This Dark J-Dorama With Strong Female Lead Made Me Lose My Sleep
Female revenge at its fullest. A movie so unsettling, it will live in the back of your head rent free for the rest of your life.
We lock our doors at night, install security systems, and avoid dark alleys. But we cannot predict the most terrifying threat there is — a person who can sit across from us with the warmest smile on their face.
That's exactly what makes psychological thrillers so deeply unsettling and disturbing for me. They strip away our illusion of safety by telling us that monsters in real life are not some unknown supernatural entity, it can be your friendly neighbour or a date, for example.
Audition (1999): Love Story Gone Horrifically Wrong
Speaking of dates, having been a lover of horror films forever, I've become somewhat desensitized to the usual jump scares. But nothing could have prepared me for the psychological warfare that is Takashi Miike's Audition.
Meet Shigeharu Aoyama, a man who's encouraged to keep on living after his wife's passing 7 years ago. Shigeharu finally decides that it's time. Time to give love another chance. Why not? After all, he's not getting any younger. Besides, his son is all up for it.
That's when he and his friend Yasuhisa Yoshikawa (a film producer) come up with a genius plan: they'll have a casting call for a new show that's actually going to be an undercover audition for Shigeharu's potential wife.
Now that's a great opening for a rom-com if you ask me, but things turn south right after Shigeharu meets Asami Yamazaki.
A Monster Takes the Form of Charming Young Woman
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Asami is everything a man could ever dream of. She's young, beautiful, refined, and graceful. A former ballet dancer whose career was cut short by an injury, she carries herself with elegance that's simply mesmerizing. But there's something about her that seems slightly... off.
Yet Audition makes Asami's actions, while undeniably horrific, somehow understandable. Her past trauma doesn't justify her behavior, but it helps us understand how a person can be shaped by their experiences into something both pitiful and terrifying.
As Bob Graham of San Francisco Chronicle wrote:
“It [Audition] turns into a hallucinatory nightmare of female revenge that will pin back the audience's eyelids.”
Where to Stream Audition?
If you're brave enough to venture into this nightmare, Audition is currently available to stream for free on Kanopy.
Fair warning: it's definitely not for everyone. But if you're interested in exploring the darker aspects of human nature, Audition offers an unforgettable experience.
