Audition is a very provocative brutal film with no message or reason.

She was a bit crazy in the head... But in the end the man lied to her and all the other girls he auditioned if you were paying attention. He said there would be a role for something and had girls audition for the role when really his partner and him were looking for another woman for him. He ended up sleeping with all (or quite a bit of the girls I don't remember haven't seen it in a while) for his own sake. No he didn't rape them but he did lie to them and in a way did take advantage of them. He did the same to the girl and she obviously didn't like it. She didn't like being lied to (both in the fact it wasn't a role for what she thought she was auditioning for and when he did say she was the only one he would love) so to her he deserved the torture she gave to him

I cannot but fully agree to this summary of the movie. My own story with this film starts with me seeing the original Ju-On movies for the first time, and I really enjoyed them, so I started looking out for more japanese horror movies and found Audition. Initially I only watched the first 40 minutes since I needed to go to sleep, but thus far I was really positively surprised! Instead of the typical Ringu-/Grudge-style japanese horror movie with a high horror value, I found (in the first 40 min) a horror movie with great story-telling and drama value. The characters were engaging and relatable, with well written down-to-earth dialogue, and the atmosphere a bit gloomy and mysterious, just the way I like it. A couple of days later I saw the rest of the movie. And W T F happened?! Suddenly, in the middle of the suspense, this long, weird dream sequence starts that makes you lose the thread of what's happened - and I'm not even gonna comment any more on that sequence because it bores me too much -, and this dream sequence is ensued by a lengthy, disgusting, boring torture scene.. Now why was this torture scene boring? I think for the very reasons you've stated above. It's just completely uncalled for, and seems to have no real point to it, other than to make the viewers vomit. Now I for one DON'T like a lot of torture and brutality in movies, I prefer suspense and more subtle horror. Nevertheless, sometimes it can be purposeful for the movie, so to speak. But if you're gonna have a long torture scene - and KILL OFF A PUPPY to add to the cheapness - you better have a REAL good reason! The moral of this story, which seems to be that you shouldn't use women for sex, is so weak that it must have been a secondary priority to the director, after the primary one of disgusting and disturbing the audience. I see comments from people trying to defend the movie, and they're usually basically that "she's a sociopath". Maybe that's the best excuse there is to this ending..
Now to summarize, what I felt (and still feel, I saw it yesterday) after having seen this movie was disappointment, the feeling of being let down. But as much as I liked the first 40 minutes I am willing to give them that credit. I call this a well made movie gone bad - there are several more examples, more or less extreme (not always appropriately comparable), two of which I can think of: "Children of the Corn" -> starts out pretty creepy, with a creepy theme, and completely derails in the end; "Frantic" by Polanski, starts out great and mysterious, perhaps better than most other movies I've seen, just goes too far in the end, kind of blows out of proportions. I could liken this film to them to some extent. I don't hate them, I hardly even dislike them, I just acknowledge and accept the fact that the ending just wasn't very good and that they could have done a lot more with what they had to start with.

It´s a movie you know, it doesn´t need to have a positive message. Some movies can be visceral, sadistic and even artistic all together. Audition is an ugly masterpiece, brilliantly I would risk.

Takashi Miike want to show us that the society is horrible. The guy on the movie had a good heart, he just wanted to find a new wife, but the girl thought that he was just like "the other man", wishing to have sex and then leave. The girl is an angel maniac, with an rooted past, willing for violence and vengeance.

Audition is a thriller, turning light into darkness to shock us. And it´s perfect in his objective.

I'm not defending this disturbing movie by any means. I am not a fan.

But are brutal male serial killers, rapists or torturers that appear in so many films usually give a "reason" for their acts? No, they are just accepted to be violent sociopaths. Why should there be a message about or reason for her violent streak?

I mean, it's not like her character is redeemed at the end, she dies. So, we aren't meant to sympathize with her.

I just find it interesting that violent female characters must have a reason for doing what they do but with the hundreds of sadistic male characters in film, they are just accepted as being evil bastards. They aren't usually given any justification for the brutality they inflict on others and audiences usually do not demand it.

i understand what you are saying... this movie suffers from being too good for what it is. What I mean by that is that sometimes movies are shot so well, acted so well, the world that they create is so full and mesmerizing that when they finish their story you feel like there was something deeper than what it was.

The story of Audition is pretty simple and straightforward: some guy decides to trick a smoking hot, young, busty chick to suck his cock. On another hand we have this smoking hot, young, busty psychotic sadist that wants to poke and cut some dude that wants his dick sucked. So they meet and everyone gets what they wanted. THE END.

So the movie is actually shot and acted so well that you feel that you could have used that movie making genius to tell a moral story or whatnot but that is not what the director had in mind. He wanted to tell this story and it was pretty darn good.

Also you can find meaning in anything if you look hard enough. Over the "Serbian Movie" forums people find the newborn rape scene to be a "socio-political allegory of present day Serbia". So yea.

This is a horror movie. Its only meant to be a horror movie. It's supposed to scare you here and there. Did it? Then that's the message.

I've never seen the film but just finished reading the book today. It sounds as though some aspects have been embellished, but in the book the reason for the actions of the Asami are made very clear - they are the result of childhood trauma at the hands of an abusive (if I recall correctly) stepfather, to whom the original punishment was meted out. This difficult upbringing resulted in Asami's need to be loved unconditionally and solely - when she finds out about the protagonist's son she feels betrayed and takes her revenge.

Really.. is there a reason for any horror/slasher/torture type movie??
NOOO

And right there is the point!! It's not meant to make you think or have a philological experience, it;s meant to scare, shock and stir up controversy just like your doing with this topic. And it has done it's job!