Ten years after the release of Takashi Miike's film of the novel, Ryu Murakami's "Audition (Odishon)" has finally been translated into English. Aoyama, a fortysomething documentary maker, decides it is about time he remarried. His beautiful, talented and understanding wife Ryoko has been dead for seven years, a viral cancer cutting short her life. His teenage son Shige agrees that his father needs someone else in his life. Aoyama elicits the help of his advertising executive friend Yoshikawa to find a would-be bride. The two men plan to hold auditions for a potential (phantom) film.
Four thousand applicants send in a photo, a resume and a short essay about themselves. A young woman whose essay he finds intriguing and whose photo mesmerizes him captivates Aoyama. On the day of the auditions, Aoyama perfunctorily assesses the applicants, nervously awaiting the appearance of the beguiling Asami Yamasaki.
What Miike's film doesn't tell you about Aoyama is that he is a lover of jazz and classical music, that his perfect partner should have a background in music or ballet. Nor does the film include the radio show used to promote the audition — a sort of "American Idol" for would-be actors. It also conflates certain characters, completely changing the personal interaction between a nervous and reticent Aoyama in the novel and a somewhat sleazy and predatorial Aoyama in the film.