Hey what's up guys
Today I'll show you a horror-thriller film: "Audition"
Spoiler ahead, watch out and take care
The movie begins with a young boy excitedly walking in a hospital hallway
He is carrying a gift and a get well soon card for his mother
He hasn't been seeing much of her ever since she got sick
but the boy still believes that she will be alright
What the day does not know is that his mother's condition is very serious;
and she is already on her deathbed
In the hospital room with her are her doctor and her husband, Haru
The doctor's grim face confirms that her death won't be long now
Soon enough, she closes her eyes and drifts away
The doctor announces her time of death, and leaves the room to let Haru grieve in private
He turns and sees his son at the door, curiously looking at his mother's lifeless body
At a young age, the son still can't comprehend that people can die just like that
Haru just looks at his son with sad eyes
The years pass; and the father and son grow closer and help each other in their grief
They live a simple life, and are content with just having each other
They go fishing one morning, and then cook what they caught for dinner that night
While eating, the son brings up out of the blue the possibility of his father getting remarried
Because it's been years since his mother had died,
he thinks it's time for his father to get back into dating
Haru hasn't really thought about being with another woman since his wife;
so he is a bit surprised by his son's suggestion
The next day, he is leaving the office
his secretary comes up to him, and announces that she is getting married soon
He awkwardly tells her congratulations; and she appears to be disappointed in his reaction
At a hotel bar, he meets up with his film producer friend
He tells him that he intends to marry again, having been convinced by his son
But Haru doesn't just want an arranged marriage
He wants to really meet a nice woman with hobbies, and maybe even a job
He also adds that he will be picky, and choose his ideal woman out of several candidates
This gives the producer the idea to hold a fake audition for a romance film
What the girls will not know is that they are actually auditioning to be Haru's wife
He plans to shoot the whole process, and make a documentary out of it
the producer explains that out of the shortlisted girls,
they will be able to select a well-mannered and attractive young woman, who will fit the bill nicely
It isn't long before lots of young aspiring actresses send their resumes and pictures to audition
Haru flips through all of them, trying to see which one would be a good match
While looking at the papers, he happens to glance at the framed photo of his wife
He feels guilty, and turns the photo away
The son then barges inside the room; and his father scrambles to hide the women's photos
The boy invites him to eat dinner with him;
and he bashfully says that he has a female guest coming over
Haru is happy for his son, and tells him to give his portion of the dinner to his guest
After the son leaves, he turns his attention back to the resumes,
and clumsily spills a bit of tea on one of them
He pulls it out of the pile,
and closely looks at the stunning young woman in the picture, named Asami
He reads her essay,
which profoundly talks about her failed aspirations to be a professional ballet dancer;
and her thoughts about life and death
The emotional depth in her words persuades Haru to shortlist Asami
Haru later goes out to the living room, where he meets his son's crush
So he walks their dog outside, attempting to give his son some privacy
A week later, he and the producer hold the auditions
Haru states his apprehension at using deceitful methods to find a wife
but they proceed anyway
One by one, the thirty shortlisted girls file in,
and sit on a chair in the middle of the spacious room
the producer would then begin asking them a series of questions,
that would range from asking them why they auditioned to personal queries about their sex lives
The girls would also showcase their talents, such as dancing or baton twirling
Some of them are shy; while some of them are extremely confident
one girl even disrobes, and stands in front of the two men in a bikini
Haru steps out for a bathroom break; and he sees Asami among the other candidates
Finally, she is called, and walks inside in her striking all-white outfit
She promptly answers all of the producer's questions about her recent employment
but Haru is no longer paying attention
He is besotted by her beauty
For the first time, he takes control,
and asks her about her essay on life and death, and her ballet training
It turns out, she trained to be a professional ballet dancer;
but an injury prevented her from fulfilling her dream
In her writing, she likens not being able to live one's dream to being dead
Haru is impressed by her looks and brains
However, the producer isn't sold that she's the girl they're looking for
She tells them that she works in a record store, making just enough for a comfortable life
but she isn't really ambitious, to begin with
Now more sure that he wants Asami, Haru calls her that night, and asks to see her again
She readily agrees; and they make plans to meet
A few seconds after their call ends, the producer calls,
and informs Haru that he tried calling all the job references,
that Asami supplied in her resume, but none of them answered
One of them has even been missing for a year
Haru dismisses his friend's concerns,
and still goes ahead with meeting Asami again, eager to have her alone
They meet in another hotel, and share a meal together
He asks her about the references she put in her application;
and she nervously reveals that all the previous employers she cited are fake
She had been nervous about auditioning without much experience; so she lied to them
Haru believes everything she said, and leaves Asami with his calling card with his telephone number
But the producer continues to doubt her,
and shares with his friend that he couldn't even reach the current employer
she stated in her application
There is no one who knows who Asami is; and this bothers the producer
so he advises Haru to be careful with her, since she is hiding something
Haru promises that he won't call Asami
but she is on his mind from now on
He dreams of his dead wife, and even takes a day off at work, just thinking about Asami
Even his housekeeper starts being concerned about his melancholia
Meanwhile, Asami just sits motionlessly by telephone in her small,
threadbare apartment, while waiting for Haru to call her
There is a large cloth sack lying beside the telephone
She does nothing as days pass; and when the phone finally rings, she smiles
The two meet for dinner; and she wears an enormous and luxurious pink fur coat
He asks her about her family's whereabouts;
and she replies that her parents are in another province
Haru then asks her about her current job at a certain bar;
and she confirms that she is still working there
He alludes that he wants to visit her there;
but she says that her boss is nosey and meddles in her private life
Finally, Haru lies to her, and says that the movie she was auditioning for, fell through;
and they wouldn't be going into production anymore
Asami takes it all in stride,
and nervously confesses that she is just happy that she got to meet him,
because he is the only person who understands who she really is
The son notices the positive change in his father's demeanor, and is happy that he has found someone
The father confides that he plans on proposing to Asami,
during their weekend getaway in a seaside hotel
The son gives him his blessing; and his father smiles
After grieving his wife for so long, he is now ready to open his heart again
Before he ends their conversation, he promises to introduce Asami to his son soon
The son half-jokingly says that he will assess if she is the right person
for his father once he meets her,
since his father is blinded by his feelings
The couple meets as planned
but Asami isn't really talking much during their stay
He jabbers about a nice restaurant they can go to for dinner
but she just wordlessly turns off the lamp in the room,
and removes her long white dress and underclothes
She then climbs under the bed covers, and invites Haru to join her
He obeys; and when he approaches the bed,
Asami slowly hikes up the blanket covering her legs, and shows him her burn scars
She tells him that she burnt herself when she was little;
and she is now showing him everything, even the ugly parts of her,
because she wants Haru to know her more
With a shaking voice, she pleads with him to love her and only her
Other men had told her the same thing before; but they didn't really mean it
Without saying anything, he climbs into bed with her; and they make love
Afterward, Haru wakes up to an empty bed, and a ringing telephone
He answers it, and hears the hotel receptionist on the other line
He informs Haru that Asami has left the hotel;
and he wants to confirm if he will be staying the whole weekend
Haru dejectedly comes home to the city, and tells the producer that Asami has disappeared
He does not know why, and she is not picking up her phone
His friend tells him that his hunch about Asami is right; and he should just forget about her
Haru is obviously heartbroken like a teenager;
and he does not want to move on from her, despite the producer belittling his feelings
He is resolved to find Asami,
since he believes that there is an explanation behind her mysterious disappearance
He rereads her essay, and notices the name of the ballet studio, where she was trained
Haru goes to the studio
but it initially looks rundown and abandoned
He pries open the door, and sees a man in a wheelchair playing the piano
He is the owner of the ballet studio
The owner slowly turns his wheelchair, and laughs humorlessly when Haru asks him about Asami
It is then revealed in a flashback that it was the owner,
who burned Asami when she was a young child training at his studio
He had also abused her
The owner then stands up, and shows Haru that his legs were cut off;
and he is now wearing prosthetics, implying that Asami was involved in his amputation
Haru decides to go to the bar, where Asami has said she works
Just like the studio, the bar is closed down
A man tells him that the bar closed a year ago, due to the owner being murdered
He also adds that when the police found the body,
there were three extra fingers, and an extra ear and tongue found as well
Haru is so horrified by the story, that he hallucinates the mutilated body parts
Meanwhile, Asami sneaks into Haru's house
She gets angry upon seeing a picture of his dead wife, and drugs the liquor in his decanter
After a few hours, he comes home, and pours himself a glass of liquor from the same decanter
His son is staying at a friend's house that night;
so he thinks he's alone, not knowing that Asami is hiding somewhere
The drug begins to affect him; and he eventually collapses
Another flashback reveals that during one of their dates,
Asami shared that she was sent to live with her uncle in the aftermath of her parents' divorce
She was physically abused by his uncle's wife, and was even pushed down the stairs
After a doctor guessed that she was being abused, she was sent back to her mother's house
But her mother married another man, who was an abuser as well
While under the influence of the drugs, the flashbacks melt into a surreal dream,
where he and Asami are eating in a restaurant
She shares that ballet helped her cope with her painful past, and that it purified her dark side
Suddenly, Haru sees his dead wife, and the younger version of his son sitting at the next table
He introduces her to Asami
but his wife tells him that she isn't good for him
Another dream starts
This time, Haru is in Asami's apartment; and she appears and kneels in front of him to pleasure him
He refuses her advances; and she turns into his secretary,
who tells him that after they slept together,
she expected that he would want to be in a relationship with her;
but he didn't and tries to run away from her
She later turns into his son's crush,
but he subconsciously tried to ignore that at the beginning when the son brought her home
Right then, the girl disappears; and Haru notices a large sack at the end of the hallway
The sack moves, and a naked man emerges
His legs are stumps; and his ear, three fingers, and tongue are missing
This is heavily implied to be the man,
whose body parts were found with the body of the club owner;
and the man is probably someone from Asami's past
The naked man begs for food; and Asami vomits into a dog bowl; and he eats it
Haru then imagines that Asami goes back to the ballet studio, to decapitate the owner with a wire
He then wakes up paralyzed on the floor of his study
Asami is wearing leather gloves and an apron; and she fills a syringe with more paralytic drugs
She sticks the needle into his tongue;
so he can be paralyzed, while still feeling the pain she will inflict on him
She pulls out several acupuncture needles, and sticks them one by one to torture him
While doing this, she explains that he is a liar, because he said he will love only her
but the truth is that he loves his son and his dead wife; and she will not tolerate that
She then brandishes the same wire he saw in his dream, and saws off his foot slowly
the son suddenly returns home, and stumbles upon his father
Asami comes up behind him, holding a spray
Haru wakes up; and he is suddenly back at the seaside hotel, where he stayed with Asami previously
But this time, Asami is sleeping beside him; and both of his feet are still intact
She accepts his marriage proposal, and snuggles up to him in bed
He closes his eyes, and drifts off to sleep
At this point, it is apparent that Haru is an unreliable narrator,
and that his subconscious and reality can often blur together,
with many events taking place in a messy time order,
possibly because of his being drugged and the endless torture by Asami for a long time
Therefore, His perspective of Asami throughout the film, swings from one extreme to the other:
she is either a submissive and innocent girl who can be the perfect wife,
or a crazy love-obsessed woman
He believes that Asami's abusive childhood made her into a killer
Tired of being the victim, she enacts revenge on the men in her life, who took advantage of her,
starting with the ballet studio owner who molested her
He is now back at home again; and his son is fighting Asami, after finding the father bleeding out
The son runs up the stairs; and Asami chases him
but he kicks her downstairs; and she breaks her neck
The son calls the police; and the movie ends as Haru lies on the floor,
and stares at a dying Asami, who repeats what she said during one of their dates,
about being excited to see him again
This's Daniel CC movie channel Stay safe and enjoy your day