Original subtitles

[Crow squawking]

[Harmonica music playing]

-You know, I love waterfalls, especially the kind where

you can stand on a ledge and look down into

the churning waters and imagine what it'd be like if you

fell off and starting yelling as you were plummeting

to your certain death.

[Harmonica music playing]

But let's not be morbid.

♪♪

♪♪

♪ Hey, everybody, have you heard the news? ♪

♪ Joe Bob is back in town ♪

♪ He's over at the drive-in, hanging around ♪

♪ Watching crazy movies, so come on down ♪

♪ To Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ Blood, beasties, boobies, and more ♪

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ It's a spooky good time with monsters and ghosts ♪

♪ Crazy, kooky fun with the world's greatest host ♪

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ It's gonna be legendary ♪

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ It's gonna be very scary ♪

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ Let's go ♪

♪♪

[Static crackles]

-So, gentlemen of the audience, how many times have you met

a woman for the first time in a work environment,

not really talked to her about anything personal,

but then sneaked around to get her phone number,

called her up, and she immediately said

she was so glad you called and wanted to date you?

How about never?

[Laughter]

But when not only think this is possible.

They think making eye contact on the subway can cause women

to instantly fall in love, whereas women --

or most women -- I'm tempted to say "all women" --

think being stared at on the subway is creepy as fuck!

Anyway, I'm Joe Bob Briggs, and this is "The Last Drive-In",

where we always land on the topic.

We just don't take the interstate to get there.

So, they used to have these personal ads on the back page

of The Village Voice every week.

"Tuesday afternoon in St. Mark's Place.

You were walking east, I was walking west.

You were in a turquoise skirt and wedge heels.

I was tie-less in a sport jacket.

We had a moment.

You smiled. I laughed.

Please respond to my box so the connection can live on."

Now...I'm gonna go out on a limb here.

I'm gonna estimate the number of women who happen to see

these ads on the back page of The Village Voice

remembered whatever it was that happened on St. Mark's Place,

remembered the guy they saw for two seconds on the sidewalk,

and went, "Wow, I should hook up with him."

And that number is...

zero for all of recorded time!

Women do not do this.

Only men do this.

Am I right, Darcy?

-Sure. -Okay.

Darcy the Mail Girl, ladies and gentlemen,

the queen of social media, avatar of "The Last Drive-In",

woman of many e-mail addresses.

She is here to field your tweets, your messages,

your e-mails.

What do you do, Darcy, if a stranger makes eye contact

in public and wants to chat you up and he maybe gives you

his business card or he makes a date proposal?

-I kind of just stare at the ground

and walk fast and mind my own business.

-Yeah, exactly.

In fact, don't you have special clothes that you wear

on airplanes so nobody will talk to you?

-Yeah, it's, like, incognito.

I, like, pull my hat down, like, this far.

-[Laughs]

You must love the states that still have

the mandatory mask rule, right?

-Oh, my God. Yeah. I'm like the Shadow.

It's like mask here, hat here.

[Laughter]

-You know, there's a screenwriting cliche

in love stories called the cute meet.

Certain kinds of love stories, Hallmark Channel stuff.

You know, the guy comes around the corner of

the frozen foods aisle with his shopping cart too fast,

and he knocks into her shopping cart

and breaks all her eggs and stuff flies on to the floor

and he feels terrible and he starts apologizing

and picking stuff up off the floor and babbling and saying,

"Oh, you buy these chicken Alfredo stuffed shells?

Aren't they wonderful?"

And they strike up a conversation, and pretty soon,

the 30-something single mom --

she wasn't looking for love at all.

The 30-something single mom starts to take pity on the guy,

and the next week, when they see each other again,

they decide to share a stuffed chicken Alfredo shell,

and you know, for me, just wanting to talk to me about

a chicken Alfredo stuffed shell would result in

"I can never see you again."

You know, but anyway, what is the chicken Alfredo shell

stuffed with besides chicken Alfredo?

Do you know, Darcy?

-Spinach?

-Spinach. Oh, right. You're vegan, right?

That's what you would say.

So, for you, Darcy, the cute meet would have to be

at Whole Foods in the fermented soy protein aisle, right?

-Exactly. -Okay.

Have you ever had anybody meet you for five seconds

and become totally obsessive?

-Yeah. It got a little weird.

-That happened to you? -Yeah.

-Like, literally, they just see you, like,

less than a minute and become obsessed?

-There's some people out there.

-Okay.

Alright, well, anyway, the cute meet is

an exclusively female thing, you know?

It's a "fate brought us together thing."

They don't want the staring guy on the subway.

They want the clumsy guy in front of

the gluten-free almond milk refrigerator.

So, if the staring-on-the-subway guy was really intelligent

about meeting a woman, which he's probably not,

he would fake a cute meet of the other type.

And, guys, if you're watching this, please don't go to

Whole Foods and start crashing your cart into random women.

You have to say these things

these days because dudes will do anything.

Okay, so, the movie tonight is "Audition",

and for those of you who have seen it,

you know why I'm going down this road,

because we're starting out with one of these guys who --

he's one of those guys who would put an ad on

the back page of The Village Voice,

and then we're pairing him up with a woman who likes that

kind of attention because she has secrets

because she's damaged in one way or another.

And so, highly combustible combination.

"Audition" is a great horror movie,

but a very misunderstood horror movie.

I can't really analyze it right now because anything I say

might spoil it, but Takashi Miike, the director,

would say it's not really a horror movie.

Of course, half the time, the viewers of this show say,

"Well, that's not horror, Joe Bob!

Call it something else, but it's not horror."

But stop saying that, because our definition of horror

is we know it when we see it, okay?

And I think this is horror,

even if the director and the writer say that it's not.

More on that later.

But this is the sensitive story of a mid-level

Japanese businessman who loses his wife

and decides to pick a new wife by staging a fake audition

set up by his cynical movie producer friend,

and by the way, guys, I would not suggest this

as a way to meet girls, either.

And if you watch it all the way to the end of the movie,

you won't want to meet girls this way.

But it's a story about loneliness and the stuff

males project on to females and the stuff that

females project on to males, and then you add on top of that

that it's Japanese, and so it's got all that

cultural baggage, which is full of old-fashioned

male/female roles on the one hand

and a kind of no-holds-barred kinkiness on the other hand.

If you watch enough Japanese movies,

you realize the Japanese, despite their reputation for

being a retiring, polite people, are very bold about what

they'll say to one another to describe their minds

and hearts and other things, if you know what I mean,

and I think you do.

This is the movie that started a lot of trends.

It's kind of the introductory movie for most people

to J-horror.

It's one of two of the first movies in the category of

"Asia extreme", which is more of a UK thing

than an American thing, and it's also the movie

that made Takashi Miike famous.

"Dead or Alive", which we showed on our

"Thanksgiving Dinners of Death" marathon, actually came out

in America before "Audition",

but that was kind of art house-y, you know?

A few people saw it, but then everybody saw this movie,

and everybody involved with it became famous.

Actually, they were already famous in Japan --

many of them were -- but several of the actors

were well known in Japan,

but they now started working overseas, as well.

So, great movie. Unique movie.

I don't often say that.

I have a lot to say about this movie,

but not until you get into it.

So, let's take a look at those Drive-In totals.

We have five dead bodies, four breasts, one dead dog,

one fake audition, with baton twirling,

flamenco dancing, and stripping, one fake radio show,

body bagging, thigh scarring, aardvarking with thunder,

neck breaking, head rolls, fingers roll, ear rolls,

tongue rolls, foot rolls, bikini fu, dead wife fu,

hallucinatory nightmare sequence fu, duffel bag fu,

whiskey fu, obsession fu, hot fire poker fu,

dog bowl upchuck fu, syringe fu, acupuncture needle fu.

Drive-In Academy Award nominations for Ryo Ishibashi

as the loneliest man in Japan,

Jun Kunimura as the worldly-wise film producer for saying,

"Just leave it to me, I'm a professional auditioner."

And "I can't put my finger on it,

but something is wrong with her."

Eihi Shiina as the dream date for saying,

"I've been waiting and waiting for your call"

and "Men approached me, but never anyone like you"

and "Love me and nobody else."

Takashi Miike, the director, for going places no one wants to go.

Daisuke Tengan, the screenwriter,

for giving a new dimension to dating horror.

And Ryu Murakami, the novelist, for living through it.

Four stars.

Joe Bob says check it out.

And I've said this before, and it's a rule of horror films.

Actually, it's a rule of life.

If a woman says, "I just met you,

but I want to rip my clothes off and have mad, passionate sex

with you because you're the best-looking

man I've ever seen" -- if this ever happens to you,

run for your life!

Seek out the nearest fire exit!

Find the ripcord on your parachute!

Is that understood?

I do not want to have to tell you guys again!

What do guys do instead?

"No, dude, she's into me."

[Laughter]

♪♪

[Static crackles]

[Footsteps]

[Monitor beeping]

[Beeping continues]

[Beeping speeds up, flat lines]

[Door opens]

[Door closes]

[Cellphone rings]

[Reel clicking]

[Cellphone beeps]

[Reel clicks]

[Dog whimpers]

[Dishes clattering]

[Dog whining]

[Dog barks]

-Hai.

-[Chuckles]

[Women laughing]

-[Laughs]

[Door opens]

[Rain falling, dialogue inaudible]

[Cellphone beeps]

[Hard rock music plays]

[Classical music plays]

[Dog barks]

[Siren wailing in distance]

[Telephone rings]

-[Chuckles]

-Gangu!

Gangu.

[Static crackles]

-Loneliness, boredom, routine.

That's what I get from these first 24 minutes of the movie.

I think Aoyama's editor even says at one point,

"Everybody in Japan is lonely."

And is that how you say his name?

Yuki, how --

I'm tired of getting these Japanese names wrong,

and so I said...

Yuki, how do you say this?

-Aoyama.

-Okay.

Yuki, come on over here.

I'm gonna need your help on this, alright?

You're gonna do this names for me, okay?

Have a seat.

Yuki Nakamura, ladies and gentlemen,

the Tokyo cowboy, best art director east of Mount Fuji.

So, the main character...

-Aoyama.

-Thank you, Yuki -- owns a production company,

but it's not an important production company.

It's not an imaginative production company.

They do videos and commercials and the occasional documentary.

He fishes with his son and helps wash the dishes, and apparently,

he had a sexual fling with his employee sometime in the past.

That's how I read that moment where she follows him

to the elevator to tell him she's getting married.

And then his best friend...

-Yoshikawa.

-...is all the things that...

-Aoyama. -...is not --

experienced, cynical, makes real movies,

and they both talk about women like possessions that you might

want to own at one point in your life.

So... -Aoyama.

-...even has a list of things he wants in a woman.

You know, she has to be young, play the piano, et cetera,

and when he starts going through the résumés

for the fake audition, which one does he fixate on?

The one who's damaged.

The one named...

-Asami.

-Okay. Played by...

-Shiina Eihi.

-Okay. And she's hot, you know?

But not that hot, right, Yuki?

-Attractive.

Mirikiteki. -Okay.

[Laughter]

How do you say "hot" in Japanese?

-Mirikiteki.

-Okay, so she's [babbles incoherently],

and she says she experienced a living death

when her ballet career ended in an injury.

So...

-Aoyama.

-...is kind of a middle-class robot looking for comfort,

sensing a power advantage, seeking out a woman who will be

grateful for male attention, and...

-Yoshikawa.

-...is like a drug dealer saying,

"Trust me, I know how to do this.

We'll find you a wife."

And they don't really care whether the thousands of women

who listen to the "Tomorrow's Heroine"

radio show and get dreams of stardom --

they don't care whether they're disappointed

or misled or whatever.

It's very subtle because of the way it develops naturally,

but they're basically fleecing widows and orphans, you know?

And I'm only pointing this out because there are

endless debates about whether the protagonist deserves

his fate or not.

He's a nice guy, but he's not innocent, okay?

Both of the older male actors --

-Aoyama and Yoshikawa.

-...would have been well-known to Japanese audiences.

Aoyama is played by, um...

-Ryo Ishibashi. -Okay.

And he was in his early 40s when the movie was made,

and he was known primarily as a rock star

who had crossed over into film.

He had a band called ARB, which stands for

"Alexander's Ragtime Band", that released a dozen albums

between 1978 and 1990, but during his fame years,

he met a great Japanese actor/producer named...

-Yusaku Matsuda.

-...who was like Marlon Brando in Japan.

Very important actor.

And...

-Yusaku Matsuda.

-...became his mentor in the few years before

his death in 1989, and after that...

-Ryo Ishibashi.

-...was always trying to emulate him, to be like him,

to go to Hollywood and be in big Western films,

and this was the trait that -- you know, I've been saying

his name probably wrong, so I'll ever do this one.

The guy I'm talking about here --

-Takashi Miike.

-...the director, said,

"My intuition told me that he was hungry for something."

He wanted to cast a middle-aged man who was still attractive,

and so he approached him for the role,

playing on his desire to compete with...

-Yusaku Matsuda.

-Was he a good actor, Yuki? Do you know?

-The best. -Really? Okay.

Then there's the actor who plays...

-Yoshikawa. -Okay.

The guy who sets up the fake audition -- that was, um...

Whoop.

[Laughter]

-Oh. Jun Kunimura.

-Okay. Who is even more famous than...

-Ryo Ishibashi. -Okay.

The older actor has been in everything -- 200 credits,

including "Kill Bill" for Tarantino.

Always a very memorable actor.

And actually, both actors in the bar scene

had frequently played Yakuza gangsters,

so two strong screen personalities that would

be well known to Japanese audiences.

The audiences would favor these guys.

They would identify with these guys.

But there's a third guy that I want to talk about.

Um...

-Ryu Murakami. -Okay.

He wrote the novel that "Audition" is based on,

and he was also extremely well known in Japan,

both for his novels and his talk show,

and he was also in a rock band.

He's a film director himself, but he did not direct

this adaptation of his novel,

and he did not write the screenplay.

The screenwriter...

-Oh, Daisuke Tengan.

-Okay -- had several meetings with the novelist,

where he said -- this is a quote from the screenwriter --

"He had a lot of theories about the story,

and I pretended to listen to his suggestions."

But the reason that...

-Ryu Murakami.

-...probably wanted to distance himself from the production,

and by the way, the novel is excellent.

I would recommend it.

Although it's very different from the movie.

The reason he might want to distance himself

from the project is that apparently the novel

was autobiographical.

He did meet a woman in this way, and it did not turn out well.

So, a very personal story, and...

-Takashi Miike.

-...says that...

-Ryu Murakami.

-...puts his whole personal life into the novels,

and so when he met with him for this project,

the first thing he said was,

"This novel is a love letter to a woman, isn't it?"

And the novelist said, "Is it that obvious?"

So, this stuff may not seem important to you right now,

if you haven't seen the movie before,

but when it gets real later, you will thank me.

Okay.

Back to the movie.

Alright.

You know, I've heard a lot of casting couch stories

from people working in LA, but all those stories

are about getting laid, you know?

Leave it to Japan to come up with a whole story

about using the casting couch to get a wife.

You know, Aoyama is not even sure that --

-No. -No?

What?

-Aoyama. -Aoyama.

Alright. Sorry.

He's not even sure he wants sex before marriage,

and he says at one point, quote, "I feel like a criminal."

It's like the eharmony version of a casting couch.

You know, "Here, answer these 97 questions and your life

will improve greatly because you might end up married to me."

So, Yuki, when they lettered these,

they gave me an extra one.

Did I leave somebody out, what does this one say?

-"Who is Joe Bob?

Why are we making this stupid sign?"

[Laughter]

-Oh.

Okay.

[Static crackles]

[Elevator whirring]

[Laughter]

[Cellphone rings]

-Hai.

-[Chuckles]

[Beeping]

[Line ringing]

[Beeps]

[Telephone rings]

[Door closes]

-[Sighs]

[Static crackles]

-Did you see that quick image of the woman half hidden

behind the tree?

I was just having a discussion with my director,

Austin Jennings.

He's standing right over here.

Austin, you think that's Asami, and the image is about hiding

her identity from our protagonist.

I think it's Ryoko, Aoyama's wife,

who died seven years ago, you know, as though what

he's doing is gradually making her disappear

as she struggles to be seen.

And then you just made a good point.

Maybe it's his dream woman.

Maybe it's both women and all women.

Maybe it's something emerging in his head,

and based on what's coming up next,

I think we may have hit on something.

Anyway, it's interesting to me that in a movie called

"Audition", the audition doesn't matter.

Aoyama has already decided which girl he wants as soon as

he sees the résumé, maybe as soon as he just sees the photo.

Not that the audition itself isn't immensely entertaining.

A lot of those actresses were amateurs.

They used crew members and some of the actresses who had really

auditioned for "Audition", so a lot of the scene

was improvved, but it's really a story about

loneliness and obsession.

Notice that whenever Asami is in a scene,

she's frequently photographed from behind

or in half-silhouette, because the focus is always on Aoyama.

It's never on her. She remains mysterious.

Asami is played by Eihi Shiina, who had been in one other movie

when she made this film, but was principally a model.

When she was still a high school student,

her head shots were discovered by the famous Oliviero Toscani,

who is an Italian photographer

best known his campaigns for Benetton.

He was the art director for Benetton.

He's the guy who did all the social justice campaigns.

He did the AIDS photo, he did the anorexia campaign.

So, anyhow, he saw Eihi Shiina's photos,

and he flew her to Paris for a Benetton shoot,

and that launched her career, and as you can see,

she's not conventionally beautiful.

There's something remote about the way she looks at you,

but perfect for this movie.

She grew up in Fukuoka, on the island of Kyoshu,

and her father opened the first video store there,

so she grew up watching movies.

But anyway, more interesting than what she says about

this role is what Takashi Miike says about it.

He says he knew he was gonna cast her as soon as she

walked through the door at the audition,

and he says that she instinctively knew

the character.

She had absolutely no questions to ask about the character,

which as we'll see, is kind of scary,

and Miike says he didn't totally understand

the character himself, so when he was not sure about anything,

he would ask her, and he also tried to stay away from her

when they weren't filming because her presence

was unsettling to him and to his screenwriter,

and so he wanted to keep that feeling.

In other words, he said, "She naturally had

a 'something is not quite right about that girl'

aura about her."

So, Miike gave an interview 10 years later, where he said,

"I probably still don't know who she is."

I talked about Miike before when I showed "Dead or Alive",

but this is probably his most famous movie,

and it's certainly the movie that introduced him to

an international audience, 'cause in later years,

he would go to film festivals, and the critics would always

say, "It's not the same Miike.

It's not the Miike of 'Audition'."

But he would say, "I was never the Miike of 'Audition'.

That was a unique project."

But what I love about Miike is

that every movie for him is a unique project.

He has no style.

He adapts the form of the movie to fit the script.

He is a screenwriter's dream because he'll go to any lengths

to convert the written vision into a film image.

"Audition" was his 35th film, and he was still a young man.

All through the '90s, he'd made cheap, straight-to-video movies,

what they call "V-Cinema" in Japan,

and then a production company called the Omega Project

optioned Murakami's book "Audition" and decided

they wanted it to be written and directed by people not known

for horror, and Miike hadn't been making horror films at all.

He had one movie about vampires, but that was it.

And actually, the screenwriter, Daisuke Tengan, was known mostly

for working on the scripts of his father, Shohei Imamura,

very famous Japanese director, and the two of them

had collaborated on "The Eel" in 1997,

which won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival.

Imamura is known for running one of the most famous

film schools in Japan,

and Miike was actually one of his students.

He was a bad student, he was an unmotivated student,

and even Miike admits this, but Miike did get his first

film credit while studying at

the Yokohama Vocational School of Broadcast and Film,

better known as -- Yuki!

Yuki.

This is the school that Miike went to.

-Yokohama Hoso Eiga Senmon Gakko.

-That's the school that Yokohama went to.

[Laughter]

And so, he got an assistant director credit on

"Zigan" in 1987.

"Zigan."

Am I saying that right, Yuki? Probably not.

"Zigan" is a dark satire about

a brothel owner who goes big time.

Anyway, my point is that Omega Project,

the production company, did not want horror people

at all to make this film, and yet, this is the movie

later referred to as the foundation film of J-horror.

Yet it has none of the cliches of that genre.

Most Japanese horror is tied to the supernatural, and of course,

this goes back to the original ghost stories of Japan that were

collected by Lafcadio Hearn in the late 19th century.

Okay, way off topic.

Don't get me talking about Lafcadio Hearn.

I'll never stop.

Anyway, this is anti-supernatural.

It's body horror and psycho horror.

It's about real people.

Miike, to this day, is known as a horror director,

and he's honored at horror festivals

and he's given horror awards,

and yet, he's made very few horror films.

He once admitted in an interview that he pretends to be

a horror guy because he enjoys the attention

when he's overseas, but he doesn't really

go out of his way to find horror projects.

Alright.

Back to the movie.

Ah.

Miike says he was stunned when Showtime asked him

to be part of the "Masters of Horror" series.

He was surprised by that.

They wanted him because of "Audition",

and he was supposed to be the 13th and final director

in the "Masters of Horror" series, and they kept

telling him, "Do whatever you want, Takashi.

Do whatever you want.

Do something you could never get away with in Japan."

And so, he made a story called "Imprint",

and as soon as he turned it in,

they said, "We can't show this in America."

[Laughter]

So, it was never seen in the series.

It was released on DVD, I think, but in an edited form.

I think the only place the uncut "Imprint"

has been seen is in England.

But who would say to Takashi Miike,

"Be more outrageous"?

And second, shouldn't it be the Japanese telling us,

"Do something you can't get away with in America", you know,

not vice versa, if you know what I mean?

And I think you do, and I know you know what I mean, Yuki.

-Oh, yes.

[Laughter]

[Static crackles]

-[Chuckles]

[Water running]

[Dishes clattering]

[Telephone ringing]

[Beeps]

[Receiver clicks]

[Telephone rings]

[Ringing continues]

[Ringing continues]

[Snarling]

-[Sighs]

[Door closes]

[Static crackles]

♪♪

-Yeah.

Derelict apartment with torn walls,

like something violent has happened there,

an old phone sitting on the floor,

and a burlap bag that occasionally rolls over

on its own.

That is a great jump scare.

I don't know why it's a great jump scare,

because it's just a bag moving, but the whole atmosphere,

including Asami's posture -- you know, sitting hunched over

on her knees 24/7, waiting on the phone to ring,

no known address, no known contacts with any other human.

Yeah, nothing wrong here. [Chuckles]

And yet, we don't think Aoyama is that weird, right?

He's in love.

We don't see this apartment in the novel, by the way.

This is a writer/director choice.

This is only in the movie.

This is where the movie goes where the novel didn't,

and of course, Asami is always shot diagonally from behind,

so we can't know what's on her face.

We only see his face when she's talking.

They were trying to avoid the cliches and tropes

of what was called "J-horror" in the '90s, like "Cure"

and "The Ring", but they did feed into one recurring image

in Japanese movies -- spooky young ladies

with long black hair hiding their faces.

Miike is still toying with us here

because he's filming these dates like a Lifetime movie.

In fact, there was a certain type of romantic drama in Japan

made for a female audience.

The genre was focused on males, but a lot of the empathy

in the stories went towards the women in the males' lives,

and one of the conventions of this genre is to have

conversations of people speaking straight to camera,

which Miike does a lot in these date scenes,

especially focusing on Aoyama.

Anyway, he's filming this exactly the way these

romantic dramas for the big screen were made,

playing with the audiences expectations.

It would be in American terms like an Eli Roth movie

that starts off as a Hallmark movie.

So, when the horror part shows up --

well, I'm not gonna go there yet.

Anyway, what's in the duffel bag?

That's what I want to know.

Roll it.

Ah.

One interesting thing, if you read the criticism

of this movie, is that half the critics say it's misogynist,

and the other half say it's feminist.

Now, why do I love that?

Because the same things have been said about me.

"Hey, that's misogynist!" "No, actually, that's feminist."

So, here's a novel idea --

what if I'm not misogynist and I'm not feminist?

Crazy talk, right?

[Laughter]

[Static crackles]

[Door opens, computer beeps]

[Knock on door]

-[Laughs]

[Laughs]

[Breathing heavily]

[Telephone rings]

[Ringing continues]

[Ringing continues]

[Groans]

[Ringing continues]

[Groans]

[Telephones ringing]

-[Sighs]

[Static crackles]

-Again, guys, if you go away with a woman

for a romantic weekend and you have sex

for the fist time and you wake up later

like you've been drugged and she leaves without you,

number one, make sure your wallet, credit cards,

and valuables are still there,

and number two, assume she doesn't like you!

But of course, Aoyama does the opposite.

He sets out on a mission to find her.

I don't want to say much about this part of the movie,

except please note the different ways the scenes are shot.

Some are shot realistically, and some are shot

surrealistically, and there's a reason for that,

so pay attention.

For example, the scene we just watched with

Yoshikawa telling him to forget about the girl

and move on with his life, which pisses him off --

handheld camera all over that room.

That's new.

That didn't exist in the previous scenes,

which were very formal, very fixed.

We might just be inside the desperate head of Aoyama, right?

And did you know that Aoyama's dinosaur-obsessed son

has a more realistic view of everything than Aoyama does?

He even says, "Women scare me."

That actor is Tetsu Sawaki, who was 17 playing 15,

and this was his very first movie.

Another tip, guys -- when the woman you just met

keeps saying things that are too peculiar to be true,

they're not true.

[Laughter]

There should be required classes for men when they turn 16.

"How Not to End Up Drugged and Alone

in Beautiful Resort Hotels", because yeah, that does happen.

Plus, alcohol.

Notice how Aoyama frequently has a glass in his hand.

Don't drink unless she drinks.

Okay.

Back to the movie.

Ah.

I live in a neighborhood that has a lot of bars

and restaurants, and on weekends,

a lot of people come in from out of town,

and there is always the same 3:00 AM scene

waking everybody up -- girl who used to be wearing high heels,

now barefoot and holding one high heel in her hand,

running down the street screaming, "You bastard!"

Now, you would think there would be so many varieties of

drunken anguish that that couldn't happen

more than once, right?

I guarantee you, all the elements

in what I just said occur at least once a week.

Barefoot girl in a dress, lost high heel, "You bastard."

If you ever come over, we can just open up a window

around 2:30, pour some Wild Turkey,

and just wait for it.

You'll be amazed.

[Laughter]

[Static crackles]

[Train rumbling]

[Piano playing]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Music stops]

[Crackling]

-[Laughing softly]

[Laughing]

[Laughs]

[Laughs]

[Laughs]

[Crackling]

[Laughing]

-[Singeing] -[Screams]

-[Gasps]

[Train rumbling]

-[Groans]

[Squishing sounds]

[Lock clicks, door opens]

[Door closes]

[Static crackles]

-Daisuke Tengan, the screenwriter,

said he often puts things in screenplays that he doesn't

really expect the director to film, at least not in

any kind of explicit way, which is why he was amazed

when he saw three amputated fingers, an ear,

and a tongue literally tormenting Aoyama in that scene.

Only Miike does that.

If it's part of the mind of the character,

he thinks it has to be a visual,

and he finds a way to create the visual.

So, we're not in Kansas anymore, right?

The desperation of Aoyama has put us into

an alternate universe, which I'll talk about later.

But have you noticed how suddenly the camera

is just all over the place, often handheld,

often confusing the points of view to reflect

Aoyama's disordered mind?

And this character of the guy at the piano with

the prosthetic legs, legs that looked like they were

put together by Leatherface...

-[Laughter] -...this character,

who may or may not be Mr. Shimada, may or may not be

Asami's ballet teacher, may or may not be

her stepfather, may or may not be an abuser

who burned her thighs with hot fire pokers --

what a great performance, and not by just any actor.

The man in the wheelchair is Renji Ishibashi.

No relation to Ryo Ishibashi, who plays Aoyama,

and Renji Ishibashi is -- I'm trying to think what

American actor to compare him to.

Maybe a Christopher Walken or a Ron Perlman -- you know,

the kind of guy who can turn up in any movie and steal a scene

because he's willing to go places

that most people won't go.

Any Japanese filmgoer would recognize Renji Ishibashi

and delight in this part.

The guy's made 400 films, started back in the '70s.

He did a type of softcore pornography

that only exists in Japan -- Nikkatsu Roman Porno.

Nikkatsu Roman Porno.

Nikkatsu is the name of the studio.

It's actually the oldest Japanese studio.

It dates from the silent era.

Yuki, did you ever work at Nikkatsu?

-No. -No?

But you know what Roman Porno is, don't you?

-Oh, yes. -Okay. I thought so.

They call them "pink films."

Anyway, Miike likes to use Renji Ishibashi,

partly because Ishibashi will just instantly agree

to anything he wants.

I saw an interview with Ishibashi where he said,

"Other directors try to build something when they work.

Miike tries to destroy everything.

I'm like his toy. His old toy made of wood.

He plays with new toys, and when he gets bored with those,

he thinks of an old toy.

He thinks of me, and he makes me do terrible things.

He dresses me like a woman,

he sticks a metal ladle in my ass, he electrocutes me.

He doesn't care how bizarre it is.

He's strange. I hope somebody can stop him.

Somebody has to scold him.

He totally wrecks all my acting theories."

But then he says,

"So, I just accept whatever he's doing without question.

I love being destroyed. I guess. You know?

I always get killed in his movies.

It's like working with him in the afterlife.

So, yes, he treats me like this toy, but I don't want

to bore him, I don't want him to throw his toy in the river.

I want him to think he wants to play with the toy again.

An energetic retro toy."

That's basically what he said.

Alright.

I don't want to give anything away, now, so back to the movie.

And, Yuki, do you remember an actress named...um...

I think I wrote it down for you.

Yeah. Do you remember this?

-Oh, yes. Junko Miyashita.

-You remember Junko Miyashita?

You remember her? Did I say it right?

-Yes. -Okay.

She was a character called the Apartment Wife

in Japanese pink films.

But more important, she was the co-star with Renji Ishibashi

in "Woman with Red Hair", which is considered one of

the all-time greatest Japanese pink films.

1979.

I think the plot is she's nekkid and she has red hair,

and Renji Ishibashi has sex with her.

But...you saw all her movies, didn't you, Yu?

-No, just the one. Apartment.

-Oh, no, you're lying to me.

You saw every movie that she ever made.

You know what I'm talking about.

[Laughter]

[Static crackles]

[Clicks]

[Whimpers]

[Phone beeps]

[Light switch clicks]

-[Sighs]

[Sighs]

[Zipper unzips]

-[Laughs]

-[Growling] -[Gasps]

-[Groaning]

[Groans]

[Groaning]

[Gagging]

[Squelching]

-[Retching, coughing]

[Squelching]

-[Gagging]

-[Screams]

[Slurping]

[Groans]

[Slurping]

[Wheelchair squeaking]

[Crackling]

[Sizzling]

[Sizzling] -[Screams]

[Piano playing]

♪♪

[Chains rattle]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Creaking]

[Bones cracking]

[Piano playing stops]

[Piano playing resumes]

-[Gagging]

[Gasps]

-[Breathing shakily]

[Ice rattling]

[Rattling]

-Ah!

[Gags]

[Discordant chord plays]

-[Gasps]

[Thud]

[Gasps]

[Breathing heavily]

[Footsteps]

[Static crackles]

♪♪

-They killed the dog again?

I can't believe they keep killing the dog.

Isn't there a rule? You can't kill the dog?

But we should be grateful to Takashi Miike.

He must be a dog lover, because in the novel,

Asami slowly tortures and kills the dog in front of Aoyama,

who has to watch helplessly because he's paralyzed.

But anyway, we have now entered the rather complicated mind

of Aoyama, and I don't know if you noticed this during

the nightmare sequence,

but he faces of the women keep changing.

Sometimes, it's Asami, sometimes it's his dead wife, Ryoko,

sometimes they're both in the same scene,

sometimes he's getting sexual service from Asami

and Ryoko and the secretary in his office

who's getting married, and then there's some

quick-cutting stuff on the staircase implying

sex with his housekeeper and possibly sex with

his son's girlfriend.

I don't think he had sex with all of these women,

but like I say, we're inside Aoyama's mind,

and he's lonely and desperate and confused,

and also in that sequence, we have a series of explanations

for what may have possibly happened to Asami when she was

a young girl -- abused by her mother,

abused by her stepfather, or maybe not,

because the accounts are contradictory.

But here's what a perfectionist Miike is.

He obviously wanted the body in the burlap bag to be

the controlling image of the movie,

because he called up Ren Osugi, one of the most well known

character actors in Japan, a man who's made more than 400 movies,

star of the Tokyo stage, and Miike calls him up,

and he says, "I want you to play a role in my movie."

And he says, "What's the role?"

"Um, you're in a bag.

You don't have any lines."

"Well, what's the character?"

"You're the man in the bag."

And that's all he said, but because it was Miike,

Osugi instantly accepted the part.

So, when he got to the set -- Then he found out he had to be

five hours in makeup, and he didn't really like that,

and then five additional hours waiting to shoot,

and so it was dawn by the time they did the scene

where he comes out of the bag, and then the little additional

moment where he slurps Asami's vomit out of

a dog bowl and says, "Yummy."

That "Yummy" by the way, was an ad lib,

so he ended up having a line in the movie after all.

So, while he's in the bag, Osugi is thinking to himself,

"I'm gonna do the ankoku butoh dance as I come out of the bag."

[Chuckles]

This is a Japanese dance.

It actually translate "dance of utter darkness",

and it involves -- if you want to see some amazing videos,

go to YouTube and type in "ankoku butoh dance",

and you'll see these zombie dancers.

It's like dead people trying to become alive.

It's really mesmerizing stuff.

They usually wear white body paint so that they'll look dead,

and their bodies are usually buck naked.

Now everybody go check out ankoku butoh, right?

They do this stuff with their arms and legs where the veins

and the tendons and the muscles stand out like they're about to

explode through their skin, so when I say "dancing",

it's weird weird-beard Joyce Theater dancing.

You know, Joyce Theater being the place in New York

where they do a lot of weird-beard dancing.

But I digress.

So, Osugi does the ankoku butoh dance

as he's coming out of the bag.

Of course, you can't see that because his legs

and his arms are covered by the bag.

But he thought that would create the physical presence

that was needed for that scene.

Now, if an American director is making a movie,

the role of Man in Bag, with five hours of

special effects makeup and 10 seconds of screen time

and no lines, that would be played by whatever extra

volunteered for the job.

The fact that Miike considered it an acting role

and Osugi considered it an acting role --

these are artists at work here.

They are doing things we don't know about, you know?

Okay.

I'm trying to think if there's anything else I should say

before we watch the most disturbing 15 minutes in horror.

The conclusion of "Audition."

When they premiered this movie at the Rotterdam Film Festival,

about half the audience couldn't take it.

They walked out.

Surely, we're better than that, right, people?

So, keep your eyes open.

Notice that all the handheld stuff is gone now.

We're back to fixed camera work.

Notice that Aoyama always has a whiskey glass in his hand

and always fails to lock the doors in his house.

You wanted a girlfriend? Okay, bud. You got one.

Roll the film.

Oh, man.

I've watched this scene several times,

and it still gets to me, you know?

Miike claims that after this scene,

Japanese men started treating Japanese women better.

[Laughs]

And I believe that.

I mean, all it would take is your girlfriend or your wife

saying, "I'm about to go full Asami on your ass,"

and you would say, "Yes, dear, whatever you want."

You know?

Although, you could counter with,

"I'll come back from the dead and go ankoku butoh on you."

You know?

Ankoku butoh would actually be a good thing

to talk about on a first date.

You know how guys say, you know, "I really like this girl,

Joe Bob, but I don't think she's into horror.

Might be a deal-breaker for me."

So, pour a little sake, tell her it's Japan Appreciation Month,

tell her you're gonna watch some ankoku butoh together.

If she likes the skeletal, naked, dead Asian dancers

popping their veins and contracting their buttocks --

then that would ankoku butoh bu-tocks -- if she likes

all that, then she just might be the girl for you,

and if she doesn't, she's gonna be nervous

as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs,

so you'll probably never see her again anyway.

[Laughter]

[Static crackles]

-[Groans]

[Gasps]

[Groans]

[Syringe clatters]

[Groans]

[Groans]

[Groans]

[Groans]

[Gasps]

[Squishing]

[Gasps, groans]

[Groans]

[Breathing heavily]

[Gasps]

[Groans]

[Groans]

[Groans]

[Cranking]

[Groans]

[Gasps]

[Groans]

[Groans]

-[Squelching] -[Screams]

[Groans]

[Groaning]

-[Breathing heavily]

-[Groans]

[Screams]

[Screams]

[Cord slicing]

-[Panting]

[Door opens]

[Door closes]

[Door closes]

-[Groans]

[Grunts]

[Panting]

[Sobbing]

[Breathing heavily]

[Water stops]

-[Sprays] -Whoa!

[Sprays]

-[Screams]

[Thuds]

[Squelching]

-[Gasping]

[Sobs]

♪♪

♪♪

-[Singing in Japanese]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪ I don't want to abuse myself ♪

♪ I want to risk my emotions ♪

♪ I want to know who I am ♪

♪ I don't want to go insane ♪

♪ I don't want to abuse myself ♪

♪ I want to risk my emotions ♪

♪ I want to know who I am ♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Static crackles]

♪♪

-Whoa! Dream woman, right?

Aoyama still loves his dead wife, his son, and his dog,

so of course, he must die because he lied when he said

he would only love her.

This is actually a psychologically accurate

portrayal of a certain type of abuse victim, but then again,

we don't know how much of Asami's abuse story is true,

and which abuse story is closest to the truth, if any,

and none of that matters anyway because I think --

and there are many, many imminent critics who disagree

with this -- but I think from the time Aoyama wakes up

in the hotel room bed feeling drugged and finds out

that Asami has left the hotel, which about the half way point

of the movie, I think from that moment on, we are completely

inside the head of Aoyama.

The ballet studio with the man in the wheelchair --

doesn't exist.

It's a project of Aoyama's fevered imaginations.

The bar where somebody was murdered and there are

body parts lying around -- doesn't exist.

It's a projection of Aoyama's fear and guilt.

The second conversation at the restaurant on their date,

the one we did not see before -- doesn't exist.

It's a projection of Aoyama's strange interpretation

of why Asami left him.

And all this mind of Aoyama stuff,

including the various sex scenarios with various women,

are his overworked brain trying to figure out what

he's afraid of, and then when he falls on his back

the second time, the torture scene may or may not be real,

because Miike gives us an out there.

Miike takes us back to the hotel room,

let's us see what really happened.

She accepted his marriage proposal,

or what he's now projecting could have happened

when he's in an altered state.

So, Aoyama's guilt is so deep, his self blame is so strong,

that he may have created Asami or turned her into a killer,

and it's only the clear thinking of his dead wife

and his wise-for-his-years teenaged son that save him

from destroying himself.

I always get a chill from the last few moments

of the film, when Asami says,

"I've been waiting and waiting for your call.

I thought I'd never see you again.

I'm so happy. I can't stop smiling."

All those cliches that people want to say

and people want to hear, and now it sounds like

what she's really saying is,

"You can hear me now because you're dead like me."

So, anyway, the debate about which scenes are reality

and which are nightmares will probably rage forever,

but I think if you study the way the scenes are shot,

especially the switches in points of view

and the handheld camera versus the fixed camera decisions,

you have to come to the conclusion that 99%

of everything after the turning point of the movie,

which is in the bedroom, where she undresses for Aoyama

and shows him her scars, everything after that

is a desperation nightmare.

The movie is not about her at all.

It's all about him.

Okay, the thing I keep going back to is the fact that

Ryu Murakami, who wrote this novel, and Takashi Miike,

who directed the film adaptation, both say --

A -- it really happened.

I mean, Ryu Murakami is not missing his feet,

but apparently, something this dramatic happened

that started with an audition, and Ryu Murakami

is a film director besides being a novelist.

His most famous film -- in the West, anyway --

is "Tokyo Decadence."

Whoo!

I remember when that movie came out.

That was one of those movies that everyone went to see

because it was supposed to be sexy,

but then when you see what kind of sexy it is,

you leave going, "I'm never going to Tokyo."

[Chuckles]

And Ryu Murakami loves stories about sadomasochism,

and -- B -- it's a love letter, indicating that as both

Aoyama and Asami lay dying on the living room floor

looking into each other's eyes, they're both still in love.

She's a jilted lover who's set things right now,

and he's already forgiving her.

So, who's more psychotic, her or him?

Alright, I could talk about this movie all day,

but we got to keep moving.

"Audition" was first screened at a tiny film festival

in Courmayeur, Italy.

The town has a French name because it's up in the Alps

on the border with France, and it caused such a sensation

that it was booked into the Rotterdam Film Festival,

where it won first prize,

and it sort of changed horror forever.

The first thing it did was Takashi Miike a star.

This movie and "Visitor Q" established him as, quote,

"that weird mad genius from Japan

who puts torture in his movies."

In Europe, they called "Audition" a feminist film.

In America, they called it a misogynistic film.

It had an enormous influence on American directors, though,

especially Eli Roth, who had not yet done "Hostel."

Rob Zombie calls it the creepiest movie

he's ever watched.

Also, another Asian film came out at the very same time

as "Audition" called "The Isle", and "The Isle" included

extreme physical torture, and even though those films have

nothing to do with each other and they're from

different countries -- "The Isle" is from Korea --

but even given that, for a while,

it was assumed that there was this new violent

kind of horror that was coming out of Asia.

It was really just a matter of timing, because while audiences

in Rotterdam were throwing up after seeing "Audition",

audiences at the Venice Film Festival

were throwing up watching "The Isle",

which made Kim Ki-duk famous, so the films got lumped together

as creating a new genre called "Asia Extreme."

What was actually happening is that American distributors

were just picking up the most violent films for distribution.

Nothing had really changed that much.

It had started earlier with "Ringu", actually,

which didn't do that well in the West until it was remade

as "The Ring."

And by the way, Takashi Miike has now completed

his 103rd film, which is a traditional Yakuza flick

called "First Love", and he doesn't work

at quite the same pace anymore.

The year "Audition" came out, he also directed

a TV miniseries, two TV movies, and three other feature films.

That was his speed for about the first 15 years of his career.

Okay, Darcy, come on over, and, oh, man, I love this.

Okay.

You identify with Asami?

Ooh. Seriously.

-[Chittering]

-[Laughs]

You do that too well.

Have you ever wanted to stick extremely long, sharp needles

into the eyes of a man who wants to marry you?

-Oh, my God. Many times.

[Laughter]

Alright.

I guess that's a universal thing, then.

I know it's time for this week's Silver Bolo Award,

whereby we honor the best in horror media

and mostly people who don't get the attention they deserve,

people -- we're trying to give them a boost because of their

excellent quality work, and so this week, who are we honoring?

-Well, remember last season, when we showed "Heathers"

and you said that we could honor live theater as well as

traditional media?

-Yeah, I do remember that, 'cause I like live theater.

-Well, this week, we have our very first live event winner.

Zombie Joe's Underground.

-I love the name. -It's awesome.

It's an avant-garde theater located in North Hollywood

specializing in shocking productions.

It's been around for 25 years,

and they try to horrify the audience.

-Okay.

I can't believe I've never been to that place.

What do you mean horrify the audience?

Like, what's an example of a show?

-They did Edgar Allan Poe's "Masque of the Red Death."

Oh, okay.

So, it's like live versions of horror stories,

like the theater version of a Roger Corman Poe movie.

-No, not really.

[Laughter]

Because they like to take it to extremes.

Their signature show is called "Urban Death",

and it's like macabre vignettes.

Their motto is,

"They disturb, they dismay, and they discomfort you."

I've gone a whole bunch of times, and I love it.

-So, it's like "Bloodsucking Freaks",

the theater in "Bloodsucking Freaks."

-No, it's not like that at all.

But if you need Grand Guignol, then yes.

-Is that how you say that?

I can never say that.

I always said "Grand Gee-no."

Alright. I need your help, Yuki.

Um, come on over.

I have the Silver Bolo right here in my hand,

and I want to make sure it's genuine silver,

so will you take this into your silversmithery

and get it ready for -- who runs Zombie Joe's Underground?

-Zombie Joe. -Okay.

Do you know Zombie Joe? -I do.

-Your life is so much more exciting than mine.

I don't know a single person with Zombie

as either a first name or a last name.

Do you know Rob Zombie?

-I've met him a couple times, yeah.

-Really? I haven't.

-What?

-You think he'd come on this show?

-I actually do, yeah.

-Well, work on that.

You landed Chris Jericho, you know.

Next assignment -- Rob Zombie.

-On it. -Okay, Yuki,

see that the Silver Bolo is delivered to Zombie Joe,

and, Yuki, how do you say this, Yuki?

How do you say that?

-Grand Guignol. -Grand Guignol.

-Nailed that. -Okay. Thank you.

Well, that's it for tonight.

Always remember -- life is simpler

when you plow around the stump.

The drive-in will never die.

Darcy, which block of cheese directed giallo movies

in the '70s?

-Is that really a question for me?

[Chuckles] -Yes.

Which block of cheese directed giallo movies in the '70s?

-I don't know.

-Dario Sargento.

[Laughter]

-So cheesy.

[Laughter]

♪♪

[Static crackles]