Spoiler Warning - While Miike Takashi's "Audition" has garnered much fame for its over-the-top ending, I was relieved to discover that despite reviews to the contrary, "Audition" is not as gory as Miike Takashi's other well known movies such as Koroshi No Ichii (AKA Ichii The Killer). While the torturous ending involving foot dismemberment and acupuncture were a bit harrowing, I found the scenes quite tame, relatively speaking (the torturous scenes in movies such as "Misery" I thought were more brutal). Many have complained that the first half is slow and uninvolved but I found it more interesting than the much hyped ending. The whole mystery behind who Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina) is was quite involving and had me hooked. Ishibashi Ryo is at his subdued best as the widowed and lonely Shigeharu Aoyama who naively thinks that finding a date is as easy as holding an audition. I'm still a bit confused with Yamazaki's motives and why she went through all this trouble to bait and torture poor Aoyama. "Audition" recalls themes covered in other movies such as "Fatal Attraction" and "Last Tango In Paris" but coupled with Miike Takashi's unique brand of twisted imagery and gothic tone. I'm not a huge fan of Miike Takashi but found "Audition" much more palatable than his other more outlandish works.
