Aku no kyôten

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.

Another high school-themed thriller from Japan, based around extreme violence and death, and directed by maestro Takashi Miike, no less. LESSON OF THE EVIL is no BATTLE ROYALE, however; it's nothing like an entertaining action movie, instead more of a suspense thriller along the line of CONFESSIONS. The story sees an idealistic teacher at a school who goes out of the way to see that things with his pupils are running smoothly. God forbid you get in his way, however....

LESSON OF THE EVIL starts off deceptively slowly, although the plotting is never less than engaging. The first hour is a slow burn, building up realistic characters surrounded by some extremely dark sub-plots where bad taste seems to be the order of the day. It's typical Miike, in fact; difficult to define and fresh-feeling throughout. It's towards the climax where things go absolutely crazy with endless, jaw-dropping violence of the variety that would have been instantly banned by British censors back in the 1980s. These day it passes uncut with nary a word...how times have changed, eh? And thank God for Miike for his consistently high-quality direction and film-making skill.

One of Takeshi Miike's best films; one that is far to complex to sum up briefly (and I don't do long reviews). But I will say this; if you enjoy seeing irritating teenagers get theirs in a variety of bloody ways, this is the film for you.

Claret filled, violent, creepy and funny.

Firstly let me say this is a film not for everyone.personally i loved it , acting was superb direction editing all spot on. as with all films of this genre from japan and and other Asian countries it will be remade (badly i may add ) by the more popular outlets of ,lets just say western money making studios. OK the plot is a bit of a slow burner at the start but soon picks up into an easy to follow story line (some might find the subject matter hard to stomach )but the acting is superb and the gory violence very believable at times. it is hard to compare another film like this where the acting and dialogue go so well together and the lead actor is a joy to watch (perfect casting).in my opinion better than battle royal and probably my fave film due to the acting and crisp and psychotic performance a gem.

The film takes a lot of time to build the main character, but it is told in a vague way and does not show the unique features of the killer.

The student character cast is not deep, perhaps because of the lack of time, if it was made into a series, it would probably be better.

The end of the movie is really crazy, even though it's weird and some of the student character scenes are a bit goofy, but this is a murder movie lol.

But if you consider it as a regular murder movie, it still deserves a high rating.