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.
Review of Lesson of the Evil
