For some movies it is best to know nothing about them before you see them. No review, no trailer, no reading synapsis and in the case of Audition not even looking at the movie poster. Since you already did the mistake of searching for this movie and started to read a review about it I can tell you why.
At first glance "Audition" seems to be a pretty straight forward story, which it kinda is. If you read the synapsis you know that it's about a guy who lost his wife a while ago, having an audition in order to find new love. Its tagged as horror and the movie poster shows a girl holding a syringe of some sort.. I wonder what's going to happen.... Some might say it's the most straight forward story there is, that is when you rule out the ending of the movie. Now I want to go into spoiler territory since I want to talk about the ending of the movie and go deeper into analyzing it, because that is actually why I am making this "review"... I want to analyze the ending. If you haven't seen the movie I highly recommend doing so and then come back and finish this analysis.
The movies straight forward element kinda got mixed up by 2 inclusions that were made. For one the Symbolic imagery in the dream sequence the main character "Aoyama" experiences after supposedly drinking poisoned alcohol and the second one being the scene near to the end where he suddenly wakes up after being tortured. In this waking up scene it seems like all of the previous events were just a dream and the girl he fell in love with isn't a psychotic maniac who likes to torture people. Now after the scene, they continue with the torturing scene, or at least what's been left of it and you see the psychokiller version of Asami (the girl I mentioned before) dying because she fell down the stairs.
I read a few reviews online claiming that the "waking up'-scene was just him (the main character) falling asleep, or fainting in the heat of the moment and he later wakes up and the events at the end occur in the real world. I couldn't disagree with that more. It for one doesn't make any logical sense, since he wouldn't just fall asleep in a moment where his son is in danger; he also doesn't strike me as a guy who would faint... the guy endured his foot being cut off a few minutes ago. Also this theory would also make that all the symbolism in the dream sequence was utterly meaningless. You know all the imagery shown, Asami as a child giving a crippled man her own vomit to eat, the reason you see her as an adult willingly getting tortured by her uncle, the reason why you see Asami killing her uncle while he plays the piano. All of this would be utterly devoid of meaning if we look at this movie from this angle.
You see, there is another interpretation I have for this movie, maybe you have it as well, I haven't seen it anywhere online so I think it is rather unpopular: That all the events after Aoyama slept with Asami until the moment he woke up at the end, where just his imagination, him dreaming If you will. Now why would that be and what would that mean? It first of all means that Asami is not a psychokiller, that Aoyama just imagined her being a psychokiller. In order to understand why he would imagine her to be a psychokiller we first have to understand his character and for that, lets recall everything we know about him:
Aoyama, the main character is the one we actually know the most about. The important parts are that he (of course) had a wife who had some sort of training (i imagine she played the piano) and that this was obviously a trade that he liked about her. Having a training or a skill such as "playing the piano" or "dancing ballet" is admirable for him and he feels himself drawn to such people (maybe because of his wife, maybe he liked it before he knew her). We also know that he likes Asami because of that reason, so it is rather logical to assume that he likes Asami because she reminds him of his former wife. This is also where our main source of reasoning comes into mind. The later shown imagery highly suggest that one part of his inner psyche is not over the death of his wife and feels guilty for trying to replace her with this younger version of her. This inner self of his tries to prevent him from finding love with his new relationship. Asami is just a normal girl basically, one with her own past experiences, the things she doesnt talk about. This is why this fear of her being a psycho killer comes into place. You see it is very easy to make yourself believe that something is wrong with someone if said person is very introverted and doesn't talk much about herself. This is why Aoyama is frightened to open up to her. What if she is a psychokiller who will eventually kill me, or worse even hurt my son? What if I am doing the wrong choice in finding new love? I shouldn't be so selfish if it ends up hurting me. This movie has a clear turning point of him being exited and full of longing of Asami and then being repulsed and disgusted by her. And the dream sequence of his is exactly this turning point.
Basically the dream sequence purpose is the inner fight between the 2 personalities Aoyama has. His damaged self, represented by the man in the bag, scarred from the loss of his wife, searching for nourishment and closure. Which makes him do things he later regrets like sleeping with his coworker, or having sexual thoughts about his sons underaged friend. And on the other side you have his side that loves his wife and what she represents, that fears for his family and for the unknown. This side is represented by Asami's foster father. The side that would stop at nothing to make him stay loyal to his dead wife that doesn't want him to find someone new. The side that even would create an image of an abused psycho killer to make Aoyama leave his new found love. And through this dream you see which side is winning the fight. You see Aoyama being disgusted and shocked by his damaged side and the moment his abusive side repeats his own words (where he says "ore wa subarashi" or "you are amazing"), while playing the piano you know which path he has chosen and which side he has killed in the process.
Everything after that comes as he wants it to come. He is being tortured by Asami because in his mind that's what might happen if he stays with her and his son being killed by her which would also be inevitable in his mind.
And in the continuation of his dream at the end, where Asami is later killed, it is basically the continuation of his relationship with her. His fear for himself and his son's life will lead him to abandon her, wanting to never see her again. The things she says at the end would make a lot of sense if they are said after she hasnt heard of him for a long time and maybe met him by accitend on the street. It also works as a reminder of what he lost because she repreats a few lines she already mentioned.
I could go deeper here and really take apart each shot and each dialogue spoken, but I just intended to give you a general idea of the symbolism of the movie and I hope I inspired you enough to do that yourself the next time you watch this fascinating movie.
At first glance "Audition" seems to be a pretty straight forward story, which it kinda is. If you read the synapsis you know that it's about a guy who lost his wife a while ago, having an audition in order to find new love. Its tagged as horror and the movie poster shows a girl holding a syringe of some sort.. I wonder what's going to happen.... Some might say it's the most straight forward story there is, that is when you rule out the ending of the movie. Now I want to go into spoiler territory since I want to talk about the ending of the movie and go deeper into analyzing it, because that is actually why I am making this "review"... I want to analyze the ending. If you haven't seen the movie I highly recommend doing so and then come back and finish this analysis.
The movies straight forward element kinda got mixed up by 2 inclusions that were made. For one the Symbolic imagery in the dream sequence the main character "Aoyama" experiences after supposedly drinking poisoned alcohol and the second one being the scene near to the end where he suddenly wakes up after being tortured. In this waking up scene it seems like all of the previous events were just a dream and the girl he fell in love with isn't a psychotic maniac who likes to torture people. Now after the scene, they continue with the torturing scene, or at least what's been left of it and you see the psychokiller version of Asami (the girl I mentioned before) dying because she fell down the stairs.
I read a few reviews online claiming that the "waking up'-scene was just him (the main character) falling asleep, or fainting in the heat of the moment and he later wakes up and the events at the end occur in the real world. I couldn't disagree with that more. It for one doesn't make any logical sense, since he wouldn't just fall asleep in a moment where his son is in danger; he also doesn't strike me as a guy who would faint... the guy endured his foot being cut off a few minutes ago. Also this theory would also make that all the symbolism in the dream sequence was utterly meaningless. You know all the imagery shown, Asami as a child giving a crippled man her own vomit to eat, the reason you see her as an adult willingly getting tortured by her uncle, the reason why you see Asami killing her uncle while he plays the piano. All of this would be utterly devoid of meaning if we look at this movie from this angle.
You see, there is another interpretation I have for this movie, maybe you have it as well, I haven't seen it anywhere online so I think it is rather unpopular: That all the events after Aoyama slept with Asami until the moment he woke up at the end, where just his imagination, him dreaming If you will. Now why would that be and what would that mean? It first of all means that Asami is not a psychokiller, that Aoyama just imagined her being a psychokiller. In order to understand why he would imagine her to be a psychokiller we first have to understand his character and for that, lets recall everything we know about him:
Aoyama, the main character is the one we actually know the most about. The important parts are that he (of course) had a wife who had some sort of training (i imagine she played the piano) and that this was obviously a trade that he liked about her. Having a training or a skill such as "playing the piano" or "dancing ballet" is admirable for him and he feels himself drawn to such people (maybe because of his wife, maybe he liked it before he knew her). We also know that he likes Asami because of that reason, so it is rather logical to assume that he likes Asami because she reminds him of his former wife. This is also where our main source of reasoning comes into mind. The later shown imagery highly suggest that one part of his inner psyche is not over the death of his wife and feels guilty for trying to replace her with this younger version of her. This inner self of his tries to prevent him from finding love with his new relationship. Asami is just a normal girl basically, one with her own past experiences, the things she doesnt talk about. This is why this fear of her being a psycho killer comes into place. You see it is very easy to make yourself believe that something is wrong with someone if said person is very introverted and doesn't talk much about herself. This is why Aoyama is frightened to open up to her. What if she is a psychokiller who will eventually kill me, or worse even hurt my son? What if I am doing the wrong choice in finding new love? I shouldn't be so selfish if it ends up hurting me. This movie has a clear turning point of him being exited and full of longing of Asami and then being repulsed and disgusted by her. And the dream sequence of his is exactly this turning point.
Basically the dream sequence purpose is the inner fight between the 2 personalities Aoyama has. His damaged self, represented by the man in the bag, scarred from the loss of his wife, searching for nourishment and closure. Which makes him do things he later regrets like sleeping with his coworker, or having sexual thoughts about his sons underaged friend. And on the other side you have his side that loves his wife and what she represents, that fears for his family and for the unknown. This side is represented by Asami's foster father. The side that would stop at nothing to make him stay loyal to his dead wife that doesn't want him to find someone new. The side that even would create an image of an abused psycho killer to make Aoyama leave his new found love. And through this dream you see which side is winning the fight. You see Aoyama being disgusted and shocked by his damaged side and the moment his abusive side repeats his own words (where he says "ore wa subarashi" or "you are amazing"), while playing the piano you know which path he has chosen and which side he has killed in the process.
Everything after that comes as he wants it to come. He is being tortured by Asami because in his mind that's what might happen if he stays with her and his son being killed by her which would also be inevitable in his mind.
And in the continuation of his dream at the end, where Asami is later killed, it is basically the continuation of his relationship with her. His fear for himself and his son's life will lead him to abandon her, wanting to never see her again. The things she says at the end would make a lot of sense if they are said after she hasnt heard of him for a long time and maybe met him by accitend on the street. It also works as a reminder of what he lost because she repreats a few lines she already mentioned.
I could go deeper here and really take apart each shot and each dialogue spoken, but I just intended to give you a general idea of the symbolism of the movie and I hope I inspired you enough to do that yourself the next time you watch this fascinating movie.