Blu-ray Release: Audition (1999)

By
Laurence
– February 25, 2019Find Others: Blu-ray, Movie, New Release, NewsGet More: , ,

Blu-ray Release Date: Feb. 12, 2019
Price: Blu-ray $26.42
Studio: Arrow/MVD

One of the most shocking J-horror films ever made, Takashi Miike’s 1999 horror-thriller Audition exploded onto the festival circuit at the turn of the century to a chorus of awards and praise. It’s the film would catapult Miike to the international scene and pave the way for such other genre delights as 13 Assassins and Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai.

Ryo Ishibashi takes her piano wire seriously in Audition.

Recent widower Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) is advised by his son to find a new wife, so he seeks the advice of a colleague having been out of the dating scene for many years. They take advantage of their position in a film company by staging an audition to find the perfect woman. Interviewing a series of women, Shigeharu becomes enchanted by Asami (Eihi Shiina) a quiet, 24-year-old woman, who is immediately responsive to his charms. But soon things take a very dark and twisted turn as we find that Asami isn’t what she seems to be…

Pulling the audience into a story that will lead to one of the more harrowing climaxes in recent cinema history, Miike twists and turns us through delirious editing and shocking visuals for one of the most depraved nightmares of all time!

Arrow’s gorgeous new Blu-ray edition of the movie includes the following:

  • Brand new 2K restoriation of original vault elements
  • Original 5.1 Dolby Surround Audio
  • Optional English subtitles
  • Audio commentary with director Takashi Miike and screenwriter Daisuke Tengan
  • Brand new commentary by Miike biographer Tom Mes examining the film and its source novel
  • Introduction by Miike
  • Ties that Bind – A brand new interview with Takashi Miike
  • Interviews with stars Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Renji Ishibashi and Ren Osugi
  • Damaged Romance: An appreciation by Japanese cinema historian Tony Rayns
  • Trailers
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin
  • FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Anton Bitel
Buy or Rent Audition (1999)

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.