Film Review: Audition

15 March 2001
Cherise Fong

"Can you hack it?" Is it the provocative words on the stark white on black posters, the intriguing images and soft music of the wordless trailer, or the viral impressions of the last twenty minutes of the film itself which confirm its cult status?

'Audition' begins ritually, comically, as the bored and lonely widower Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) abuses his power as a TV producer to organise the casting of an non-existent film in lieu of consulting a dating service to pick and choose a new wife.

His old-fashioned taste settles on the charm of the pretty young Asami (Eihi Shiina), whom he believes to be the shy, sensitive, submissive girl of his dreams... But his nightmare has only begun as he investigates her past and discovers her second nature.

Director Miike Takashi pokes fun at both modern-day Japan and traditional female stereotypes. Meanwhile it's his rigourously fine cinematography, combined with a growing atmosphere of paranoia, which keeps our eyeballs peeled to the end. How deep is your love?

Opens March 16th.