Audition

[John Bailey]

Hi Dave,

Regarding Audition...your reaction to the film is pretty much in accord with 
those of everyone else I've spoken to. It's the physical response, the 
turning-away which I found really fascinating. I looked away too. The film 
seems to really play with this, in a self-conscious way, and at times I 
almost felt like the film was punishing the viewer for occupying that 
voyeuristic position. Thinking, especially, for those who've seen it, of a 
particular POV shot which literalises this, in which we our point of view is 
aligned with that of the main character (?), looking up at someone from the 
carpet, you remember... amazingly layered scene, that one, in which what is 
occurring within the shot is also on a symbolic level occurring to the 
spectator, well, I'd love to go on but don't want to add any spoilers. 
Suffice to say, and I think you'd agree with me Dave, Audition is not for 
the faint-hearted...

Regarding Ring...The Dong-bim Kim 'Ring' is actually a Korean/Japanese 
remake of the original Japanese film of the same name. I haven't seen the 
Korean remake but I've heard it's pretty much identical. Saw some excellent 
Korean films at the last Melbourne Film Festival and a Korean film 
mini-Festival a few weeks ago was highly praised as well. I'm willing to 
give the US remake of Ring the benefit of the doubt so faaaaaar...if only 
because it's directed by the same guy who brought us Mouse Hunt. Ho ho ho.

Still awaiting a local release of Mulholland Drive, which, despite the 
presence of a sizeable number of locals in the film (cf Ms Watts), 
languishes in a vague mid '02 spot for the moment.

>From: Dave Monroe <davidmmonroe at yahoo.com>
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Audition
>Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2001 13:45:04 -0800 (PST)
>
>Finally saw Audition (Odishon, dir. Takashi Miike,
>1999).  Think Japanese Mulholland Drive.  And you all
>know what that means ... couldn't even watch the
>screen at times (though the sounds were at least as
>disturbing ...).  From a story by Ryu (Almost
>Transparent Blue, Tokyo Decadence) Murakami ...
>
>Okay, just catching up after a few days away here, so
>... but for anyone interested, there's also an
>American remake of the Japanese/Korean horror film,
>Ring (dir. Dong-bin Kim) forthcoming, starring
>(because Jennifer [Labyrinth, Rocketeer, Phenomena]
>Connolly passed on it) Naomi (Mulholland Drive) Watts ...
>
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