VividSimon Simply Perfect

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Madilyn Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

hellholehorror Man was this a truly horrific masterpiece. It was so difficult to watch that I almost didn't. The story moves along and interests you with intrigue and then when it all comes to a head you are blown away by the visceral and raw horror of the situation that you have found yourself in. This is for hardened horror viewers only. This made me jump a few small times but that was nothing compared to the tough and brutal scenes of torture. Very good film for anyone who can stomach it. Not the scariest although one of the most savage.

kluseba ''Audition'' is the kind of movie that you will never forget once you have watched it. There are many elements that make this movie memorable. The contrast between the beginning of the film that almost feels like a light-hearted romantic fairy tale and the conclusion that turns into a mentally and physically violent horror movie is made in a unique, profound and detailed way. The acting by former model Eihi Shiina in her debut film as well as the performance by her male counterpart Ryo Ishibashi who had acted in a few critically underrated movies before is superb, diversified and credible. The use of sounds, locations, light effects and camera angles is very detailed, innovative and intellectual and adds to the story that shifts between two extremes. The director also leaves a lot of room for interpretation in a movie that seems like a mixture of a beautiful dream, a gruesome nightmare and a reality somewhere in between despair and hope. This is where Takashi Miike surpasses the novel by Ryu Murakami this movie is based upon. ''Audition'' is one of the rare cases where the movie adaption is probably better than the source material which is already stunning.Many critics have seen themes such as family, isolation, misogyny, relationship issues and social values in this movie but I personally don't think that there is a deeper message in this film. The fact that this film can still be analyzed in so many different ways shows us the greatness of an unpretentious director who lets its audience put the pieces together without trying to spread a precise message. Even the conclusion of the movie is debatable and it's up to the audience to decide whether they witnessed a twisted dream turning into a nightmare at some point or to an accurate story. The line between reality and dream is very thin and this adds to the mysterious atmosphere which can be seen as the fascinating guiding line to this masterpiece.Another element that is very convincing is that you can at certain points feel with or even identify with the characters. You empathize with the poor physically abused child. You feel the fragile character of a woman that has been disappointed so many times in her life. You can understand the concern of the side characters for many different reasons. You can identify with the loneliness of the clumsy yet sympathetic widower. This empathy is what makes one of the best final scenes in the history of cinema even more intense.The story seems to be simple but at the same time it isn't. We get to know a middle-aged widower and businessman who feels lonely despite the presence of his caring son and his adorable dog. When his teenage son starts to date a charming girl, he suggests his father to open up to a new relationship again. After some hesitation, the widower works out a plan with a clever friend and partner. They decide to arrange an audition for the female lead role of a movie project but in reality the two men are looking for a perfect wife that meets the widower's reasonable criteria. He falls for a charming, emotional and mysterious young woman that simply isn't like all the other women. He starts dating her to get to know her better and their feelings for each another seem to be mutual as the woman isn't disappointed when she gets to know that there won't be any movie with her. Despite the warnings of his friend and partner, the clumsy widower is overwhelmed by positive emotions and quickly invites the young woman for a romantic weekend at a beautiful seaside hotel where they intensify and solidify their relationship. After an emotional night, the young woman has disappeared and the confused widower tries to find her. He finds out more and more mysterious details about the young woman's past and tries to put the pieces of the puzzle together.Telling you anything more than this would be too revealing. Anybody who enjoys movies should watch this mysterious drama. It's one of these movies that is so great that it will leave an impressive impact on anyone who watches it.

Lucas Versantvoort So one day I woke up and decided to watch this Korean drama called Audition. Little did I know I was about to subject myself to some literally cutting-edge stuff. This tender love story will cut through you like a knife through butter.Shigeharu Aoyama recently lost his wife and is left to care for their son. Their relationship endures, but seven years later his son asks him if he'll consider the possibility of remarrying. Shigeharu finds this still to be a daunting prospect. Luckily, his film producer friend is sympathetic to his plight. He arranges a fake audition for a fake movie. Maybe Shigeharu will find true love once again. Dozens of actresses send in portfolios, but there's one in particular that catches Shigeharu's eye: Asami Yamazaki, a young woman who used to be in ballet, but had to quit for some reason. She equates this experience with dying. Shigeharu is moved by her tale and takes a strikes up a conversation with her once she shows up at the audition. Later, they meet again and together they embark on a voyage of self-discovery through which Shigeharu discovers that for Asami, it's the insides that count. He'll soon discover that when the time comes, he won't have a leg to stand on.Audition is a film that cuts straight to the heart of the matter. It trims all the fat and everything is brought to life with razor-sharp precision. The film has carved a little niche for itself particularly due to the way it builds up to its stunning climax. If you're tired of all those pesky generic drama's, then you'll find great solace in this quiet little character piece...

Leofwine_draca AUDITION is a film I knew little about before watching - modern Japanese cinema is something I'm not very knowledgeable about and Japanese "horror" films even less so. I had heard about AUDITION being extremely dark, brutal and disturbing with some amazing twists during its cinema run, so out of curiosity I had to rent it. What I got was a mixed movie, sometimes gripping but definitely not one I would call "entertaining" to watch. For the first hour and twenty minutes, it's a slow-paced tale of romance with some mystery aspects which keeps you watching through some interesting, subdued direction from Takashi Miike. This gives the film its realistic edge, and it also incorporates some strong acting on the parts of the two leads; Ryo Ishibashi creates a portrait of a sad, lonely middle-aged man so that you have a ton of sympathy for his character and can relate to his desperation. In comparison, Eihi Shiina's almost unearthly look - there is something very fragile and beautiful about her - sits well with her mysterious and unexplained character whom nobody else in the film seems to know much about. Shiina is excellent in the role and deserves to go on to a big career in Japan.For the first hour and twenty minutes - normally the running time for a "normal" Western film - there isn't much horror here to tell about, other than a few flashy disturbing images of a severed tongue slapping on the floor, a man getting his head slowly and deliberately sliced off, and a great shock sequence involving a moving bag. Then, at around that eighty minute mark, the film begins to change and become colder and disturbing. Dreams are mixed with reality to create a visually confusing film and Miike delights in tormenting the viewer with a hideous image of a man in a sack with no feet and few fingers. You begin to wonder what the hell is going on, and then the films ends ambiguously making you wonder whether what you just watched really happened or not.Before that ending comes one of the strongest - in terms of physical torture - segments of a film that I've yet to see, which is tough to sit through. Basically it's a scene of a paralysed Ishibashi being slowly and deliberately tortured by Shiina, who delights in getting as much pain as possible from her victim. First via the use of strategically-inserted needles, and then in the film's most stomach-churning moment, she actually saws his foot off - in graphic detail. This is far stronger and darker stuff than many of the shoddy and amusing video nasties that were prosecuted in the early '80s, yet is released uncut today in Britain - it shows how much our society has changed. The realism of this sequence makes it pretty nauseous and you can't help but be grateful when it's all over. So did it really happen? I don't know, and I don't plan on watching this film again anytime soon to find out. It's very interesting stuff and highly disturbing, as well as being well-made, but an entertaining movie it is not.