| Movie of the Day - 11/10/2006 |
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Average Rating: 5 (1 ratings) |
Audition
I've been debating back and forth about how to approach this Movie of the Day write-ups. For the most part, these entries have been little more than mini-reviews and I hate writing just reviews. I want to talk about a film a little more in-depth than just a simple review. However, it is hard to do that if the other person has not seen the film and we're in spoiler territory. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure there is a major difference between just talking about a film and reviewing it, because I'll be critiquing either way, but there seems to be some distinction in my own mind. So from now on, I'll warn you before I unleash any potential spoilers in these entries and assume that if you keep reading, than you have seen the film too.
Having said all of that, if you have not seen Audition, don't read any farther. It is impossible to talk about this film without giving away major things about the story. In fact, the cover of the DVD box, the picture on the DVD itself and the horrible menu of the DVD tremendously disappointed me. It gave away too much. Just by talking about it on a horror site tells you more than you should know about this film. So if you haven't seen it and are still reading, you weren't listening. Just stop and go rent the movie. You can come back later after you watched it.
I'm guessing that if you are still with me at this point, than you have seen Audition. I know this film is not a big secret anymore and most fans have seen it by now, so I'm not going to bother to rehash the plot details here. This film was my introduction to the world of Takashi Miike and his, uhh, interesting vision of life. While not his most unsettling (I still think Visitor Q holds that honor), Audition packed a wallop.
One thing that I have done (and probably will continue to do) when I find someone that hasn't seen the film and knows nothing about it is to have him or her sit down and watch it. I even did this for a good friend who was going through a break-up and sitting around lonely on Valentine's Day. Yes, I am a good friend. Of course, because it happened to be me who was suggesting that they watch it, they pretty much knew what they were in for.
Audition was a slow burn movie for me. It took its time to build itself up to the final climax. What impressed me was the fact that you were never really sure exactly which direction he was going to take it in the long run. Unfortunately, I was fully aware that the film had a shocking, brutal ending, but even armed with that knowledge, I wasn't completely sure what that would entail or if I would find it as disturbing as everyone else. Now, I'll never look at piano wire the same way again. Despite how graphic or how much I winced during that scene, I still have to say that the girl regurgitating into a bowl and feeding her victim disturbed me far more.
I'm not as enamored with Takashi Miike as everyone else. It is interesting to hear so many praises of his work and then to look on Netflix and see that his films usually gather a rather average rating from the fans. Ichi the Killer was all right, but a little too much style over substance for my taste and only really grabbed my interest about half way through. His entry in Three Extremes was the weakest of the three. One Missed Call was just okay and not really that worthy of a remake. And I felt his Masters of Horror episode relied a little too heavily on shocking, graphic scenes and too little on acting and making sure the story was solid.
I watched an interview with him on the DVD for Audition (why do I watch those?) and have to admit that it might have tempered my opinion of him a little. When asked how he comes up with some of this wild stuff, I'm paraphrasing here but he basically said, "We come to the set and do what we feel like for that day." While not a horrible answer, it does make me a little wary, especially when the matter of coherency of the work comes into question. Perhaps I should have started off with one of his other films, but the others have been kind of letdown after watching Audition. Maybe I'm missing some important films by him though. Who knows? What am I missing here?
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Movies, Movie of the Day
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November 10, 2006, 3:05 pm |
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4 Comments
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| There are 4 comments in the database. |
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| Order by: Most Recent | Originally Submitted |
| TheCabinet |
Nov 13 2006, 10:16 PM UTC |
I completely agree on the complications of a non-English speaking director directing a film in English and don't mean to fault Miike for it. In fact, it actually peturbed me to some degree that he was (presumably) forced to shoot in English. The idea that American audiences just can't handle foreign language films annoys me to a large degree.
I am still in disbelief that HBO didn't give their excellent series, Epitafios, any of the promotion that they give any of their other series and basically banished it to HBO Latino. Thankfully, they were kind enough to show it OnDemand at least.
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| B-Independent.com |
Nov 13 2006, 09:45 PM UTC |
I wasn't all that bothered by the acting in IMPRINT, and even found a strange emotional honesty in Billy Drago's performance - something he always seems to lack. As for the ladies, I didn't mind their performances either. You have a director who doesn't speak English directing actresses who barely speak English....at times it was akward, but I didn't mind.
I was really looking forward to Cerda's work after hearing so much about it. Normally, he would be a director that I would study since he too seems to be obsessed with purely visual storytelling. Truth be told, had my own college short not been so similar to GENESIS, I might have had a different opinion. AFTERMATH just drug on for far to long....I felt I'd seen the same material covered just as effectively in NEKROMANTIK.....in about 1/10 the time....
It probably wouldn't be that hard to do a comparison of the two filmmaker's body of work. Both posses a visual style ment to highten the shock value of their work.
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| TheCabinet |
Nov 12 2006, 11:36 PM UTC |
I give Imprint high marks for its visual presentation. The episode was beautifully filmed and the use of colors was genius. My biggest complaint is the emphasis of style over substance. I thought the acting and storyline were fairly weak and really distracted from the piece overall. I have no qualms with trying to overlay a certain visual style or symbolism, but at the root I am always looking for a good story.
Its funny that we have almost opposite opinions with regards to Imprint and Nacho Cerda's short films. In his works, I had very similar complaints about Aftermath, but was a lot more forgiving of Genesis.
To be completely honest, I know I am being a little hard on Miike with this one. After the slow build-up to get this thing released, I came in with very high expectations. I was also disappointed with his entry in Three Extremes as well, but only because the first two were so good, I was still kind of expecting Miike to blow them out of the water.
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| B-Independent.com |
Nov 12 2006, 01:29 AM UTC |
Regarding AUDITION and VISITOR Q, you and I see eye to eye. I'm such a fan of those two movies, along with Miike's completely absurd musical remake of THE QUITE FAMILY, titled THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS, that I will buy anything with his name on it. As with any director, you get some brilliant work, such as DEAD OR ALIVE or the Lynchian GOZU, and a few stinkers - ONE MISSED CALL was pretty average, but still more enjoyable than PULSE or CURE or any number of recent J-horror releases that have been making it to our shores.
I see IMPRINT as the most profound of the MASTERS OF HORROR releases, and a wonderful example of "pure cinema". What I mean by that it that's it's a very visually told story. Sure, the narration provides exposition, but color schemes and actions provide character information. Miike made full use of the visual medium to tell a complete and intricate story that many people site as the best of the series. I know a few people who didn't care for Miike's work until IMPRINT and are now devouring his catalog since they have a clearer insite into where he's coming from (big surprise when they see that not all his work is social commentary).
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| There are 4 comments in the database. |
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