Horror History: Takashi Miike’s AUDITION Is Now 22 Years Old
Mike Sprague
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On this day in horror history, director Takashi Miike unleashed his disturbing thriller Audition in Japan back in 2000.
It follows a widower who decides to start dating again. Aided by a film-producer friend, he uses auditions for a fake production to function as a dating service. When he becomes intrigued by a withdrawn, gorgeous girl, they begin a relationship. However, he begins to realize that she isn’t as reserved as she appears to be, leading to gradually increased tension and a harrowing climax.
Miike shot the film in about three weeks in Tokyo. Miike directs from a screenplay written by Daisuke Tengan based on the 1997 novel by Ryu Murakami. Eihi Shiina stars with Ryo Ishibashi, Jun Kunimura, Tetsu Sawaki, and Miyuki Matsuda.
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The film sports an 82% rating over on Rotten Tomatoes. The Critics Consensus reads: An audacious, unsettling Japanese horror film from director Takashi Miike, Audition entertains as both a grisly shocker and a psychological drama.
Audition was an influence on “torture porn”. David Edelstein invented the term to describe films like Saw and Wolf Creek that offer “titillating and shocking” scenes that push the audience to the margins of depravity for them to “feel something”.
Mario Kassar began work on an English remake in 2014 with Richard Gray writing and directing. The remake’s storyline was taken from Murakami’s novel and would take place in North America. But that never happened. Thank God.
How much do you love Audition?
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