Lesson of the Evil (2012)

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.

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 is one of my favourite Japanese directors, but ... and it's a big but ... he is very hit or miss. And sadly this film is a great big miss. It has a strange construction. It's very slow to start. We're almost halfway through the film before the signature Miike violence kicks in. And then it's very pedestrian. It was very reminiscent of Gus Van Sant's movie 'Elephant' based on the Columbine school shootings. That was a tedious movie, so too is this one. The psycho teacher wanders round the school with a high powered rifle wasting his pupils one by one. There is no tension. He just shoots them. When he has shot them all ... the police arrive. Huh? And then to cap it all .... before the credits roll ... we see the caption 'To be continued ...' I really couldn't imagine why anyone would want to see a second installment of this tedium.

A very cool movie, its also hilarious, but definitely not for everyone. It might just be Takashi Miike's most mainstream movie of his that I've seen, but still pretty crazy as always.Its basically a thriller comedy about a likable teacher who goes on killing students and parents making it look like a suicide.Before you watch it, you have to know what you're in for, its one of those movies that doesn't take itself seriously, its satiric for most of the time and it knows just when to be funny. The story is pretty ridiculous, but it manages to be unexpected and thrilling, its also gory and pretty funny, it had the whole audience laughing.On the other hand, it was kind of messy like every other Takashi film, but these messy sequences and flashbacks are relieved by other scenes with interesting music choices that fit perfectly into whats going on, even adding a little humor to it, and some dance moments and funny dialogue by the students at the wrong moment. It felt similar to the first "Scream" and reminded me in some ways to the ridiculousness in Robert Rodriguez movies.I'd recommend it to people who liked "Django Unchained", "Battle Royale", "Machete", "Videodrome", "A Clockwork Orange", or any Takashi Miike film.