Everybody faces this situation in his/her life sooner or later. You only just started a relationship and you are about to watch your first movie together. Personally you wouldn't mind a fair portion of violence and chills, but you suspect and worry that the other half prefers a slow and story-driven film with the emphasis on character development. But you needn't worry about this any longer, as Takashi Miike's "Audition" can perfectly satisfy both extremes. At least, theoretically speaking it can! This unforgettable and undeniable Japanese cult monument unfolds as a stylish and slow – better make VERY slow – moving romance drama, yet gradually but surely turns into a stomach-churning and nerve-tangling paranoia thriller with one of the most astonishingly engrossing climaxes ever captured on film. After seven years of living as a widower and devoting everything to raising his son, Aoyama wishes to remarry. A befriended movie-director wants to help Aoyama with meeting new women and arranges auditions for a non-existent movie. Aoyama immediately falls for the beautiful ex-ballet dancer Asami and carefully begins dating her. She's a beautiful young girl, but extremely introvert and mysterious. Aoyama's life subsequently turns into a psychological nightmare, yet the film's main strongpoint is how Miiki never fully reveals whether this girl is a lethal psychopath out for vengeance against the entire male race or that all the horror exclusively spawns from the protagonist's guilt and paranoid mindset. "Audition" is a truly strange and unique film. Miiki almost effortlessly seems to combine ambiances and elements that you always considered impossible to combine. At several moments during the first hour of the film, when the relationship between the two lead characters laboriously develops, you really wonder yourself how such a sober and melodramatic love story could possibly transgress into a reputedly shocking horror film, but it does! And how! The final ten-fifteen minutes are guaranteed to make you cringe and crawl in your seat and, I swear, you'll never look at a piano the same way again. I definitely also wouldn't advise this film if you already have a phobia for needles. Right from the opening sequences, Miiki effectively creates an intense atmosphere of depression and disturbance and maintains it throughout the entire film. He could also clearly rely on highly skilled and professional cinematographers, editors and production designers. The music is stupendous and the performances of both lead actor Ryo Ishibashi and Eihi Shiina are damn near perfect. This was Takashi Miiki's big international breakthrough achievement, and the least you could say is that he deserved it!

The "hype" or what ever you want to call it, that surrounds this film was completely lost on me. I knew literally nothing about it apart from it had a shocking part. So I mostly ignored this information and just watched the film.

I thought the beginning was great. It moved, it built character and it set up themes from the get go.

The middle for me does sag a tiny bit but only because the gears sort of switch to a full blown romance but then the suspense starts to creep back into the movie. It begins to recapture the attention of the audience.

Then there is the end. This was the part I took a small issue with. The dream sequence? It felt like sort of a dump of information. As if they had a lot to explain and they just threw it all in that one part to try and catch the audience up a little bit. I think that part could be slightly refined. But the actual ending. Wow it is so uncomfortable and brutal. But not just the violence. The reasons behind the violence.

My take away from this film is it wants to look at the gender dynamics and gender roles of Japan. From the start where the men are actually "Auditioning" people for them to date. Like think about how gross that is. It is power that they think they have because they are men. They get the pick of the crop. They will only choose the best.

Then obviously the story of the lead woman is tragic and I feel once again leads to this power struggle between genders, the men in her life take and take and take from her. They cause her pain because they can. To them she is below them.

That is just my take. Maybe it has nothing to do with that hahaha. I just think it's an interesting way to view this movie and also gives it more merit than being "that movie that has the shocking scenes"