johnnyboyz
Two things strike me in hindsight having seen "Lesson of Evil": firstly, the IMDB's detailing of the fact it barely got a general release anywhere in the world - was limited, it would seem, to the multiplexes of its country of origin (Japan) and the various fringe screenings that prop up the more obscure film festivals around the world. Secondly, there does not exist, at time of writing, any kind of sequel or continuation of the piece - something it seems to infer will be the case as it closes. Was this a result of the director, a certain Takashi Miike, holding up his hands and admitting he'd dropped the ball with this project? If one, or both, of these reasons is the case, then it would not be very hard to work out why. Certainly, viewing "Lesson of Evil" half a decade after its production, in the wake of various world events such as the forming of the Islamic State of the Iraq and Levant, is unpleasant - one critic writing for Variety Magazine cited as to how the film left him cold after having seen it in the wake of the Anders Breivik perpetrated massacre in Norway in 2011. Others have pulled it up for its poor attention to pace, wherein the film plods along in its depiction of a mundane high-school relations drama before inexplicably exploding into the sort of exploitation-like shock-fest one might expect Miike to lend his name to. Unfortunately for the gore-hounds, there is some 90 minutes of uninspired backlog to sit through first...To divulge too much on what precisely it is that constitutes said shock-fest would be to spoil things, which in one sense is the problem: a dilemma is faced having seen "Lesson of Evil", and that is as to whether you view what takes up the bulk of its final reel as the perfect dizzying conclusion to a tautly made film about realistic people going about their lives, in which case you are going to reward the film generously, or whether you believe it to be gratuitous nonsense, in which case you must provide the film with a rating as lowly as possible.Annoyingly, I have sat on the fence - I was repulsed and perhaps a little offended, but I did not switch the film off in a fit of anger; the song over the film's closing credits seems to beg us to "...think about it", and I have done, and I am still unsure what to make of what I have seen. While perhaps you could say it was similar in tone and content - flashes of raw violence in-between a lead's regimented existence - the film is not necessarily ABOUT ANYTHING in the way "American Psycho" was, and Miike has certainly not made a film with the flair or zeal of something like "Taxi Driver".The setting is an everyday Japanese high-school: small groups of kids hang out and muck around, turning first-aid classes into a bit of a laugh. Teachers are frustrated at kids for cheating during exams via cellular phones. One particular elderly teacher is singled out by the pupils for their own, private game of ridicule because of the way he clears his throat. In amidst all this is Hideaki Itô, who plays English teacher Seiji Hasumi. He seems friendly. He chats to female students without appearing lecherous; catches one pupil reading a comic book in class, but doesn't go ballistic and takes early morning jogs. Things become a little more complicated around the school when a parent is adamant nobody is doing anything about a bullying problem his daughter is suffering, and rumours of an abusive relationship between a gym teacher and a female surface. After this, Hasumi himself has to deal with an advance from one of his own female pupils and then.... people begin showing up dead in apparent suicides. Miike has essentially made one, long drama set inside of a high-school chock full of all those day-time soap opera clichés, but decided to drop into proceedings a series of mysterious deaths which turn out to be the work of a psychopathic serial killer with rooted connections to the school and its personnel. Half of me wants to dismiss the film as gratuitous nonsense which forces us to sit through a truly harrowing passage of film whereby lambs are essentially led to a kind of slaughter under the pretence of safety and security. Film-making, in the traditional sense, appears to go out of the window during these scenes as a bloody free-for-all is indulged in to a poppy soundtrack of crooner music and the disturbing interior mise-en-scene of a kindergarten. Nothing is necessarily under the microscope and if there is anything at all to be said, I missed it. The other half wants to commend it for being a tautly made drama which burns and burns before erupting, not unlike "Carrie", into the graduation ball from Hell. It is not without its moments whereby Miike demonstrates his ability as a film-maker - one particular scene, whereby a student is at the mercy of the psychopath and tied up in a darkened classroom at night, is shot to a slowly rotating fan inside of an air-vent which periodically casts light and shadow on the room thus bringing to our attention the stark nature of the life/death situation. Whether you enjoy the film or not will be dependent on two things: your threshold to being patient and your threshold to being tolerant of controversy in art. In the modern world, tolerance (towards prophet-Muhammad cartoons; the censoring of the n-word during day-time broadcasts of "The Dam Busters"; the periodic banning of "Grand Theft Auto" games in Australia, etc.) and attention spans are on the fast decline, which might infer as to why "Lesson of Evil" struggled with some critics and most audiences. While I would recommend "Lesson of Evil", I would do so with caution.
christopher-underwood
This begins so well - fabulous photography and cool horror, measured and mysterious. Many elements of Japanese school and teenage life are introduced, including sophisticated methods of cheating at exams, teacher harassment of girls and boys and bullying. Indeed for most of the film we are intrigued and fascinated and even appalled as matters progress. It is just that instead of all this leading up to some revelatory or vengeful denouement we get 30/40 minutes constant and irrational slaughter in which we have no interest or involvement in at all. Perhaps the film should have run backwards and the early scenes be seen as explanatory but presented in the manner before us it appears sterile and uninteresting however colourful and violent.
Peter Mckain
Takashi Miike seems to dabble in all sorts of genres but he returns to his dark comedic roots in this one. The story is about a teacher who appears nice but there is something about him. He is almost too nice and cartoony a real dream teacher. Everything is going great till certain characters begin to look into his past that's when things really start to move. The film is long being over 2 hours if i remember correctly. The film covers topics such as bullying, child abuse, multiple personality disorder and builds up to one crazy second half which i will not spoil at one point it gets quite surreal and whilst being violent is not very gory. Unfortunately, it does the possible sequel thing which i believe likely won't come. The only problem with the film is it may drag if you are in the wrong mood and the music gets a little repetitive the only song it plays is mack the knife the original and the American version. It is very cartoony in the acting style and almost feels like an adaptation of a manga or anime. story 3/5 acting 4/5 gore and effects 3/5
Martin Bradley
As psycho-killer movies go "Lesson of the Evil" is up there with the best of them. It's by the Japanese horror maestro Takashi Miike and is set for the most part around a school where handsome young teacher Hasami, (Hideaki Ito), has his own somewhat extreme methods of dealing with rule-breakers. Miike's genius is to treat everything so matter- of-factly the film is almost banal to begin with before letting rip. Although extremely violent, this isn't torture porn but a brilliant slow-burner than builds to a fairly devastating and disturbing climax. I certainly can't see this playing in parts of America where school shootings have become almost common place. By making the villain someone who, in another film. should have been the hero Miike neatly subverts the genre, (think "Dexter"). There's also a nice self- depreciating streak of humour running through the picture, not to mention several great recordings of 'Mack the Knife'. Excellent, if very unnerving.
