Audition (Arrow Video) Blu-ray Review

THE MOVIE — 3.75/5

Plot Synopsis: Audition follows Aoyama (RYO ISHIBASHI), a widower who decides to start dating again. Aided by a film-producer friend (JUN KUNIMURA), Aoyama uses auditions for a fake production to function as a dating service. When Aoyama becomes intrigued by the withdrawn, gorgeous Asami (EIHI SHIINA), they begin a relationship. However, he begins to realize that Asami isn’t as reserved as she appears to be, leading to gradually increased tension and a harrowing climax.

Quick Hit Review: After hearing some great things about Audition, I was looking forward to this J-horror picture and while it is an interesting movie to say the least, it doesn’t come close to measuring up to Ringu and Kairo (Pulse), though this does feature tremendous performances from the two leads, Ishibashi and Shina, the latter utterly frightening, of course any person using a needle is scary af. Added into the mix, a disturbing and utterly gross scene where… well, I shudder to even spell it out; one of the grossest scenes in (at least mainstream) cinema.

Although Audition is nowhere near the top of the list of the J-horror genre, it still had plenty of strong suits from a somewhat normal first half before plunging face first into a surreal and bizarre second with dreams with dreams (or nightmares) culminating with the needle sequence as on display on the various home video releases with Asami holding the syringe looking eerily calm versus devious or evil.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 4.0/5

This single-disc release is housed in a clear HD Keep Case and inside is a 16-Page Booklet. All of the features from the 2009 Shout Factory release have been ported over and include a couple new items from Arrow Video.

Audio Commentaries:

• Director Takashi Miike and Screenwriter Daisuke Tengan
• Miike Biographer Tom Mes

Both of these are interesting with the former being subtitled so not quite as personal, though still informative hearing from the filmmakers while the second track with Mes goes into Miike’s career and breaking down certain scenes.

Interviews:

• The Ties That Bind (30:07) — Director Takashi Miike (NEW)
• Tokyo – Hollywood (16:15) — Actor Ryo Ishibashi
• From Audition to Vampire Girl (20:10) — Actress Eihi Shiina
• Miike’s Toy (20:57) — Actor Renji Ishibashi
• The Man in the Bag Speaks (16:27) — Actor Ren Osugi

Each of these interviews has the actor, or director, discussing a little bit about their careers before delving into their work on the film.

Damaged Romance: An Appreciation by Tony Rayns (35:22) is a new featurette with Japanese Film Historian Rayns deep diving into the cast and crew and eventually on film itself. If you like these academic-like features, it is a fascinating watch.

Trailers:

• Japanese Trailer (1:40)
• International Trailer (1:18)

Gallery

VIDEO – 4.5/5

And with all that work done, this 1.85 widescreen and 1080p transfer of Audition absolutely looks incredible. Detail is nicely defined throughout and colors appear to be retained without appearing bolstered and instead at key moments certain colors had pop to them such as the reds when Aoyama was searching for Asami. The film’s nature grain and noise was retained giving this likely the best transfer as one probably first saw this in theaters back in 1999.

AUDIO – 4.0/5

OVERALL – 3.5/5

I wasn’t as big of a fan of Audition as some and don’t consider top-tier in the J-horror subgenre mainly due to the surreal nature of the second half (especially considering the film is more grounded compared with others in the genre) but the performances from the two leads were great and stylistically, Miike’s direction was visually engrossing.