Aku no kyôten

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.

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

First part of this movie was a slow burn. I think that most of the people prefer the second part, when hell break loose. On the contrary, i believe that the second part is worse, maybe even significantly worse. It became so extremely violent that it looked almost like a comedy, so to speak. Nothing felt real, it was like a video game, people were getting killed and i didn't even blink an eye because it was not convincing.

The first part felt real though. It was "indeed" a lesson of the evil. It was shocking and thrilling and dark, much more disturbing than the gorefest which followed. Even acting was better.

Overall, i liked it, even the second part was at least exciting and it was a fun ride, as long as you like psychological drama horror movies which turn into a bloodshed. But i could have been much better if it took itself more seriously.

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.

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.