Audition is the first film of the hyperactive and talented Takashi Miike to be released in France, Audition is based on a novel by Ryu Murakami, himself a director at his time, originally published in the Japanese edition of the erotic magazine Penthouse. A positive collaboration, since Ryu Murakami asked Takashi Miike to adapt his best known novel: Coin Locker Babies.

I must admit that the film Audition - although in my opinion it is an absolute masterpiece - I have only seen it once ! But... unlike many people, I had the chance and the privilege to watch him at the cinema « Les Scala » in Geneva... And this is the reason why I have never tried to see him since : the small screen would have murdered its magic !! It remained in my memory, engraved for the rest of my life... As sometimes, we remember a nightmare... perfectly indelible... because so cold, tragic, hypnotic, strange... so agonizing... and so feminist !! Yes, yes ! Dear reader !! Totally feminist ! (I’ll expand on this later !)...

Be careful however : Audition is not a film to put in front of all eyes ! It’s really not the kind of movie you watch as a family, in the evening, to relax... the last part of the film is particularly testing... and even if I will not reveal anything here, I have to warn you that the last 30 minutes will mark your mind for the rest of your days !

In my opinion, the film is an intelligent satire of the Japanese society, it questions the representation of the ideal woman for men (here Japanese), and in particular, it shows the superficiality and the contempt of men towards women. In the movie, the main character, Aoyama is a 40-year-old whose wife has died, and who goes in search of a new wife... Although he rubs shoulders every day with his secretary and his governess, who are both very devoted to him (we can imagine that they are more or less in love with him), Aoyama prefers to abuse his power (his position as a film producer) to create a stratagem : he organizes an audition for a fictional television series in order to find his new wife among the candidates. One of the last to introduce herself, Asami, is a young woman of disturbing beauty. Aoyama instantly falls in love with her. The film thus denounces the attraction of certain men (unscrupulous) for « silent dolls », which they think they can choose as one would choose a car in a catalog... These kind of men, full of themselves - as much as unhealthy and dishonest - are absolutely not interested by what women feel inside themselves... But as one film can hide another, a woman can hide another... And Aoyama will learn it at his expense... In an absolutely unbearable and CULT final scene !