Audition (オーディション) is a 2000 film directed by Miike Takashi based off a Murakami Ryu novel of the same title, starring Ishibashi Ryo and Shiina Eihi.

Tagline: She always gets a part.

Plot Summary

Ishibashi is Aoyama Shigeru, an ageing film producer and widower whose son Shigehiko (Sawaki Tetsu) convinces him to remarry. He confides his anxiety about re-entering the dating scene to his friend and colleague, Yoshikawa (Kunimura Jun ), who suggests the two arrange a mock audition, for a role that will never exist; Aoyama can then simply pick whoever he likes best.

He picks Yamazaki Asami (Shiina), a former dancer who left ballet after a career-ending injury. She says she has no expectation of getting the part, she simply wants to test herself. Aoyama is instantly captivated, by her strength as much as her beauty, and the two soon fall in love. All seems perfect, but of course it is not. Yamazaki disappears into thin air, only to return to exact a horrifying revenge.

Critical Response

Audition had its share of audience walk-outs. Feminist critics responded to the way women were potrayed as so many car colors to choose from, and to Aoyama and Yoshikawa's definition of the ideal woman. The film has been likened to Stephen King's Misery (for the foot-amputation scene), Oshima Nagisa's Realm of the Senses and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.

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