Lesson Of The Evil (2012)

[Superfly]

Saw this at the NYAFF. Takashi Miike returns to his over-the-top style. But I have to say I think if average Americans would have known about this film they would have protested the screening. This subject matter is pretty taboo in the states. Watching at times seemed a bit disturbing. Has anyone else seen this and what is your take on it?

[KUNG FU BOB]

Saw this at the NYAFF. Takashi Miike returns to his over-the-top style. But I have to say I think if average Americans would have known about this film they would have protested the screening. This subject matter is pretty taboo in the states. Watching at times seemed a bit disturbing. Has anyone else seen this and what is your take on it?

What is the film's subject Superfly?

I wasn't able to attend the festival this year. Did you see a lot of films there? Please post about your experience in the NYAFF thread. We'd all love to read it.

[Vegeta84]

I saw this one about a month ago and was amazed by it. This one could easily become a cult hit in the states.

SLIGHT SPOILERS

The ending said "to be continued" is there really a sequel happening?

[KUNG FU BOB]

I saw this one about a month ago and was amazed by it. This one could easily become a cult hit in the states.

SLIGHT SPOILERS

The ending said "to be continued" is there really a sequel happening?

Um... still wondering what the subject is? Is it a yakuza flick?

[Vegeta84]

Um... still wondering what the subject is? Is it a yakuza flick?

XYTIhkROVgQ

Here is the trailer. In a very simple nutshell, it's about a psycho school teacher.

[Takuma]

Saw it last year, posted in a different topic:

Lesson of the Evil turned out quite good. I a bit was scared of seeing it after Miike's previous effort Ai to Makoto (For Love's Sake) turning out a worthless drivel and Windgrouds' typically pessimistic press recap finding so many negative reviews/phrases to quote. But, to my relief, even the 129 minute running time and lack of any deeper sub-context couldn't prevent the film from being one of the year's more entertaining rides.

With most Japanese films these days looking like ass because of either low production values, or that dammed fashionable "contrasts to hell" look (which also make Ai to Makoto pretty ugly to look at), it felt like a bucketful of fresh air to see Lesson of the Evil's razor sharp, natural and colorful visuals. This by far the best looking film Miike has ever done.

It's true there isn't much character dept and or the sharp satire of Fukasaku's Battle Royale (which feels an oddly close comparison) but is that really such a big sin? Lesson of the Evil is a slick thriller with goregeous visuals*, some silly back story, outrageously violent massacre finale, attractive youth cast, and Hideaki Ito's utterly charming performance as The Bold and the Beautiful's Ridge gone shotgun psycho in high school.

Yes, it could be better, but who expected Miike's shotgun slasher to aim for the intelligence award of the year? Seeing the lovable English teacher electrifying crows to death at his forest cottage, and listening to Die Moritat von Mackie Messer (1928) you know Miike's not dead yet!

Lesson of the Evil should also restore the producer's faith in Miike after the miserable box office failure of Ai to Makoto. In one month Lesson of the Evil has done more money at the domestic box office than The Dark Knight Rises in all year! In the light of the recent real life event all US screening seem destined to be cancelled, though.

* a typing mistake that, in closer look, turned out not to be that much of a mistake at all.

[OpiumKungFuCracker]

Will be watching this next, can't wait!!!

[Takuma]

HK BD & DVD are also available:

http://www.dddhouse.com/v3/product_details.php?ProductID=13633

I love how my friend said this is his favorite movie of 2012. And he's a high school English teacher!

[KUNG FU BOB]

Thanks for the info Takuma.

Love "goregeous visuals". Classic!

HK BD & DVD are also available:

http://www.dddhouse.com/v3/product_details.php?ProductID=13633

I love how my friend said this is his favorite movie of 2012. And he's a high school English teacher!

Crazy! Well, I'll see what my wife- who teaches elementary school- thinks of it!

[tenebre]

Miike's best in a long time for me!

[Superfly]

Sorry for not being more detailed Bob. But its basically a slasher film but with a shotgun. But add to it the extremeness of Mr Miike and you can just imagine the results. There is a just bizarre back story. But watching the utter insaneness to whats happening makes it fit in some strange way.

I definitely think this will be the Battle Royale for the next generation.

[KUNG FU BOB]

Sorry for not being more detailed Bob. But its basically a slasher film but with a shotgun. But add to it the extremeness of Mr Miike and you can just imagine the results. There is a just bizarre back story. But watching the utter insaneness to whats happening makes it fit in some strange way.

I definitely think this will be the Battle Royale for the next generation.

No problem bro. I'm either crying about "spoilers", or crying about not enough info!

Sounds good! I'm looking forward to this one.

[tenebre]

i finally watched my BD and did a review

I liked it

3TCAz_OC8us

[One Armed Boxer]

I got through watching this one over the weekend, and surprised myself to realize this is the first Miike Takashi movie I've checked out since 2010's '13 Assassins'.

'Lesson of the Evil' is probably the closest Miike has come to merging the bigger budgets he now has access to, with the sensibility of his earlier DTV works that a lot of his fan base still crave for.

I noticed a lot of reviews for this movie claim it to be a piece of 2 halves, with the first half being a fairly dull build-up, and the last half being the pay-off. This is true to a degree in regards to it definitely being about the build-up then the pay-off, but I found myself preferring the slow build-up of the first half more than the blood splattered final hour. For the first half of the movie there's definitely a feel of the same Miike that directed 'Audtion', as we're presented with what are mostly every day ordinary circumstances, however he'll constantly throw in very small glimpses that not all is what it seems. Just like in 'Audition', as brief as they may be they're effectively unsettling, precisely because they're thrown in between such scenes of normality.

Miike delivers on the promise of the pot boiling first hour, with a second half which as Superfly initially mentioned, makes it a surprise that the movie got a release in the US at all. It becomes a fairly unrelenting bloodbath, but it's not without the moments of absurdist humor that Miike is known for, and there's even some Cronenberg-esque body horror thrown in for some good measure.

All in all a very entertaining flick, but definitely not one to watch with your kids.

[KUNG FU BOB]

I never posted after my wife and I watched this. It's a good one, and extremely brutal and disturbing. I agree with you guys about this one.

[Doctor Schnabel von Rom]

I never posted after my wife and I watched this. It's a good one, and extremely brutal and disturbing. I agree with you guys about this one.

have the same view about the movie - real gripping and schocking at the end! liked the weird scenes à la david cronenberg too!

miike is such a talented director!

[Gwai LO]

This movie is beautifully brutal and amazing! The last hour I could not look away from the screen. A build up of epic proportion. I understand how some people think the beginning is slow, but I enjoyed the small brutality building up to a epic ending.. Wow I already want to watch this again!

[Yakuza954]

I definitely think this will be the Battle Royale for the next generation.

I don't see it having that kind of impact. Aside from the end massacre, the film lacks any iconic scenes. And the ending -- while long and brutal -- is basically just a man with a shotgun mowing down defenseless schoolchildren. The shock factor is there but there's no intricacy to the action choreography, nor are salient political statements made. Battle Royale satirized a variety of different issues but not limited to: censorship, the Japanese education system, militaristic values, and reality television. Lesson of Evil is really just about a very disturbed individual doing very disturbing things.

Expanding on my point about iconic scenes, by my count Battle Royale has at least five:

1) The opening sequence, including the following: the on-screen text with Giuseppe Verdi and Masamichi Amano's soundtrack playing in the background, the previous Battle Royale winner smiling while drenched in blood, and the yearbook photo of Kitano sitting with his high school class.

2) The rules meeting leading all the way up to Kiriyama's first massacre. Too many memorable things to mention here but some of them are: the rules explanation given by Kitano and the enthusiastic TV presenter, Kiriyama and Kawada's introduction, Kitano killing the first highschooler, the first highschooler killing another highschooler, Kiriyama killing a bunch of highschoolers, etc. This 15 minute stretch goes by so fast it feels like 5 minutes; Kinji Fukasaku and Takeshi Kitano are at the top of their games here.

3) Schoolgirl shootout in lighthouse: great action set piece.

4) Takako Chigusa gets her face impaled, madness ensues. (Chiaki Kuriyama's entire career post-Battle Royale has been based on this one scene.)

5) Final showdown with Kiriyama: great action set piece.

I've shown the final massacre in Lesson to Evil to people and they've all been glued to their seats, but that's just because high school kids are getting their brains blown off. And as someone who remembers seeing Battle Royale for the first time because a VCD of it was being passed around the boy's locker room back in middle school, I struggle to see Lesson of Evil reaching that level of impact. Partly because Battle Royale already did it first, but mainly because Battle Royale was more than just high school kids getting offed.