Audition 2001

Shigeharu Aoyama, played by Ryo Ishibashi, is a middle-aged widower grappling with the pain of losing his wife to illness seven years ago. His 17-year-old son, Shigehiko (Tetsu Sawaki), though somewhat skeptical about his father’s romantic prospects, encourages him to start dating once more. As he prepares to leave for school, Shigehiko worries about his father being alone and wishes for him to find companionship. To facilitate this, Aoyama’s friend and colleague, Yoshikawa (Jun Kunimura), proposes an unconventional plan: to organize a mock audition where young, attractive women will vie for the “role” of Aoyama’s new wife, under the ruse of auditioning for a film.

Aoyama is instantly captivated by Asami Yamazaki, portrayed by Eihi Shiina, a 24-year-old woman whose gentle voice and poised disposition draw him in. During her audition, Asami shares a heart-wrenching story of her past, explaining how an injury ended her promising ballet career. Despite still mourning his late wife, Aoyama feels a profound connection to her apparent emotional depth. However, Yoshikawa voices his concerns, expressing unease about Asami’s reliability; alarmingly, they are unable to confirm any of the references on her résumé, and the music producer she once worked for has mysteriously vanished. Yet, Aoyama is so entranced by her beauty—both inside and out—that he fails to heed these warnings.

Asami’s living situation is as disturbing as it is lonely; she occupies a bare apartment furnished only with a sack and a telephone. Four days after the audition, she waits motionless beside the phone, and when it finally rings, her sack curiously moves and emits unsettling noises. After an exchange with Aoyama, she expresses surprise at his call and agrees to a weekend getaway at a seaside hotel. During their stay, Asami unveils her tragic childhood abuse and reveals burn scars marring her skin. She implores Aoyama to love her exclusively, and he readily agrees, leading to an intimate encounter between them.

The subsequent morning, Aoyama awakens to find Asami has vanished, prompting a frantic search for her using the scant details on her résumé. His journey leads him to an old ballet studio where he discovers only a disabled man, who shockingly turns out to be linked to Asami’s past traumas. Further investigations at a bar where Asami worked yield horrifying news: the former owner was found dismembered, with gruesome anomalies in her remains.

While Aoyama is on his desperate quest, Asami stealthily infiltrates his home. There, she stumbles upon a photograph of his deceased wife, igniting her wrath. In a calculated move, she slips a sedative into Aoyama’s drink, leading to his incapacitation. What unfolds next is a nightmarish vision of Asami’s sinister reality, where the contents of her sack are revealed—a mutilated man pleading for sustenance. Asami’s cruelty manifests as she tortures Aoyama, injecting him with a paralyzing agent, inflicting excruciating pain, and declaring that he, like all others, is incapable of loving her wholly. Her twisted rationale is grounded in the longing for exclusive devotion, leading to Aoyama’s nightmarish fate as she gruesomely amputates his left foot.

But a turn of events occurs when Shigehiko returns home unexpectedly. He discovers the horrific aftermath of Asami’s wrath, and in a confrontation, manages to kick her down a staircase, fracturing her neck. As Aoyama grapples with the agony of his injuries, he is consumed by sorrow as he watches Asami, now a broken figure, mutter words of longing and anticipation, reflecting their earlier conversations. In a heart-wrenching moment, Aoyama recalls his dream where he reassured her that although the past is painful, life ultimately holds beauty.