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Audition (Collector's Edition) [DVD] [2001]
 
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Audition (Collector's Edition) [DVD] [2001]

DVD ~ Ryo Ishibashi
3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (93 customer reviews)
RRP: £15.99
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Customers buy this item with Three...Extremes [DVD] [2004] DVD ~ Takashi Miike

Audition (Collector's Edition) [DVD] [2001] + Three...Extremes [DVD] [2004]
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  • This item: Audition (Collector's Edition) [DVD] [2001] DVD ~ Ryo Ishibashi

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Audition (Collector's Edition) [DVD] [2001]
78% buy the item featured on this page:
Audition (Collector's Edition) [DVD] [2001] 3.9 out of 5 stars (93)
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Product details

  • Actors: Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Tetsu Sawaki, Jun Kunimura, Renji Ishibashi
  • Directors: Takashi Miike
  • Writers: Daisuke Tengan, Ryû Murakami
  • Producers: Akemi Suyama, Jun'ichi Shindô, Satoshi Fukushima, Toyoyuki Yokohama
  • Format: Anamorphic, Collector's Edition, PAL
  • Language Japanese
  • Subtitles: English
  • Region: All Regions
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: 18
  • Studio: Tartan Video
  • DVD Release Date: 28 Jun 2004
  • Run Time: 111 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (93 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B000260O8A
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 14,783 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

    Popular in this category:

    #9 in  DVD > Horror > Asian Horror

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Much of the controversy surrounding Takashi Miike's Audition centres on the disturbing nature of the later part of the film--understandable when you consider the imprint these admittedly horrific images leave on the viewer--but fails to note the intricate social satire of the rest. This is a film that offers insight into the changing culture of Japan and the generation gap between young and old. Shigeharu Aoyama is looking for an obedient and virtuous woman to love and asks, "Where are all the good girls?"--a comment that seals his fate. A fake audition is organised to find Aoyama a wife. Asami Yamazaki is introduced as the virtuous woman he is looking for, dressing for the majority of the film in white and behaving with the courtesy of an angel, especially when juxtaposed against the brash stupidity of the other girls at the audition. Although his friend takes an immediate "chemical" dislike to her, Aoyama begins a love affair to end all love affairs. But as Asami's history unfolds we see her pain and torture and slowly understand that the tortured in this instance holds the power to become the torturer. Aoyama is slowly drawn away from his white, metallic and homely environment into the vivid- red and dirty-dark environment of Asami's sadistic world.

Audition can be viewed on a number of levels, with important feminist, social and human rights issues to be drawn from the story. However, the real power of this film is its descent into the subconscious, to a point where reality is blurred and the audience is unable to decide whether the disturbing images on screen are real or surreal. This refined, hard-hitting and essentially Japanese style of horror is ultimately much more powerful than anything offered by Hollywood. This is a film that will get under your skin and infect your consciousness with a blend of fearless gore and unimaginable torture. It is not for the faint-hearted. --Nikki Disney

Synopsis
AUDITION is an art-house cult horror film that will be talked about for a long time to come. Ryo Ishibashi stars as Aoyama, a single father who has not dated since his wife died seven years earlier. To help find another woman to bring joy into Aoyama's charmless life, his best friend, television producer Yoshikawa, convinces Aoyama that they should add a fake part to a show they are auditioning actresses for--a role that will become Aoyama's real-life companion. After a series of comical auditions, in walks a woman whom Aoyama thinks is perfect--Asami, played by former model Eihi Shiina. But when Aoyama proves too tentative in his courting--and starts learning odd things about Asami's past--she decides to exact a revenge that filmgoers will never forget.
Director Takashi Miike's film, based on the novel by Ryu Murakami, begins like a slow-moving romance, carefully developing the characters and their maturing relationships. But suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, the mood and pace change, smashing viewers over the head with fast cuts between the past and the present, with dreamlike images that turn into torrid nightmares, with screams and shouts where there had been soft-spoken whispers, with blood and violence that replaces love and longing. The last section of the film is one of the most brutal torture scenes ever put on celluloid, and it is definitely not for the faint of heart. But even in its gore-filled shockingness, the film is beautiful to look at, a monumental achievement by a director willing to take chances and challenge his audience.

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Customer Reviews

93 Reviews
5 star:
 (45)
4 star:
 (22)
3 star:
 (12)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
 (11)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (93 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A magnificent nerve-shredder, 9 Sep 2002
By P. Sanders "prhsuk" (Belfast) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This review is from: Audition [DVD] [2001] (DVD)
If you read all the blurb written about this film, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a Japanese ultra-violent "Fatal Attraction" clone. After all the plot is deceptively simple - middle-aged widower looks for new love, holds fake audition, meets girl, girl becomes mysterious, girl gets nasty...

However, "Audition" is a dark masterpiece, drifting effortlessly from romantic melodrama into dizzying dreamscapes and finally skin-crawling horror. What's more, the viewer is left with nothing but sympathy for both the menacing Asami and her hapless suitor.

Okay, the violence. Well, while the last hour or so does become gruelling, a lot of it is actually suggested rather than shown explicitly. What's more there are no sudden shocks and brutal slayings, as in most American horror films. Instead, the viewer is forced to watch, as helpless as Asami's victim, as she explains the result of a childhood of abuse. "Words can create lies," she says. "Only pain can be trusted".

The same is true of the film's depiction of sex. Asami undresses, but refreshingly we see little nudity - maintaining the feeling of shy innocence that surrounds her. Nothing in this astonishing movie has been designed to tittilate. The performances are all top-notch, especially the two leads. The film's protagonist is seen looking for an "obedient" wife, but ultimately he is a lonely man looking for affection, not a sexist brute. And as for Asami herself... well, when her murderous nature is revealed she thankfully does not turn into a hammy, eye-rolling maniac. Rather, she is controlled, almost as demure as before, carefully explaining her plans in her childlike, sing-song voice. As she murmurs "Kiri kiri kiri" (Japanese for "Deeper, deeper..."), it's enough to freeze the blood.

Ultimately, there is no denying that "Audition" is a harrowing descent into real darkness, but if you think you can make the journey it is a stunning and highly rewarding film. Rather than revulsion I was left feeling pity for the main characters. And having seen it several times I find parts of the dream sequences far more disturbing than the much-discussed climax (especially the scene with the sack... you'll see).

Good luck.

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Innate fears brought to the surface., 3 Jan 2007
I've been a big fan of extreme Asian cinema ever since I first watched Ringu around 6 or 7 years ago, Audition was my second foray into the genre and my first experience of Takashi Miike and I've never looked back. Having been largely uninfluenced by any media hype at this point in time it was much easier to watch the film and take more away from it. Now unfortunately it's very easy to be cynical about the blatant similarities in Asian extreme cinema, particularly 'J-Horror' although for me I still love to see film conventions done well even if the ideas are not always original. But don't misunderstand me, Audition is by no means a horror film in the traditional sense, it is however a brilliantly dark thriller which in many ways makes it all the more terrifying since we are not dealing with anything supernatural, but rather 'real' people capable of mortifying things.

The film takes quite a lot of dedication, the first half is intentionally 'boring' according to Takashi Miike (I wasn't bored but I understand what he means), lulling us into a false sense of security so that the ultimate outcome is so unexpected. I don't want to give too much of the plot away although by now it is probably very well documented, but our 'villain' is a terrifying person indeed.

The underlying terror in the film is obviously castration fears culminating most noticeably in the torture scene without ever being so blatant as to go for actual member castration but another body part instead. Also the fear of being unable to control a situation, being powerless to stop terrible things from happening to you (for both central characters in her past and his drug induced state), this is heightened by the brilliant sense of disorientation and dislocation Miike pulses throughout. Any fans of Takashi Miike can expect to see some iconic visceral offerings which you may already be accustomed to, but in a much more understated and thus more effective way. I often feel with his films that he pushes boundaries for the sake of it, daring you to enjoy sordid scenes of violence and sexual depravity, but with Audition there seems more intelligence and thought. I'm not saying it's a subtle film in itself, but it is comparatively with say Visitor Q!

Something else interesting about this film is it ignores the tradition of the victim being an innocent, I don't feel that we aren't meant to feel mild distaste for him. His process of auditioning future partners through a faux television series is presented superficially as quite humorous, but there is definitely a very dark undercurrent of chauvenism there.

Sometimes comedy, sometimes melodrama, sometimes romance, ultimately very dark thriller exploring obsession and abuse. Unforgettable. Miike Takashi's finest hour.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Best served cold, 2 Nov 2006
By E. Leagas "Leagas" (England, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I bought Audition on a whim with no prior conceptions other than the blurb on the back and its cover, and it will always be one of my personal favourites - however, if you watch this film with preconceptions of how it should be, if you sit down expecting to be disgusted and scared, it won't shine with full brilliance. A deeply unsettling film if you let it work its way under your skin, this one if best watched stone cold. I'm tired of hearing people say they're dissappointed with the outcome, bored with the acting or let down by the plot; the characters are normal, their lives are mundane, and the plot relies on rising unease rather than outright scare-tactics. That's not poor film-making - that's how it's MEANT to be here.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Whole Film is a Weak Excuse for some Twisted Fantasies in the End
I watched this film with a mindset open to getting scared because that's what I wanted, and I did get scared to a degree. However I have some criticisms to make. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Danielle Ashley

5.0 out of 5 stars Another masterpiece of film making from Miike
The current wave of Hollywood horror movies seems to produe very few, if any, truly horrific pieces of cinema. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Ed Gutteridge

4.0 out of 5 stars gross and brilliant
i so loved this. I love asian horror especially from the tartan section. The story was gripping, and at times emotional, the only confusing thing for me was the ending, was it... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Ms. F. I. Macdonald

3.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing and twisted, but not exactly original
H-e-e-y, it's a weird one. Because it's done for "The Bunny Boiler" genre What Gus Van Sant did for the Indie film genre - add that additional touch of surreality. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Joe Cutts

3.0 out of 5 stars It's a 3 1/2 stars
Quiet good, but just lacking something to make it a 4.
I read some of the negative reviews before I rented this and I'm at a loss to figure out how many of the negative... Read more
Published 16 months ago by NMG

4.0 out of 5 stars wicked
I was expecting more from this film, although i was throughly impressed. i think it slightly lacked a conclusion but if you've seen tartan movies before most of them do. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Ms. J. D. Penn

3.0 out of 5 stars intense in places, but as a whole...underwhelming
I do not consider myself in any way squeamish or easily disturbed, so it is a rarity these days that a film comes along that has the power to genuinely shock me. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Mr. Rwj Nixon

5.0 out of 5 stars Subversive dissection of the loneliness and alienation of Japanese culture.
The problem that many people have with Audition, as with much of the cinema of Takeshi Miike, is in the film's unwillingness to conform to a single generic structure. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Jonathan James Romley

3.0 out of 5 stars Strange but interesting
A train wreck in slow motion; you know it is going bad but you cannot stop it. This was a first for me; a Japanese film without swords and I enjoyed it. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Jay Zee

2.0 out of 5 stars Audition
Although this falls well in the J-Horror catergory, it's sadly not one of the best in this very disturbing and uncomfortable horror... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Dave Kraven

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