3.5 stars
i wanted to see this movie for decades, but i didn’t have the balls to do it until now …
well, i am glad that i waited because holy shit it is messed up LOL and i wouldn’t have been able to handle this when i was younger …
this movie is about sadism and child abuse and when i first heard about it i didn’t even understand that i was myself a victim of child abuse and that my father was a sadist. instead i just found my father’s behavior inexplicable at times - he always had some kind of ridiculous explanations for why he was doing things that never made sense - but i didn’t understand that his only passion in life was hurting me and everybody else as well.
it is only after having lived with this realization for the past couple years that i finally had the balls to watch “Audition” … and … well, it is definitely hardcore and Japanese but the movie being 25 years old now the age is starting to show …
first of all the picture quality is pretty bad, secondly the acting is not great either, and everything seems a bit cliche by now just because of how old the movie is and how much it was copied since …
in fact i recently reviewed Julia ( 2014 )
and most likely it was at least partially inspired by “Audition” … but of course being a 2014 movie “Julia” is about Lesbian love whereas being a 1999 movie “Audition” is about a man looking for a wife …
if i was able to watch and understand this movie in 1999 i would have rated it much higher because the standards were lower in 1999 than they are now … but i wasn’t ready to see it even 5 years ago let alone in 1999 …
the other movie i have been putting off till later is “Clockwork Orange” …
considering i survived “Audition” maybe i should watch it next.
i probably wouldn’t watch “Audition” with a girl because she will see you looking away from the screen and think you’re a pussy.
can’t really say it was particularly enjoyable to watch either, but it’s a classic and i’m glad i finally checked it off the list of films i always wanted to see.
the other recent horror movie i think was probably inspired by Audition is “hereditary” ( 2018 )
“Audition” is a Japanese Horror Classic and is beautiful in a disturbing way. but i can’t just blanket recommend this to anybody. You have to be specifically interested in this type of movie. If you are then it’s a must watch.