Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:18:30 — 53.9MB)
This week on The Rotten Horror Picture Show we’ve finally made the trip over into one of the most popular subgenres of the last 20 years Japanese horror! And what a better place to start than with one of the movies cited as the jumping-off point for the J-horror craze, the movie that posits the idea that love can very literally be torture, Takashi Miike’s modern classic, Audition!
This disturbing Japanese thriller follows Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi), a widower who decides to start dating again. Aided by a film-producer friend (Jun Kunimura), Aoyama uses auditions for a fake production to function as a dating service. When Aoyama becomes intrigued by the withdrawn, gorgeous Asami (Eihi Shiina), they begin a relationship. However, he begins to realize that Asami isn’t as reserved as she appears to be, leading to gradually increased tension and a harrowing climax.
Join Clay and Amanda as they lose their footing over the worst wingman idea ever, looking for love in all the wrong places, a literal bagman, the most stylish murder outfit they’ve ever seen, a real torturous break-up, and why hearing about severed tongues and fingers is sometimes scarier than seeing them.
Much more than the gorey torture-fest it’s reputed to be, Audition rolled out at a very interesting point in horror history, and ended up being a huge influence on the decade to come. The ’90s had been a generally bad time for horror, with Scream defining the decade to a fairly oppressive degree, so it was a breath of fresh air for something new and twisted to crawl to the surface. Though credited, or blamed, for the rise of the “torture porn” movement of the early 2000s Audition made a mark, and it only takes one viewing to see why!
So cuddle up with your best bag guy, serve up a warm dog bowl of fresh puke, kick off your feet and go find a wife with us…if you DARE!