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| “ | Everybody is the same. | „ |
| ~ Asami's mantra. |
| “ | All words are lies. But pain doesn’t lie. See? When you’re in pain, you see your own shape clearly. | „ |
| ~ Asami as she tortures Aoyama. |
Asami Yamazaki is the main antagonist of the 1999 Japanese psychological-horror film Audition, based on the 1997 Japanese novel of the same name.
Asami was a former ballet dancer turned deeply disturbing woman who sadistically tortured and murdered men whom she felt had betrayed or abandoned her. Her discovery of Aoyama led her to being seen for the first time in her life, until she perceived otherwise after reviewing his backstory herself.
She was portrayed by Eihi Shiina.
Biography[]
Asami Yamazaki was heavily abused as a child; her parents were divorced and she was sent to her aunt and uncle's house, where her aunt physically abused Asami, in various ways, including being shoved down the stairs, where Asami fractured her shoulder. Her aunt would have her bathe in ice-cold water to the point of contracting pneumonia. Asami went back to her mother after her doctor grew concerned about the abuse, where it made her life exceptionally worse.
She was physically, physiologically, and sexually abused by her double-amputee stepfather bound in a wheelchair, and grew up to misandry. As she grew up, her stepfather ruined her aspirations to becoming a ballet dancer by burning her legs. What challenged her more, was that her stepfather was home all the time since he's disabled and couldn't walk. Therefore, she became a serial killer who victimized men whom she associated with her abuser. She slept with men and moments later kidnapped, tortured, and murdered them as punishment for the abuse and abandonment she perceived and is convinced they have inflicted on her. A year prior before the bar she worked at was abandoned, it's implied that she murdered the owner and upon police discovering the body, also left extra body parts that may have belonged to another victim.
Meeting Aoyama[]
Shigeharu Aoyama, a middle-aged film producer, decided to find a new girlfriend after his wife Ryoko passed away from an undisclosed illness seven years ago. He, with the help of his film-producer friend Yashuisa Yoshikawa, staged a mock audition in which several girls "audition" for a main early-twenties heroine, who unknowingly would later be chosen as Aoyama's new wife. Asami attended Aoyama's audition, describing her own pursuit as a ballet dancer until her injuries ceased her aspirations; Aoyama, posed as a casting director, is instantly enthralled by her beauty and selected her. Asami waited perfectly still for four days straight in her apartment near her phone, where the phone rang and she answered. She pretended to not expect Aoyama's call, and they began to date after the conversation. They later went on several dates to where Asami accompanied him to a hotel, and Aoyama intended to propose marriage to her there.
After Asami discussed to Aoyama about her sexual abuse she suffered as a child, she asked Aoyama if he loved her, and only her. He replied that he does, and they slept together. The next morning, Asami disappeared without a trace, which prompted Aoyama to search for her. Meanwhile, Asami snuck into Aoyama's house and found a portrait of his late wife; enraged, she drugged his liquor with intent on incapacitating and punishing him, and murdered Gangu, his family's dog, by twisting his neck. Sure enough, Aoyama drank the spiked liquor when he arrived home, and collapsed.
When Aoyama regained consciousness, he witnessed a moving bag that contains a man missing both feet, tongue, an ear and three fingers on one hand crawling out; he is one of Asami's victims, and is later revealed to be the bar owner. Asami appeared, and the disfigured bar owner begged her for food. Aoyama watched in horror as Asami vomited into Gangu's dog dish, and gave the dish to the victim, who eagerly consumed her vomit to fulfill his hunger. It's later revealed that after Aoyama met her stepfather, Asami decapitated him with a piano wire at the studio during one of Aoyama's hallucinations. After returning to reality, he then collapsed in the same motion drinking the liquor, and Asami injected him with a paralytic agent.
She proclaimed that Aoyama does not truly love her and must be punished. As he lied down paralyzed, she injected the agent into his tongue, rendering him incapable to speak. she later inserted needles into his chest and eyes, all while pinning him down to extend his pain, and amputated his left foot with the piano wire.
Demise[]
Eventually, Aoyama's son, Shigehiko, arrived from school as soon as Asami prepared to amputate his right foot. Asami ambushed him from behind, attempting to mace and stun Shigehiko. Coming to Aoyama's aid, Shigehiko fights with Asami, and eventually managed to overpower her by kicking her down the stairs, where she paralyzed herself from the neck down upon impact. Her final words, while Shigehiko called for police to arrive, Asami recounted one of her dates word for word with Aoyama about her euphoric feelings over seeing him again, moments before succumbing to her injury.
Personality[]
Asami inherits several psychotic and sadistic traits of her life, showing herself remorseless over murdering the men she believed were traitors in her life, when she didn't know the full story and concluded on assumption. This also accounts on how she got out of her way to murder other innocent beings involved, such as murdering Gangu, which was not only unnecessary, but held no grudge other than being used as a sacrificial lamb to torment Aoyama and the family; and Shigehiko, for arriving at the wrong time, but he had no knowledge about her existence until that point. The reason why she inherited these traits was due to her stepfather, who was also a gruesome, psychotic, depraved, and sadistic abuser that ultimately made her life extremely worse.
Since she was unable to find a supporting companion or someone who truly does care back then, she can't find the help needed, and believed there was no other method to overcome her trauma and see life that it is. Ultimately, her only answer and throughout her life was to seek revenge against the men who wouldn't truly care about her, showing signs of obsessive impulses to fill the mental void in her life she needs filled. It's also important to note her vengeful traits, such as resorting to violence whenever things don't go her way, or the man she trusted was also seeing/had someone else in his life. In fact, she would find any possible way to make thing rights for her using any tactic necessary, such as lying about her experience and her background, and other methods to appease Aoyama.
Asami was also accustomed to nihilism and hopelessness, which was shown during the audition that she views the end of her ballet aspirations as accepting death. It's also the moment she perceived that her passion in life shattered and would never conform with normalcy. As she grew up, she retained her child-like mannerisms and communications, as she can't escape from the trauma she endured as a child. At the end of the film, she still is the same as herself in the beginning.
Gallery[]
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 Villains
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Audition Ichi The Killer | ||