'Audition' - Portrait of a Psychopath

[Telperion]

The plot – a workaholic single father and widower seeks companionship years after the death of his wife yet he is put off by the prospect of actually putting time and effort into finding a companion. He yearns for a 'traditional' Japanese spouse but despairs of finding this in the current market of modern independent women. At the urging of a close friend and business associate he abuses his executive status at a film production company by holding a fake movie audition in order to hand pick a young woman suited to his tastes. He most definitely finds his ideal woman however it would be an understatement to say that she is not at all what she seems.

Femme fatal characters with psychotic streaks are fairly common in American/Western movies however one problem with them is that they often glamorize the psychotic behavior and minimize it by making it part of a certain male fantasy with the actress almost always portraying a double D nymphomaniac who would be just great if only she weren't crazy. 'Audition' follows this trend to a certain extent by keeping the femme fatal aesthetically pleasing in a traditional cookie cutter way but beyond that there are no similarities. The fact that the woman is invited into the main characters life under false pretenses totally arranged by him adds an additional layer of complexity to the predator/prey dynamic which wouldn't exist if he'd simply met her at a bar or through a dating service. His deception borne out of grief and loneliness opens him up to a terrible kind of lopsided consequence. The film seems to be saying (in a highly dramatized way) that the worst horrors we experience in life we actually bring upon ourselves unwittingly because of our own weaknesses.

Japanese with subtitles, available almost everywhere. Not for the squeamish. Best lines of the film, both uttered by the villain Asami - “words create lies, pain can be trusted” and “Right foot please!”

 

[anart]

Hmm - and I thought you were (and I quote your more pleasant comment on reviewing things) "not so good at reviewing movies". ;)

Amazing what a little effort and external consideration can produce - sounds like an interesting film, I'll have to check it out.

 

[Telperion]

Hmm - and I thought you were (and I quote your more pleasant comment on reviewing things) "not so good at reviewing movies". ;)

Amazing what a little effort and external consideration can produce - sounds like an interesting film, I'll have to check it out.

Gracias!zdefinitely check it out if you can. it's an amazing film - reading the info about psychopathology on this forum/site suddenly made it click in my mind in an entirely different way.

 

[Tigersoap]

I really liked it but it's not an easy movie. Like some very twisted Lynch movie.
It starts slowly, taking you gently into the pit of madness then it slams you right in the face.

I cannot stress enough that this should not be watched if you're easily impressed because the last part is very very graphic.

 

[Telperion]

I really liked it but it's not an easy movie. Like some very twisted Lynch movie.
It starts slowly, taking you gently into the pit of madness then it slams you right in the face.

I cannot stress enough that this should not be watched if you're easily impressed because the last part is very very graphic.

Although the film making is very good I agree that this movie is not an easy watch, particularly in the last twenty minutes or so. The reason for this I feel is that one of the strategies of this movie is to show psychotic behavior that's been stripped down to its bare essentials (destruction, cruelty, lack of empathy etc).

 

[The Mechanic]

I saw this movie some years ago. I didn't have any knowledge of psychopathy back then so all the movie was for me was a thriller/horror flick that certainly shocked me with it's horrific ending. Perhaps with more knowledge more can be seen in it.

The film seems to be saying (in a highly dramatized way) that the worst horrors we experience in life we actually bring upon ourselves unwittingly because of our own weaknesses.

I hadn't looked at it this way, and it certainly makes sense.

Not for the squeamish.

You can say that again! The ending of the movie is totally horrific.

 

[Laura]

Okay, ya'll can tell me what the ending is about (briefly) - I'm not going to watch it anyway!

 

[Approaching Infinity]

From a wiki summary:

Aoyama [the man] visits the old ballet studio where Asami [the psycho] claimed to have trained for twelve years. He finds that the studio is now inhabited only by a disabled old man in a wheelchair with artificial feet who reveals that he caused the burn scars on Asami's legs while sexually assaulting her as a child.

Then he goes to the bar where Asami used to work and someone tells him that it has been closed for a year because the woman who was in charge, the wife of a record producer, was found dismembered. When the police put her body back together, they found thirteen fingers, three ears, and two tongues.

Asami goes to Aoyama's house during his search. Once there, she finds a photo of his dead wife. Enraged, she slips a sedative in his drink and hides. Aoyama comes home, has a drink and faints. The movie cuts to an informative yet confusing sequence about Asami's past and present. In one scene, Asami is seen finishing her dinner. She then vomits into a dog dish. The contents of the burlap sack are revealed: it is a man missing both feet, his tongue, one ear and three fingers on one hand. He is the record producer who had gone missing and his wife's dismembered body was found with three extra fingers, an extra tongue, and an ear. He crawls naked out of the bag, sticks his face in the bowl of vomit, and hungrily consumes it.

A while later, Asami returns to the drugged and paralyzed Aoyama. As she walks into the room, the audience sees the twisted body of Aoyama's pet dog. She proceeds to inject Aoyama with an agent that paralyzes his body, but keeps his nerves alert. Then she tortures him in a gruesome manner typical of Takashi Miike — sticking needles into his chest and moving them, sticking needles into the area under his eyelids and flicking them, and finally cutting off his left foot with a sharp wire. As she is torturing him, she tells him he is just like everyone else, in not being able to only love her. She talks about how he has love for his son (whom she plans to kill as well) and their dog, and how this is not acceptable, because then he will truly never be completely hers. Her torture of him, she explains, is to teach him the meaning of needing someone.

While Asami is about to begin cutting off his other foot, she is surprised by Aoyama's son returning home. She hides and prepares to attack Shigehiko. Shigehiko walks in and discovers his father on the floor, turns and is surprised by Asami. Then the movie flashes to a scene of Aoyama waking at a beachside resort with Asami resting peacefully next to him. For some moments it seems that all of the rest of the movie was just a bad dream, and Aoyama eventually returns to bed with Asami. The film, however, flashes back to reality. Asami fails to disable Aoyama's son with a spray bottle of paralyzing fluid, and is kicked down a flight of stairs, breaking her neck, and Aoyama tells his son to call the police.

 

[Laura]

Now THAT is really sick. Why in the world would anybody make such a movie? It's bad enough just reading over it quickly, why would anyone want to spend time developing such ideas and filming them?

And that's not to say that such things do not happen or cannot happen; it's obvious that they do; I've read enough cases, some of them worse than that. But I never read them twice. That type of behavior - whether psychopathic or not, I can't say - is not typical and I don't see much point in such movies except that they tend to put people off the topic of psychopathy and give it an image that is not relevant to the majority of cases.

 

[Telperion]

Now THAT is really sick. Why in the world would anybody make such a movie? It's bad enough just reading over it quickly, why would anyone want to spend time developing such ideas and filming them?

And that's not to say that such things do not happen or cannot happen; it's obvious that they do; I've read enough cases, some of them worse than that. But I never read them twice. That type of behavior - whether psychopathic or not, I can't say - is not typical and I don't see much point in such movies except that they tend to put people off the topic of psychopathy and give it an image that is not relevant to the majority of cases.

Well, to be fair to the movie the torture scene is only about 15 minutes of a more than two hour movie and the wiki synopsis is...um, a little misleading. It bulldozes over some nuances and mischaracterizes some things that are easily taken out of context. I agree, it's true that most psychopathic behavior is not so extreme as what's shown in 'Audition' but this movie has to be seen in the context of a certain kind of genre of Japanese film making and also within the context of the Japanese mindset.

Having been the only country to have a nuclear bomb(s) dropped on it produced something quite bizarre in the Japanese psyche in my view. Sometimes the expression of this bizarre after effect in film is legitimate and artistic, sometimes not. I've seen Japanese films that are frankly just an excuse to have a gore fest but 'Audition' handles a very real part of Japanese culture/mentality quite exquisitely by comparison to what is out there. For sure there's a particularly strong illustration of the nature of suffering in this film that culminates in a gruesome scene. It can be easily mistaken as sadism for shock value...but I feel the scenes of violence in this movie are legitimate though very stark examinations of emotional and physical violence perpetrated by a disturbed mind. Just my thoughts on this.

 

[anart]

Well, to be fair to the movie the torture scene is only about 15 minutes of a more than two hour movie

and the wiki synopsis is...um, a little misleading. It bulldozes over some nuances and mischaracterizes some things that are easily taken out of context.

You sound rather like Rumsfeld describing Abu Ghraib here. I realize it's just a movie, but are you really this desensitized, or are you just identifying so much with your film recommendation (you can't be wrong) that you don't understand what you're saying? No offense intended at all, but...

I agree, it's true that most psychopathic behavior is not so extreme as what's shown in 'Audition' but this movie has to be seen in the context of a certain kind of genre of Japanese film making and also within the context of the Japanese mindset.

Sounds rather like a paralogism.

Having been the only country to have a nuclear bomb(s) dropped on it produced something quite bizarre in the Japanese psyche in my view.

Interesting excuse for reveling in gore and torture - could you provide some research or data to back up this view?

Sometimes the expression of this bizarre after effect in film is legitimate and artistic, sometimes not. I've seen Japanese films that are frankly just an excuse to have a gore fest but 'Audition' handles a very real part of Japanese culture/mentality quite exquisitely by comparison to what is out there.[ For sure there's a particularly strong illustration of the nature of suffering in this film that culminates in a gruesome scene. It can be easily mistaken as sadism for shock value...but I feel the scenes of violence in this movie are legitimate though very stark examinations of emotional and physical violence perpetrated by a disturbed mind. Just my thoughts on this.

 

[Tigersoap]

Takashi Miike is certainly very disturbed, if not outright psychopathic himself.

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Miike

Miike has garnered international notoriety for depicting shocking scenes of extreme violence and bizarre sexual perversions. Many of his films contain graphic and lurid bloodshed, often portrayed in an over-the-top, cartoonish manner. Much of his work depicts the activities of criminals (especially yakuza) or concern themselves with non-Japanese living in Japan. He is known for his black sense of humor and for pushing the boundaries of censorship as far as they will go.

It should be noted that, despite his somewhat notorious reputation, Miike has also proven himself to be capable of directing lighthearted children's films (Zebraman, The Great Yokai War), touching period pieces (Sabu), and subdued, moving pictures such as the road movie The Bird People in China. Even in his more violent work, he is given to moments of surprising sentimentality, as in Dead or Alive 2. His dabbling in every sort of genre and emotional range is a testament to his versatility as a director, though a lot of his output is genre-defying. For example, The Happiness of the Katakuris is an unconventional farcical musical-comedy-horror involving a bizarre claymation sequence, zombies and b-movie pastiches.

So although I liked the movie "at the time" it was more for its construction than the last scene which made me quite sick even though I was pretty desensitized at that period of my life.

On another point, I think that some part of the Japanese society is very interested in extreme things of all sorts including humiliation, submission and violence in general.
From what I know so far, Japanese culture has a really different mindset concerning physical/emotional pain, quite sadistic even.
There are plenty of tv games which are playing on these at the great "pleasure" of spectators.
Which of course should be seen in the context of ponerology and psychopathy osit.
I'd be very interested to know if someone has more insight about it.


The atom bomb did indeed shape some fears in the Japanese mind, that's where the idea of Godzilla (1954) came from.

Yamane studies the evidence and discovers that monster god really is a giant dinosaur that was awakened and mutated by atomic tests in the ocean. He names the monster Godzilla (after the Odo legend). He also discovers that the sediment from Godzilla's footprint contained a massive amount of Strontium-90, which could have only have come from an atomic bomb. After Yamane's presentation, a man from the crowd suggests that the information should not be made public. Since Godzilla is the product of atomic weapons, the truth might cause some bad consequences, since world affairs are still fragile. However, a woman objects to Mr. Ōyama's suggestion because the truth must be told. After she calls Ooyama an idiot, chaos breaks loose in the Diet Building.

 

[Z...]

Takashi Miike is certainly very disturbed, if not outright psychopathic himself.

I totally agree, as a teenager I grew to love Japanese movie mostly thanks to Akira Kurosawa who is a director of great sensitivity but then Takashi came along and put me off Japanese movie for good.

I have to double Laura too, I really wouldn't want to see movie like this. Whats the point?

Kill Bill was actually inspired by (and is very good parody of) regular and meaningless gore fests in Japanese movies. I did love the kill bill and saw it few times but I think I know why - In the Kill Bill the violence was in the function of the story, in the majority of modern Japanese films the story is in the function of violence and that is always impossible to stomach.

I have to say - from the point of view of European (or at least from my point of view and judging mostly from the movies) there is something very dark and almost morbid in Japanese collective psyche.
I always thought of this connection with A bomb same as Telperion, but I wonder whether anyone really researched this and if there is any data out there at all to back up this theory.

 

[Tigersoap]

I have to double Laura too, I really wouldn't want to see movie like this. Whats the point?

Because you did not know what you were going to watch exactly ?

I'll say that for me, I wanted to watch it because it looked like a Japanese D.Lynch movie and I was curious.
And probably because in retrospect I felt the need to thoughen up and feel strong emotions, to drown out the sensitive part of me osit.

Kill Bill was actually inspired by (and is very good parody of) regular and meaningless gore fests in Japanese movies. I did love the kill bill and saw it few times but I think I know why - In the Kill Bill the violence was in the function of the story, in the majority of modern Japanese films the story is in the function of violence and that is always impossible to stomach.

I think that's where it is a bit deceiptive because "fun" violence is still violence nonetheless.
The outer form is maybe more adapted to westerners psyche ?
But I also think this may not be as clear cut as that, as the world itself can be violent, just look at nature sometimes. But we normally should have the choice to opt-out from certain forms of violence if we do so wish.
Born in a psychopathic society, you learn to "enjoy" this violence, maybe as a mimetic defensive skill, maybe as thrill seeking activity ?
Maybe you feel its wrong within you but as everyone else seems ok with it you try to tame your fear of disgust by submitting yourself to acceptable forms of violence.

 

[Telperion]

You sound rather like Rumsfeld describing Abu Ghraib here. I realize it's just a movie, but are you really this desensitized, or are you just identifying so much with your film recommendation (you can't be wrong) that you don't understand what you're saying?

Yeah, I think I am a little identified with this movie, I mean I've seen it about 8 or 9 times and the violence has become more of an after thought compared to the other things about it that have grabbed my attention. But please don't compare me to Rumsfeld lol, that's just...no please

I have to say - from the point of view of European (or at least from my point of view and judging mostly from the movies) there is something very dark and almost morbid in Japanese collective psyche.

Yeah I agree, there are some very morbid aspects to the Japanese psyche it seems. What is shocking to us is just not so shocking to them. The kawaii concept which sort of acts as a counter balance to all the morbidness is very strange... It seems to me that the cutest and most adorable kitschy characters (Pokemon, Hello Kitty, Sailor Moon, Ah! My Goddess etc) all come from Japan...so it's kind of a bi polar culture in some ways.

Born in a psychopathic society, you learn to "enjoy" this violence, maybe as a mimetic defensive skill, maybe as thrill seeking activity ?

Maybe you feel its wrong within you but as everyone else seems ok with it you try to tame your fear of disgust by submitting yourself to acceptable forms of violence.

I think movies like 'Saw', 'Last House on the Left', 'The Hills Have Eyes' and 'I Spit On Your Grave' (a movie people were taking their kids to see when it first came out ) show that here in the States at least there's a long history of people getting their kicks from extremely morbid films. Japan took it to another level maybe. I agree it must have something to do with being born into a psychopathic society, or at least maybe it's a symptom of jadedness.