The entry on Audition
(Odishon) Japan, South Korea, 1999, in
the Handbook of the 18th
International Film Festival of Kerala
2013, reads:
Takashi
Mike provides the viewers a paradoxical movie experience that leaves one grasping for superlatives while
simultaneously grasping for breath...The
film portrays the changing role of women in a society that remains gender-
regressive and packed with male protagonist.
Unlike in previous
years, this year, twice I failed to find a seat in unexpectedly over crowded theatres.
So I was forced to choose the late 8.45
PM show on a Sunday. Half way through the film, Audition, when the gory scenes of mutilation flashed on the
screen, couples in their late fifties started
leaving the theatre. I stayed on
abstaining from looking at the screen for minutes together
even as the groaning pain of the tortured victim reverberated in the theatre. Then in a horrendous scene, the ‘heroine’ a retired young ballet artist, paralyses the person who has
expressed his affection for her and mounts his body. Next, she begins piercing his face and body with needles each time with the sound a love bird makes ‘ku,ku,ku,ku,ku.’ To my utter shock,
the vast majority of male audience, mimicked the ‘ku,ku,ku,ku,ku’ sound, relishing
the performance even as she
dismembers the feet of the
victim using a metal string!
In the dark, I managed to jot down in a piece of paper, the
words of the ‘heroine’ :
Prior
to the mutilation, she tells the person who is all adoration for her “...When I dance, it
purifies...” and when the mutilation commences “...words create lies, pain can
be trusted...”
The film over, I left the theatre asking
myself “Whither Catharsis?”
Won’t you dear reader, enlighten me....
