Mackie's Back in Town!: Lesson of the Evil (2012)

Lesson of the Evil (Aku no kyôten) (Japan, 2012)
Rating: ***1/2
Starring: Takayuki Yamada, Hideaki Itô, Howard Harris

Ah, Takashi Miike. Yes, the man responsible for the psycho-thriller Audition, the violent Yakuza film Ichi The Killer (which I personally find overrated and boring. Sorry, fans) and at least half a dozen surreal "mind fuck" films that I've yet to understand. (Visitor Q? What are you?) He's in and out within the horror business, making movies of varying genre such as live action film adaptations of the popular Ace Attorney: Phoenix Wright games and even lighthearted kiddie flicks such as The Great Yokai War, so it's a bit impressive seeing him back tackling the slasher category this time with much guts and mayhem possible.

Mr. Hasumi is a well respected teacher working in Shinko Academy; good-looking, well built, calm, sincere, he's loved by both students and most of his colleagues. But what they didn't know is that Hasumi is a terrible sociopath and he has a nasty habit of killing people wherever he goes, simply setting them all up as suicides or strange disappearance.

He'd done this plenty of times from other schools and now he's preparing to do the same for his current class. But when some people begins to get too close on uncovering his secrets, Hasumi quickly devises a plot to cover up his tracks and, at the same time, fulfill his sick fantasy of murder and mayhem, all of this involving an upcoming school day festival and his own class.

With a running time of two hours and so, Lesson of The Evil is a slow-burn thriller that keeps its pace and tone fresh until the randomly brutal climax, showcasing the life of a man who feels nothing other than the need to kill. What I find disturbingly effective here is how well the film traversed the double life our leading psycho have, an interesting showcase of what could be hiding behind every perfect man's smile. At school, Hasumi is well-dressed and poised, full of energy and concern, but behind this façade is a hateful person who prefers living in an old runny shack where he also hides away the bodies of those he killed. He has a deep fascination with the song Mack the Knife (including its original Moritat version) and the Norse legend of Huginn and Muninn, two ravens he believes to be watching his every move. There are moments where we watch him trying to explore his own fascinations and needs, seeing if he would react or understand something so mundane like any normal person would, such as blackmailing people and starting illegal relationships with his students, but all of this seems to show him very little interest, which makes the character so uneasy and effectively creepy.

And though it's not new to see psychos doing their best to be presentable in front of a huge crowd before letting their inner animal to hunt down victims at night (oh, the countless slashers and thrillers modeled after Norman Bates!), Lesson's sheer focus on its star killer's life, provided with flashbacks, a bit of his own narrations and even his dreams, pushed the bar to an unpredictable angle as none of these details seem to match up to why he's acting, thinking and feeling this way. With the only suggestion that he does these horrors because he "can" puts more shock value to the climatic rampage he'll have at the film's last running half hour or so.

Relentlessly, all I could say about said climax is that it's bound to scar some minds, especially those who are very sensitive regarding topics of school shootings. Armed with a rifle and a box-full of shells, there's something rather distraught watching our main man gun down every student he can find. He did this with no witty one-liners, no mad ramblings, all shown in unflinching close-up of heads and chests being shot open; it's depressing and maddening, and yet it's hard to turn away from it as you stare in disbelief with the untamed violence onscreen. There's actually a few killings prior to this massacre but they were tame if not obscured by comparison. There wasn't any clear indication that the film will lead up to this, so the random suggestion to just kill off these kids, add in the brutally bloody special effects here, made this the infamous highlight of the film.

Being a character driven story, I have to give Hideaki Itô a big hand for an outstanding performance as both a charming teacher and a heartless psychopath. Not much can be said for most of the remaining cast, although I do give them highlights since they act their part with most realism. (hence making the latter shootout so hard to watch) When it comes to the direction,Takashi Miike certainly shows that he still have some magic left when it comes to straight-forward horror, managing to shock, disturb and intrigue us. My only concern about this film is the running time, which lengthens the film to an extent that it tests our patience and stomach for unrelenting brutality and playing along with a two-faced villain. Not everyone's going to enjoy this as the violence can get repetitive and shallow, with zero chances for these students to actually fight back. (Though, I do see one or two opportunities for them to gang up and beat Hasumi down with his own gun, but that's one reason why this film is labeled as a "slasher" by some. Me included) Anybody who is hoping for a deeper meaning to this movie may not find what they are looking for, as this is certainly as close as Japan can do for a big-budgeted slasher.

Lesson of the Evil is a slick, bloody, tremendously bodycount heavy campus slasher that definitely divides attention and taste. If brutal school violence is what you're looking for, then so long as you don't bitch out about it and just say to yourself whenever you're gonna faint it's just a movie, then trail out this mean mother and see what Miike have been up to lately. Those who're easily offended by blood, violence and lengthy horror flicks, then look elsewhere. Except India.

Bodycount:
1 male caught on house fire, burned to death
1 male and 1 female stabbed to death with hunting knife (flashback)
1 male hanged with a bag handle
1 male stabbed on the neck with soldering iron
1 male set ablaze (flashback)
1 male seen shot on the mouth (flashback)
1 female had her neck broken
1 male shot with a shotgun
1 male shot on the face with a shotgun
1female shot with a shotgun
1 male shot with a shotgun
1 male shot with a shotgun
1 male shot with a shotgun
1 male shot with a shotgun
1 male shot with a shotgun
1 male shot with a shotgun
1 male shot with a shotgun
1 female shot with a shotgun
1 female shot with a shotgun
1 male shot with a shotgun
1 male shot with a shotgun
1 male shot with a shotgun
1 female shot with a shotgun
1 female shot with a shotgun
1 victim shot with a shotgun
1 female thrown off the floor
1 victim shot with a shotgun
1 female shot with a shotgun
1 female shot on the head with a shotgun
1 female shot with a shotgun
1 female shot with a shotgun
1 male shot with a shotgun
1 female shot with a shotgun
1 male shot with a shotgun
1 female shot with a shotgun
1 female shot with a shotgun
1 male shot with a shotgun
1 female shot with a shotgun
1 female shot with a shotgun
1 male shot with a shotgun
1 male shot with a shotgun
1 male shot with a shotgun
1 male shot with a shotgun
1 female found dead with wrist cut
1 male shot with a shotgun, knifed to the neck
1 male choked on hand towel, shot to the mouth with a shotgun
Total: 47