History Film / Audition

After the first round of interviews, he finds himself falling in love with a beautiful, soft-spoken former ballerina, Asami Yamazaki (Creator/EihiShiina), who was forced to quit dancing after an injury. He calls her, and shortly thereafter everything starts going horribly wrong.

''kiiiiri kiri kiri kiri...''

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Aoyama's son, Shigehiko, manages to save his father from a horrific death at the hands of Asami, kicking her down a flight of stairs causing her neck to snap. Unfortunately, Aoyama has suffered absolutely '''horrific''' torture, and the ending implies he may be just a tad crazy.]]
* BlackAndGrayMorality: The only character who isn't sleazy, psychotic, or kind of an asshole is Shigehiko. So far as we know.

* BrownNote: At the Swiss premiere, someone passed out and had to be taken to the emergency room. Additonally, the torture sequence proved too much for several seasoned gorehound directors (see TooSpicyForYogSothoth, below).

* CompletelyMissingThePoint: Asami's major issue with Aoyama is that he lied to her. Not about the fake audition, not about making a bunch of women believe they were going to be movie stars, not about playing on the disappointment of the rejects to get himself a wife. She's mad because, as far as she could tell, he lied about loving ''only her'', leading to some DisproportionateRetribution (see below).

** [[spoiler: This isn't close to what she's done in the past. As Aoyama is trying to find clues about Asami's background, he finds a music studio she'd mentioned, whose owner had been missing for a year. A helpful bystander informs Aoyama that said owner had a girlfriend on the side while he was seeing Asami... said girlfriend was found cut to pieces in the room Aoyama was about to investigate. To make matters worse, the police also found three spare fingers, an extra ear, and a rogue tongue in the mess. Then we get a good look at Bag Man...]]

* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:Bag Man, who is eternally confined to being Asami's mutilated slave.]]

* {{Fingore}}: [[spoiler:Bag Man is missing at least three.]]

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Averted, as Asami genuinely ''does'' seem like a nice, quiet young woman to begin with, although Yoshikawa does have misgivings about her right from the get-go. Aoyama doesn't listen to him.

* MissingMom: Shigehiko's mother dies of an unspecified illness at the very start of the film.

* TerribleIntervieweesMontage: He might have been better off with one of these...

* YamatoNadeshiko: Deconstructed. At first, Aoyama is drawn to Asami because of her soft-spoken nature as well as her subtle, hidden strength. However, it is revealed that she was severely abused as a child and as a result has hidden mental problems, meaning that she is ''actually'' one of two things:

* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: The torture sequence in this movie was wrenching enough disturb a number of seasoned gorehound directors including Creator/EliRoth, Creator/JohnLandis, and ''Music/RobZombie''.

* StepfordSmiler: Asami. "I was never unhappy. ''I was always unhappy''." ''[pulls razor wire tight]''

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.

* {{Fauxshadow}}: An ethereally beautiful WomanInWhite catches the attention of the protagonist, but it turns out that none of the references she gave exist and she mysteriously disappears one day? Doesn't that sound a lot like the setup for a BoyMeetsGhoul story / "[[DeadAllAlong she was a ghost all along]]" reveal (more than one reviewer has pointed this out)? Of course, everyone knows that's not what happens...

* FreudianExcuse: Asami was physically and sexually abused as a child [[spoiler: until she took her stepfather's head off with piano wire]]. So naturally her ideas of what constitutes a loving relationship are skewed.

* LightIsNotGood: Asami is predominantly seen wearing white, before and after [[spoiler:she's revealed to be psychotic]].

Based on the novel by Creator/RyuMurakami, 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.

* AgonyOfTheFeet: "Without feet, you can't leave."

* 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]].]]

* BewareTheNiceOnes: So, so true here.
* BigBad: Asami Yamazaki, a {{Yandere}} with a penchant for torture.

* BreakTheCutie: Asami comes conveniently pre-broken.
* BrownNote: At the Swiss premiere someone passed out and had to be taken to the emergency room. Additonally, the torture sequence proved too much for several seasoned gorehound directors (see TooSpicyForYogSothoth, below).
* ClingyJealousGirl: "Tell me you'll love only me..."
* ColdBloodedTorture: The last twenty minutes. YES.
* CompletelyMissingThePoint: Asami's major beef with Aoyama is that he lied to her. Not about the fake audition, not about making a bunch of women believe they were going to be movie stars, not about playing on the disappointment of the rejects to get himself a wife. She's mad because, as far as she could tell, he lied about loving ''only her'', leading to some DisproportionateRetribution (see below).
* DarkAndTroubledPast: She was a trained ballet dancer... with a psychotic stepfather that would physically and sexually abuse her. No wonder she's a few degrees off-plumb.
* DirtyOldMan: Asami's stepfather, who sexually abused her when she was a child.
* DisproportionateRetribution: [[spoiler: So, she tortures him with acupuncture needles and cuts off his foot with razor wire because ''he has a family''?]]

* EvilLaugh: Such a girlish little giggle, too...
* EyeScream: It involves acupuncture needles.
* FantasticDrug: The paralyzing agent Asami uses on Aoyama is fictional. WordOfGod is that they made it up because the film would have been difficult to finish otherwise.
* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:Poor poor Bag Man.]]

* GenreShift: The film starts out as a sweet romantic comedy, then descends into horror. Additionally, while the first half of the film is fairly natural and bland in colour, the second half of the film has a lot of red lighting in several scenes (when Aoyama visits the music studio, the Stone Fish restaurant, and during the torture scene).
* GigglingVillain: Asami is having too goddamn much fun at the end...

* MindScrew: Hi. I'm the ending sequence. I dare you to figure out what the hell is happening.
* MissingMom: Shigehiko's mother dies of an unspecified illness at the start of the film.

* TongueTrauma: Not mangled. Removed entirely and left on the floor. [[spoiler:Asami also injects Aoyama's tongue with a bloody huge syringe.]]

* WomanInWhite

* {{Fauxshadow}}: [[FridgeBrilliance Think about it.]] An ethereally beautiful WomanInWhite catches the attention of the protagonist, but it turns out that none of the references she gave exist and she mysteriously disappears one day? Doesn't that sound a lot like the setup for a BoyMeetsGhoul story / "[[DeadAllAlong she was a ghost all along]]" reveal (more than one reviewer has pointed this out)? Of course, everyone knows that's not what happens...

* BrownNote: At the Swiss premiere someone passed out and had to be taken to the emergency room.

Based on the novel by Creator/RyūMurakami, 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.

Based on the novel by Creator/RyuMurakami, 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.

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.

* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: The torture sequence in this movie was wrenching enough to make a number of seasoned gorehound directors walk out of a screening, including Creator/EliRoth, Creator/JohnLandis, and ''Music/RobZombie''.

* JamesBondage: Oh, boy...

** {{Yandere}}: She wanted him to love only her and snapped out when she discovered this wasn't the case. Kind of makes [[Film/FatalAttraction Alex Forrest]] look like RainbowBrite. Case in point: [[spoiler: the guy in the bag, who she mutilated in order to make him totally dependent on her]].

** {{Yandere}}: She wanted him to love only her and snapped out when she discovered this wasn't the case. Kind of makes [[FatalAttraction Alex Forrest]] look like RainbowBrite. Case in point: [[spoiler: the guy in the bag, who she mutilated in order to make him totally dependent on her]].

* BlackAndGreyMorality: The only character who isn't sleazy, psychotic, or kind of an asshole is Shigehiko. So far as we know.

** It's quite likely that he simply "checked out" from the pain.

* WholePlotReference: MyChemicalRomance's MusicVideo for their song "Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough for the Two of Us" recounts the plot of the movie, interspersed with clips of the band playing.

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...

* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: The torture sequence in this movie was wrenching enough to make a number of seasoned gorehound directors walk out of a screening, including Creator/EliRoth, Creator/JohnLandis, and ''Creator/RobZombie''.

* PayEvilUntoEvil: Debatable. Depends on how repulsive you find an older man tricking young, ambitious, smart, gorgeous women who just want a shot at living their dream into lining up like cattle for the intent of taking emotional advantage of one of the distraught losers to get himself a wife.

* EyeScream: It involves acupuncture needles. That is all.

* BilingualBonus: Although "kiri kiri" is translated as "deeper, deeper" in the English subtitles and elsewhere as "cut cut", it is actually the Japanese onomatopeia for describing sharp pain. [[spoiler: Which Aoyama is in a lot of by that point.]]

* GigglingVillain: She is having too goddamn much fun at the end...

* FateWorseThanDeath: [[Spoiler:Poor poor Bag Man.]]