Audition

A widower takes an offer to screen girls at a special audition, arranged for him by a friend to find him a new wife. The one he fancies is not who she appears to be after all.

A stomach-churning addition to the J-horror trend that was growing around its release in 1999 - but you might not think it from the first half-hour.

Aoyama, recently widowed, sets out on a hair-brained scheme to find a new wife: upon his friend’s suggestion, a series of mock auditions are held under the pretence of an upcoming film production, while really the goal is to appraise a series of (younger) women. Immediately drawn to Asami, Aoyama takes her on a few dates, and their romance slowly blossoms in lightly handled, comedic sequences.

However, what of the huge, shabby sack that lurks behind Asami when she answers Aoyama’s calls, and her strange behaviour - could any of this be a front for something more insidious? As she begins to reveal more of her past, the levels of patriarchal abuse build to put Aoyama’s dating scheme into a horrible context. And this is before the film tips into full-blown horror, with this man’s gradual realisations of past and present being thrown into sharp relief by his sudden and stomach-churning comeuppance. Truly deserves its reputation of being freshly disturbing, even decades on from release.

Max King