Disc Reviews
Audition 4K Review
Has Audition aged and lost some of its touch through time. That’s a question only newbies will be able to answer, and this reviewer was very much a newbie to it and perhaps set expectations way too high! Now that isn’t to say the film doesn’t still have some shock value or the occasional surprise along the way. It’s certainly a novel premise!
The basics: Aged filmmaker seeks a younger woman and goes about this in a very novel fashion of auditioning them. A fairly amusing montage of people is then presented to us, but our man perks up when one young lady takes his interest. Soon after, the cat is out of the bag, and we find out that she herself had already taken an interest in him and seeks to get very close before she does some very surprising things.
If you are in it for the body horror (or torture for that matter), then this is the one for you, although most of those shocks are saved for very close to the curtain call, but they are no less brutal. Audition is an amusing and disturbing musing on the human condition.
The extras package is plentiful, but there will be a lot of subtitles, so be warned. There are a bunch of archive and carry over extras from previous releases, but they include interviews, essays and a couple of commentary tracks. What’s new is the restoration by Arrow for the new 4K refit.
Audition isn’t everyone’s slice of choice, but for iconic movies of the 2000s, not just for horror, Audition is an essential piece.
Steven Hurst
4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
• Brand new 4K restoration from the original Super 16mm camera negative by Arrow Films approved by director of photography Hideo Yamamoto
• 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray™ presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Newly restored original lossless stereo and 4.0 audio, plus optional DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
• Optional English subtitles
• Introduction by director Takashi Miike
• Audio commentary by director Takashi Miike and screenwriter Daisuke Tengan
• Audio commentary by Miike biographer Tom Mes
• Callback, a brand new interview with actor Ryo Ishibashi
• Ties that Bind, an interview with director Takashi Miike
• Damaged Romance, an appreciation by Japanese cinema historian Tony Rayns
• Archive interviews with stars Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Renji Ishibashi and Ren Osugi
• Deeper Deeper Into Audition, an audio essay by author and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
• Trailers
• Image gallery
• Collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by Anton Bitel, Jennie Kermode and Jamie Graham
• Reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by Dark Inker – Sampson and original UK artwork by Graham Humphreys
Audition 4K is out on 15th June.