Murakami Ryu (b. 1952) is a prolific writer who has produced writings in a diverse array of genres, including his award-winning debut novel "Almost Transparent Blue" and his critically-acclaimed work "Coin Locker Babies". Takahashi Harb examines from a feminist perspective two seemingly disparate novels, "Kyoko" (1995) and "Audition"(1997), alongside their film adaptations directed by Murakami himself in 2000 and Takashi Miike in 1999 respectively. While the titular character of "Kyoko" is an innocent ingenue, the character of Asami in the horror-thriller "Audition" is anything but. However, they are ultimately manifestations of a certain shared concern and a recurrent motif within Murakami's work.