Movie Review: Audition - 1999

Masterpiece of Archetypal Horror

When I watched Audition for the first time, it left me thinking "What the hell did I just watch?". There are many movies like that, but Audition kept me thinking for days.
In my humble opinion, most reviews and interpretations of it are totally off the mark. Audition is not a lecture on feminism, or moral, or the condition of Japanese society. One can only interpret it so by deliberately ignoring its irrationality. Audition touches the realm of Jungian archetypes. At that, it's similar to Lars von Trier's Antichrist. Except that Trier's Antichrist was made 10 years after Miike's Audition and that Antichrist lacks Audition's subtlety (sic). Antichrist is strange right from the beginning, whereas Audition builds up more slowly, making its turn more shocking. Antichrist is explicit on sexuality and the supernatural, whereas Audition is more subtle about it.

Despite its graphic content, there is subtlety and depth to Audition. It has to tell something profound about the human condition that evades petty rationalist interpretation. That's why so many people love - or hate - it yet can't quite explain why.

Rating: 10 out of 10 dates you should have skipped.