Lesson of the Evil

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.

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

From the highly prolific but also controversial Japanese director, Takashi Miike, who's made virtually all kinds of movies in his filmmaking career so far, Lesson of the Evil arrives as yet another twisted thriller but unlike Audition or Ichi the Killer, it's a mostly dull cinema whose only strength is its blood-soaked massacre that goes on throughout its third act.

Based on the novel of the same name, Lesson of the Evil tells the story of a very charming high-school teacher who is loved by his students & respected by his peers. His flamboyant personality however is only a mask that hides his true face, which ultimately surfaces when he decides to tackle the issue of bullying & bad behaviour among the student body with his own deranged plan.

Written & directed by Takashi Miike, Lesson of the Evil has all the bizarre elements that one usually expects from this notorious director but the story is just all-out flat, vapid & lifeless despite all the gore content it packs in. For the majority of its runtime, it's just one segment placed on top of another with no idea of where it's supposed to be headed until it arrives at its extended climax, where it redeems itself a little.

It's in the last 30 minutes or so where the movie finds its sure footing but it's a long wait to get there. The entire climactic segment has blood smeared through each n every frame and is possibly the only entertaining segment in the story and while it has the ability to shock & upset the newcomers, it's also fun in its own wicked manner for those who are pretty much used to this director's works. If only it was like this from the start.

On an overall scale, Lesson of the Evil is a brutal, violent & disturbing nightmare if one only takes the final act into account for the remainder of the story only turns it into a very boring thriller. There are plenty of interesting elements scattered around and the lead character is undoubtedly an intriguing creation but a more cohesive structure, better editing & stronger characterisation would've improved the whole experience by a significant margin.

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.

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.