Ok so I'm a pretty big fan of Miike, I enjoyed 13 Assassins, Sukiyaki Western Django, and Ichi the Killer. So I had a feeling that I would really like Audition.
One thing about Audition that really stuck with me was at the beginning of the movie before it started. The actress that plays Asami says that if you're a man watching this movie you should learn to be afraid of women. But if you're a woman watching this movie you should see things from Asami's point of view. This stuck with me through out the movie.
I noticed that through out most of the movie we're not really given a chance to see things from Asami point of view. We see everything from Aoyama's point of view. There are a lot of moments where the camera is even literally in his point of view. Aoyama's is an interesting character in the fact that he is NOT a good person. He even has some downright despicable characteristics. Like is love of younger women. But easy to say he wouldn't call himself a bad man. When we are first introduced to him you can't help but feel bad. His wife died and he went years single. He seems to have taken good care of his son all by himself. He seems like a normal sympathetic character. But he decides to have this "audition" or show to find a new wife. The scene with the multiple women auditioning is really uncomfortable, it's a little sick and very disrespectful. The entire movie is from Aoyama's point of view letting the viewer either relate to him or judge him. Aoyama remains just likeable enough to relate to, but you can also understand why someone might hate him. It's still hard to see it from Asami's point of view. I don't think I hate anyone enough to fill them with needles and chop them up. I am glad in the end Asami was stopped.
I also need to mention the editing in this movie. It's absolutely AMAZING. I first noticed it on the lunch date when there was a jump in the footage. I thought it was just a mistake in the editing. But later on when the movie shows the rest of the date it returns to the point of the broken footage. This shows us that Aoyama did get all the information from her on the dates but the director withheld that information from the audience. It's really really clever!
