Vengeance is theirs

A double dish of Miike malevolence… AUDITION/OVER YOUR DEAD BODY

Even if you’ve never dared watch Audition, the 1999 J-horror that announced prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike to the western world, chances are you know of its reputation. Brace yourself as demure 24-year-old Asami (Eihi Shiina) does terrible things to tricksy middle-aged filmmaker Shigeharu (Ryo Ishibashi) with needles, piano wire and the sing-song mantra “kiri, kiri, kiri” (“deeper, deeper, deeper”).

Is it all in his head, male paranoia, or is she really taking revenge for his secrets and lies? It’s impossible to say, and lines between fact and fiction are also blurred in Over Your Dead Body (available separately), a 2014 adaptation of the renowned 1825 kabuki play Yostuya Kaidan in which a samurai’s wife takes ghostly revenge on her husband after he abandons her for a younger woman. The twist, in Miike’s update, is that three modern-day actors (Ko Shibasaki, Ebizô Ichikawa, Miho Nakanishi) are rehearsing the play and find their own lives paralleling those of their characters.

Over Your Dead Body is Miike’s first horror film – and best film, period – since Audition, and again tells a story of female vengeance in a style that is controlled and composed: the bursts of violence in both movies impact all the harder for coming from a place of poise. Given the film’s quality, the lack of extras is a shame. Not so the Audition Blu-ray, which comes with two commentaries, interviews and an excellent appreciation by Japanese cinema historian Tony Rayns. It’s also a 2K restoration, meaning the scalpelsharp visuals cut deeper, deeper, deeper.