History Film / Audition

* GutPunch: The first 45 minutes could easily be mistaken for a romantic drama in which everything is slightly... off. Then we get Asami's EstablishingCharacterMoment.

* EnforcedMethodActing: For the scene where Asami [[spoiler: vomits into a dish and feeds it to the Bag Man, ''the vomit is real.'']] Eihi Shiina [[spoiler: ''insisted'' on actually vomiting [[VomitDiscretionShot (offscreen, thankfully)]] for the scene.]]

* BigBad: Asami.

* [[spoiler: AllJustADream: One interpretation of the film, being Aoyama's guilty conscience over his audition of the girl.]]

* XMeetsY: ''InTheRealmOfTheSenses'' meets ''Literature/{{Misery}}''.

Based on the novel by Ryū Murakami, the story involves a lonely widower named Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi), still mourning the death of his wife, who is encouraged by his friend Yoshikawa and his 17-year-old son Shigehiko, to begin dating again. They set up a mock audition, with the goal that he would marry the most beautiful and charming of the women. After the first round of interviews, he finds himself falling in love with a beautiful, soft-spoken former ballerina, Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina), who was forced to quit dancing after an injury. He calls her, and shortly thereafter everything starts going horribly wrong.

* [[spoiler: AllJustADream: One interpretation of the film, being Aoyama's guilty conscious over his audition.]]

* NotQuiteDead

* VomitDiscretionShot: Asami [[spoiler: vomits just around a corner, and then immediately subverts it when she brings the brimming bowl of puke in for her former boyfriend to eat]].

* XMeetsY: ''InTheRealmOfTheSenses'' meets ''{{Misery}}''.

** A re-dub of the German release translates it to "killekille", which is not only as phonetically close as possible to the Japanese original, but, moreover, literally translates as "tickle tickle" and as such is probably the most appropriate translation bar none, given Asami's playful demeanour during the whole scene.b

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: [[SubvertedTrope Horroribly Subverted.]]

** A re-dub of the German release translates it to "killekille", which is not only as phonetically close as possible to the Japanese original, but, moreover, literally translates as "tickle tickle" and as such is probably the most appropriate translation bar none, given Asami's playful demeanour during the whole scene.

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted.]]

Every so often, a movie comes along that makes you wonder about the mental health of the director. TakashiMiike has built his career on movies like this. ''{{Audition}}'' (1999) is a perfect example of the sort of movie that you have to watch through your fingers, with an air discomfort bag nearby. Don't believe us? Read on...

* ColdBloodedTorture: The last twenty minutes. Holy GOD yes.

* BreakTheCutie: Asami comes convieniently pre-broken.

* [[spoiler: AllJustADream: OrWasItADream]]

* [[spoiler: OrWasItADream: Were all the events following Aoyama and Asami's lovemaking really all just a dream, or is it really happening?]]

* EnforcedMethodActing: For the scene where Asami [[spoiler: vomits into a dish and feeds it to the Bag Man, ''[[HighOctaneNightmareFuel the vomit is real.]]'']] Eihi Shiina [[spoiler: ''insisted'' on actually vomiting [[VomitDiscretionShot (offscreen, thankfully)]] for the scene.]]

* GutPunch: The first 45 minutes could easily be mistaken for a romantic drama in which everything is slightly... off. Then we get Asami's EstablishingCharacterMoment, which is so scary that it turns the next half hour of violence-free romance into HighOctaneNightmareFuel.

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: [[SubvertedTrope SUB.]] [[PunctuatedForEmphasis VER.]] [[ThisIsSPARTA TED.]]

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Provoked something of a real-life example: ''RobZombie'' was so disturbed by the ending sequence that he ''walked out''.
** To put this in perspective, he later directed a horror film called ''TheDevilsRejects'', which featured one character ''cutting a man's face off and forcing his wife to wear it as a mask''.

* KickTheDog: Just to really hammer home [[spoiler:what a psycho Asami is, she kills Aoyama's beloved pet dog.]]

* OrWasItADream: [[spoiler: Were all the events following Aoyama and Asami's lovemaking really all just a dream, or is it really happening?]]

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: SUB. VER. TED.

* AndIMustScream: The last 20 minutes. Also, the Bag Man. Then there's also [[spoiler:Asami's fate - assuming she really ''is'' still alive even after having her neck broken horribly and [[MindScrew it isn't just Aoyama hallucinating]].]]

** To put this in perspective, he later directed a horror film called ''[=~The Devil's Rejects~=]'', which featured one character ''cutting a man's face off and forcing his wife to wear it as a mask''.

* {{Rule 36}}: At least one troper (now relegated to this page's history) found the ending to be FetishFuel. [[ThisIsWrongOnSoManyLevels There may be others in the world that agree.]]