She always gets a part
Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo
Ishibashi), a middle-aged widower who lost his wife to an illness seven
years prior, is urged by his 17-year-old son, Shigehiko (Tetsu Sawaki), to begin dating women again.
Shigehiko is somewhat doubtful of his father's love life, but plans to move out
when he finishes school and does not want his father to be alone. Aoyama's
friend and colleague, Yoshikawa (Jun
Kunimura), a film producer, devises a plan to hold a mock-audition, in which
young, beautiful women would audition for the "part" of Aoyama's new wife, under
the impression that they are auditioning for a new film, but actually so Aoyama
can marry one of the finalist contestants.
Aoyama is immediately enchanted by Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina), a 24-year-old woman with a soft voice
and reserved, yet confident, mannerisms. In her audition, Asami says that she was once a ballerina
headed for greatness, but had to give up dancing after an injury. Aoyama, still
reeling from the death of his wife, is attracted to her apparent emotional
depth. Yoshikawa warns him about Asami, saying that he has a bad feeling about her.
None of the references on her résumé were able to be reached and her job
history is shaky. The music producer she claimed to work for had gone missing.
Unfortunately, Aoyama is so enthralled by her inner and outer beauty that he is
blinded by his feelings for her.
She lives in an empty apartment, furnished only with a sack and a telephone. Four days following the
audition, she sits perfectly still in the middle of the floor next to the
telephone, waiting for it to ring. When it finally does, the sack lurches across
the room and makes gurgling sounds. She ignores it as she waits a few rings
before answering. When Asami answers the phone, she confesses to Aoyama that she never expected
him to call. After several dates, she agrees to accompany him to a seaside
hotel. Once at the hotel, Asami tells Aoyama about the abuse she suffered as a
child and shows him the burn scars on her body. Asami asks Aoyama to love only
her. Aoyama promises to do so and they make love.
The next morning, Aoyama is awakened by a telephone call; it is the front
desk wondering if, since his companion left, he too would be checking out. He
realizes Asami is nowhere to be found. Using her résumé, Aoyama searches in vain
for her. Aoyama visits the old ballet studio where Asami claimed to have trained for
12 years. He finds that the studio is now inhabited only by a disabled old man
in a wheelchair with artificial feet. It is revealed that the man caused the
burn scars on Asami's legs. Then he goes to the bar where Asami used to work and someone tells him that
it has been closed for a year because the woman who was in charge, the wife of a
record producer, was found dismembered. When the police put her body back
together, they found 3 extra fingers, an extra ear, and an extra tongue.
Asami goes to Aoyama's house during his search. Once there, she finds a photo
of his dead wife. Enraged, she slips a sedative in his drink and hides. Aoyama comes home,
has a drink and faints. The movie cuts to a sequence about Asami's past and
present. In one scene, The contents of the sack are revealed to be a man missing
both feet, his tongue, one ear and three fingers on one hand. He crawls out of
the sack and begs for food. Asami vomits into a dog dish and places it on the
floor for the man. The man sticks his face in the bowl of vomit, and hungrily
consumes it.
A while later, Asami returns to the drugged and paralyzed Aoyama. As she
walks into the room, the audience sees the twisted body of Aoyama's pet dog. She
proceeds to inject Aoyama with an agent that paralyzes his body, but keeps his
nerves alert. She then tortures him
with needles in his abdomen and under his eyes. As she is torturing him, she
tells him he is just like everyone else in not being able to love only her. She
talks about how he has love for his son (whom she plans to kill as well) and
their dog, and how this is not acceptable, because then he will never be
completely hers. Her torture of him, she explains, is to teach him the meaning
of needing someone. She then cuts off his left foot with a wire saw.
While Asami begins to cut off his other foot, she is surprised by Aoyama's
son returning home. She hides and prepares to attack Shigehiko. Shigehiko
discovers his father on the floor, turns, and is surprised by Asami. Asami fails
to disable Aoyama's son. In defense, he kicks her down a flight of stairs,
breaking her neck. Aoyama tells his son to call the police.
Copyright(C) 2007
- 2020. All rights reserved.
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