Audition (D)

Seven years after the death of his wife, Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) holds auditions for actresses in a film that is not going to be made as a means to find a suitable partner for him to marry. Through this process he meets and is entranced with Asami (Eihi Shiina), a striking woman with ballet training. After deciding to propose, Aoyama is prompted by his friend to check into the background of his intended and is alarmed to find that not only has Asami has lied about her job, but also about where she lives. Asami lives alone - except for the writhing victim she keeps tied up in a sack on the floor, minus his tongue, feet and half his fingers. Takashi’s fifth film is a tense and disturbing thriller, full of macabre surprises which, if known, would spoil some truly terrifying and sadistic actions of an emotionally scarred woman hell bent on vengeance. WARNING: The violence in “Audition” is an examination of the limits and bounds of sadism and revenge and is highly confronting and disturbing. In Japanese with English subtitles.