Odishon (Audition)
dir. Takeshi Miike


The best horror and suspense movies know that to really get under our skin, you have to tap the positive as well as the negative emotions.

Love is far more terrifying for its power over us than fear.

If Buffalo Bill is holding you captive in his basement, all you're thinking about is how to get out. Offer him money, put the fucking lotion in the basket, try to get his dog, whatever. He's just a monster. A thing. A force.

But imagine if you're DATING Buffallo Bill and you find him "doing things" with the skin of a transient. Well, that throws you. I mean, you thought you could have a future with this guy and now here he is "doing things" with skin. What does that say about you? And what about your skin?

What terrifies us is not what Buffalo Bill might take from US, but what we might find ourselves needing from HIM (besides a phone and a cheeseburger.)

Shigeharu-san is a lonely guy. His wife's been dead for the better part of a decade. His son is growing up and showing an interest in dinosaurs and (secondarily) girls. He's getting old. He's tired of banging is secretary. He feels Japan is slipping into decadence. He doesn't relate to the younger generation. He drinks too much.

His friend, Yasuhisa-san, a talent agent suggests that they arrange a talent search and audition a number of women for Shigeharu-san to choose from.

What, as they say, could go wrong?

One "Fabulous Baker Boys"-esque comic montage later, we have our girl: Asami.

Asami is tall, thin, demure and beautiful. Shigeharu doesn't stand a chance.

After an enjoyable weekend retreat, Asami disappears and Shigeharu sets off on an Oedipal quest to uncover her secret past, which (without giving anything away) ends about as well for him as things ended for Oedipus.

Let's just say that some things are in a burlap sack for a REASON and they should just, you know, stay there.

Unlike Miike's other over-the-top comic hero gorefests, this film is soft, quiet, affecting. It gets under skin. You sympathize with the hero. You're drawn to the heroine. When the violence comes, it truly feels like something good being twisted and torn.

It's not Asami's lunacy that terrifies. It's her sweetness. She does what she does not out of cruelty, but out of love. From her point of view, it's not what she's doing TO you...it's what she's doing FOR you.

And she has a lovely sack just waiting. Now, stick out your tongue...

Four stars, Jason Bob sez check it out before you cruise Craigslist