WATCH THIS: AUDITION

Audition tells the story of Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi), a lonely father who wants to remarry seven years after his wife's death. Lacking confidence and unsure of how to get back into the dating game, his friend Yasuhisa (Jun Kunimura), a film industry executive, comes up with the brilliant idea. They'll hold auditions for a non-existent film so that Shigeharu can select the best woman from the try-outs. He becomes smitten with Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina), a beautiful but disturbing woman.

Yoshikawa warns him about Asami, saying that he has a bad feeling about her. None of the references on her resume check out and the music producer she claimed to work for has gone missing. Aoyama, blinded by his feelings for Yamazaki, doesn't heed his friend's warning.

After several dates, they go away for a weekend together. Asami tells Aoyama about the sexual abuse she suffered as a child and shows him the scars on her body. Asami asks Aoyama to love only her and he does so but it's a promise that comes with a heavy price.

To say more would ruin the surprise and horror that comes from Aoyama's promise. What starts as a light romance becomes a brually violent nightmare. Director Takashi Miike is well known for his shocking scenes of extreme violence and bizarre sexual perversions. Most of his films contain graphic and extreme gore, sometimes over-the-top and cartoonish. But with Audition, Miike plays it straight, creating a realistic yet surreal cautionary tale of loving the wrong woman.

The players in Audition are all excellent but Eihi Shiina delivers an outstanding perfomance. She is both breathtaking and terrifying. There are many disturbing moments in Audition but I guarantee you'll never forget the way she coos "deeper, deeper, deeper" and what she does while saying it.