Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Audition

(1999) ****1/2

The Brothers XPants (as Octopunk affectionately referred to them) reviewed this psychological Japanese horror film in 2005. I watched it last weekend and I won't ever look at a burlap sack the same way again.
It's filled with delicious marshmallows.
The central character of the movie is Shigeharu Aoyama, a lonely widower who is trying to get his groove back and is convinced by a friend and coworker to hold an audition for a new wife. This was already a bad start to what unfolds into a gruesome ending.
This guy couldn't hurt a fly if it was wielding a machete and sporting face paint a la Braveheart.
One can already guess what is about to happen just by looking at the cover, or reading a synopsis, but seeing how everything unfolds is the entertaining-yet-creepy aspect of Audition -- indeed, the less you know about this move, the better.

This one is definitely for the keeping, and worth seeking out other work the director and stars have been in. Audition was great because I was intrigued during the "boring" bits and once weird crap starts happening you care about the characters enough to attempt to make sense of it all. I distinctly remember stealing JSP's popcorn during the climax because it was that captivating.

7 comments:

Catfreeek said...

When JSP told me he was going to watch this with you I knew you were gonna love it. An intense film with a hell of a pay off.

AC said...

sounds great, but probably not my cup of tea.

Octopunk said...

Aw yeah. This might be the original torture porn movie.

I'd heard a little bit about this before I saw it, but what I didn't expect was how early in the film you get a peek into her crazy level. Yeesh.

Landshark said...

Sounds excellent. But hands off the popcorn!

DKC said...

I'm with you AC! Bravo, Crystal, no biddiness in you!

Johnny Sweatpants said...

It's no secret that I make the best popcorn this side of the Mississippi.

50PageMcGee said...

i'd believe it, but if you're going to have popcorn made by JSP, don't let him salt it with his shaker.

i stayed at pants's place a few weeks ago and made what i thought was a pretty tasty dinner of salmon with a wine/butter sauce and caprese. when i went to salt mine, the lid popped off the shaker, blanketing my entire plate with like two inches of sea salt.

it wasn't so much that part that bothered me. it's that pants wouldn't stop laughing about it afterwards.

dick.

Malevolent

 2018  ***1/2 It's 1986 for some reason, and a team of paranormal investigators are making a big name for themselves all over Scotland. ...