Film description

Takashi Miike, the cultest of the cult Japanese directors, does not cease to surprise, and "Lesson of the Evil" is the best proof of that. This explosive generic mixture, skillfully combining a thriller, a horror, a teenage movie, and a school romance, seems to be a macabre critique of the Japanese education system, or perhaps a rather non-innovative story about the duality of human nature and how it is always darkest right under the lamp.
In fact, Miike’s film is a startling, postmodern play with the expectations of the audience and the standard plot patterns.

Lesson of the Evil" is an ironic, intelligent joke, a pastiche of American slashers, with a conscious hyperbolization of violence, and a pastiche of films about students falling for their teachers. It is a cunning trap for the viewer, a mockery of everyone who would take this story seriously. After all, it is Takashi Miike – a man of whom anything can be expected.

Krzysztof Gonerski