Podcasts
[Horror Queers Podcast] Takashi Miike’s ‘Audition’: Feminist, Misogynistic or Both?
A different kind of foot fetish.
Over the last few weeks, Joe and I have made a brief detour into the world of television with the BBC queer zombie series In the Flesh, discussed the completely bonkers twist in Jaume Collet-Serra‘s Orphan (just in time for its 10th anniversary!) and made our first foray into family films with ParaNorman and its secret queer character.
We are officially declaring August “Femme Fatale Month,” which means we’ll be looking at a number of horror films that feature villainous (and some not-so-villainous) badass ladies. On this week’s episode, we go back to our favorite year (1999) with a look at Takashi Miike‘s Audition! In the film, a widower (Ryo Ishibashi) stages a phony audition to meet a potential new wife. After interviewing several women, he becomes interested in Asami (Eihi Shiina), whom he immediately clicks with. Unfortunately for him, Asami has a dark past that leads to one of horror cinema’s most shocking and gag-inducing climaxes!
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Episode 33 – Audition (1999)
Kiri Kiri Kiri! The boys are officially declaring August Femme Fatale Month, which means they’ll be tackling a bunch of films with some killer ladies (aka Trace’s favorite type of character)! First up is Asami Yamazaki in Takashi Miike’s controversial 1999 film Audition! That’s right, it’s another Japanese film, which means you can laugh along (or take a shot) every time Joe mispronounces a character’s name!
Join Joe and Trace as they discuss the misogynistic (douchebag protagonist, objectification of women) and feminist (taking down the patriarchy, Asami as an avenging angel) elements of the film, BDSM, the secret queer relationship that no one talks about and the beautiful gore that fills the film’s final act. Finally, they take the film’s revelatory flashback to task for not making any sense whatsoever!
Oh, and Joe is somehow able to liken the film to Bring it On.
Trigger Warning: The dog DOES die in this movie, but it’s off-screen. You do see its corpse, though.
This Week’s Game: If forced to part ways with a body part, which body part would it be?
Cross out Audition!
Coming up Wednesday: It’s a double dose of femme fatales with Sadie and McKayla in Tyler MacIntyre‘s Tragedy Girls!
– Joe & Trace
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P.P.S. As an added bonus, if you subscribe to our Patreon you can listen to a full-length bonus episode on Alexandre Aja’s insanely fun killer alligator movie Crawl, as well as a minisode on a controversial topic: do horror fans lack empathy?
After winding down June with discussions of our vey first William Castle film Homicidal (listen) and queer director Roland Emmerich’s summer tentpole Independence Day (listen), we’re heading back to 1981 to check out Joe Dante‘s seminal werewolf film The Howling.
The Howling sees television journalist Karen White (Dee Wallace) attend a psychiatric retreat with her husband Bill (Christopher Stone) after being attacked and traumatized by local serial killer Eddie Quist (Robert Picardo). It isn’t long before Karen realizes that the retreat is actually a secret cult of werewolves, and they’ve already got their sights set on Bill.
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.
Episode 394: The Howling (1981)
Make note of that smiley face sticker and snag that conveniently-placed jar of acid because we’re talking Joe Dante’s stealth werewolf classic The Howling (1981)!
Join us as we discuss the film’s deviations from its source material before doing a deep dive into this very tongue-in-cheek, self-aware horror film. It honestly feels like a precursor to Scream, in many ways!
Plus: Roger Corman (again!) those incredible special effects, differentiating “color movies” from “movies in color,” and why queer icon Elisabeth Brooks has us going “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!”
Cross out The Howling!
Coming Up Next: We’re tackling our very first Ken Russell film with a look at his controversial 1984 erotic thriller Crimes of Passion!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 508 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Forbidden Fruits, Saccharine, Evil Dead Burn, an audio commentary on Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf (aka Howling II: Stirba – Werewolf Bitch), and the conclusion of our coverage of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat on the Requel Tier.