1. Audition (1999)
Look, there's no use beating around the bush when it comes to this particular subject: the Japanese make super-weird movies. C'mon, we're all thinking it, right? I mean, yeah,
all countries have made their fair share of nutty flicks, but with the Japanese, it seems different. Like they get an added kick out of it. As though they thrive on making the most twisted and perverse movies imaginable. So it was nice to sit down to
Audition, which - on this rare occassion - I originally went into without knowing anything about the plot. At all. The first half, then, presents itself as a goofy romantic comedy about a lonely widower who uses his high-profile job in television to "audition" girls as potential future wives. This is engaging and enjoyable to watch, actually rather funny, and, had this been the whole movie, would have worked fine. But then
it happens. Out of nowhere, at around the movie's halfway point, we're suddenly in a random apartment and a phone is ringing somewhere... and is that a burlap sack on the floor? A
giant burlap sack? Is it... moving?
What the hell's in the sack? So it's goodbye gentle comedy, hello... well, I'm not sure how to describe what happens, exactly, so let's just say that
Audition would give
Hostel and
Saw's bastard child a run for its money. Best of all, though, the shift is totally unexpected if you're lucky enough to know nothing about what's in store before you sit down to watch it. Unless, of course, you noticed that the movie was directed by J-horror maestro Takashi Miike. Then the fluffy hi-jinks of
Audition's tame first half probably scared the out of you.
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