“Where are all the good girls?”

Audition was my introduction to the bonkers, violent, over-the-top world of Takashi Miike. It took 30 films for me to catch up to the Tokyo auteur, and I think having this amazing film as my Miike-baptism set the bar very very high for all of my subsequent viewings of his work. Sometimes he’s more effective (13 Assassins) than other times (Terra Formers) and sometimes he’s just plain uncategorizable (Visitor Q), but I’ve never ever seen a boring Miike film.

Is there anyone reading this who is unfamiliar with the story? Audition starts off like a Japanese soap opera: television producer Shigeharu Aoyama (Roy Ishibashi) is widowed within the first few moments of the movie, and he and his young son are left to pick up the pieces. Years later, he feels he’s ready to start dating again but has no idea how. His coworker suggests a series of actress auditions to meet a large number of young attractive women in a short time, get to know them all, and pick one to get closer to. And for the first forty minutes or so, the movie lulls you into a safe romantic comedy sensibility.

And then. And then. As Aoyama becomes more and more drawn into his chosens’s life (and a terrific performance by Eihi Shiina, alternately shy & demure and gleefully deranged), things get worse and worse for our poor widower. If you know, you know, and if you don’t, you’re in for a helluva ride (which shan’t be spoiled here)(much).

The film has never looked better. The darks are deep and black and crisp, but not muddy. Details are clear (I have seen some fuzzy dupes of this movie) and the sound is gorgeous.  Every extended silence, every click of metal tools, every zzzt zzzt zzzt of razor piano wire burrows its way into your brain.  It’s been about a year since I’ve seen Audition on the big screen and this experience was akin to seeing it for the first time.

I know not every single movie deserves the 4K Remastered treatment, but it’s refreshing to see some film companies recognize the value of doing so for classic horror movies that might not be as widely-known by your average movie fan. Congrats on a job well-done!

Audition’s 4K Restoration (courtesy of Arrow Films) will have a one-week revival run at the Metrograph in New York City, on July 3-9.