A meek love story turns repulsive in the Japanese film, "Audition". For most of the film, the gentle characters remind you of high manners. But there is that bag that keeps moving in the apartment and the charming young woman who vegetates by sitting on the floor when she is not making a move on Mr. Right. And Mr. Right seems to have found his perfect mate after the untimely death of his wife. But the clues are there that the ending will be more chilling than warming. The film seeks to tell us more about female repression and retribution than you would find if the story was told more overtly. The final scene when the young woman stretches out her hand to the man she has been brutalizing is resounding in its feelings of love, longing, and frustration.
