” ultimately shows the opposite; and, unlike Takashi Ishii’s “Freeze Me,” does so without exploitation.

Ryo Ishibashi infuses Aoyama with a level of depth that never lets us feel he ultimately deserves his punishment. In essence, he is simply caught between the clashing ideals of the burgeoning equality of men and women and a past culture that encouraged traditional chauvinism. Aoyama, then, symbolizes a society unwilling to let go of an archaic set of beliefs, despite the knowledge they are out-dated.

“Audition’s” idea is flawless. Daisuke Tengan’s script, however, is rife with untapped potential, largely left ignored by a talented director more concerned with shocking his audience than engaging them. I would love to see “Audition” re-imagined. Director Gore Verbinski and screenwriter Ehren Krueger epitomized the potential for big-budget Hollywood remakes with their version of Hideo Nakata’s “Ringu” (the ending in the original was scarier, however). If I close my eyes, dear reader, I can picture you flipping me the finger at that thought. So, allow me to add a stipulation: Michael Bay cannot produce it!

Takashi Miike has a great movie buried in him somewhere. “Audition” is definitely one of his good ones and, more importantly, shows a step in the right direction toward finding it.

Also, my girlfriend’s pissed at me for making her watch another scary movie.

Grade: A/B

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