Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Lesson of Evil Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 19, 2014

Takashi Miike's "Lesson of Evil" a.k.a. "Aku no kyôten" arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Third Window Films. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer as well as a lengthy documentary with footage from the shooting of the film and cast and crew interviews. In Japanese, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked.

The teacher

Seiji Hasumi (Hideaki Ito, Sukiyaki Western Django, Kamui Gaiden) is the most popular teacher at Shinko Academy. His students like him because he is young, energetic and always willing to listen to them. His colleagues admire his intelligence and professionalism.

But after an odd accident another teacher, Masanobu Tsurii (Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Cold Fish, Himizu), makes an important discovery that suddenly changes the way Hasumi behaves when he is amongst his students. Then some of them disappear while Tsurii surprises everyone and commits suicide. Determined to find out what has happened to their friends, and sensing that Hasumi might have a darker side they were previously unaware of, a small group of students begin researching his past. Visibly irritated, the handsome teacher decides to teach the ’troublemakers’ a special lesson they will never forget.

Japanese auteur Takashi Miike’s film Lesson of Evil is scary and entertaining at the same time. It is scary because it deals with a very sensitive subject without trying to be even remotely politically correct. Needless to say, it can very easily be misinterpreted and used to promote the madness it chronicles. It is entertaining because Miike’s very dark sense of humor actually gives the film a surreal quality which makes it quite fascinating to behold.

Lesson of Evil fits somewhere between Denis Villeneuve's Polytechnique and Kinji Fukasaku's Battle Royale, but it isn’t right to compare it to them. Indeed, Miike is a unique stylist whose work is simply in a category of its own. At best, one could compare portions of Lesson of Evil to the two films mentioned above, but Miike’s film offers a completely different experience. And since no two Miike films are alike, it does not even make sense to look for another similar film from his body of work.

The bulk of the controversial footage is during the second half. After Hasumi discovers that one of his colleagues has gathered enough information to compromise him, he goes berserk and all hell breaks loose. The carnage isn’t easy to watch, but it has to be said that Miike’s eye for detail, the decors and the lighting are quite impressive.

Ito is outstanding as the psychopath -- he looks incredibly charming yet later on truly dangerous. There is something about the way he looks into the camera that is incredibly disturbing. Erina Mizuno, a wonderful young actress, leaves a lasting impression as the naïve and looking for attention Miya Yasuhara. Takehiro Hira is also excellent as Takeki Kume, a teacher who is secretly dating one of his students.

Miike and cinematographer Nobuyasu Kita shotLesson of Evil with the Arri Alexa camera. The two also collaborated on the period dramas Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai and 13 Assassins.

The film is based on Yusuke Kishi’s best-selling novel Lesson of the Evil (Aku no Kyoten), which was initially published in the Japanese monthly magazine Betsatsu Bungeishunju.

Lesson of Evil Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Takashi Miike's Lesson of Evil arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Third Window Films.

When there is plenty of light definition and clarity are outstanding and even exceptionally small details are very easy to see. Image depth is consistently pleasing as well, though during the second half there are portions of the footage from Shinko Academy where contrast occasionally fluctuates. It is easy to tell, however, that the fluctuations are part of the film's image design (they occur naturally when the action moves from the decorated rooms to other parts of the school). Colors are lush, stable, and natural. Overall image stability is outstanding. There are no serious encoding anomalies. However, there is definitely room for improvement as occasionally light artifacts sneak in (see the upper right side of screencapture #12). All in all, this is a good technical presentation of Lesson of Evil, but with some specific encoding adjustments the film can look even more impressive in high-definition. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Lesson of Evil Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. For the record, Third Window Films have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.

The lossless track opens up the film exceptionally well. While there are no elaborate sound effects, during the second half the rifle shots are notably crisp and clear and the sound of broken glass could be quite impressive. There are other random sounds and noises that are also incredibly easy to identity during the chaos. The dialog is very crisp, clean, always stable and easy to follow. There are no audio dropouts or digital distortions to report in this review.

Lesson of Evil Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original for Lesson of Evil. In Japanese, with imposed English subtitles. (2 min, 1080p).

• Making of - this very informative documentary chronicles the entire production history of Lesson of Evil. In addition to plenty of raw footage from the shooting of the film, there are numerous clips from interviews with cast and crew members. In Japanese, with optional English subtitles. (121 min).

Lesson of Evil Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Takashi Miike's Lesson of Evil is one of those polarizing films that is very difficult to grade. I think that it is almost impossible to defend it in a rational way, but Miike is a unique stylist whose work does not really need to be defended. He just shoots different films and they are definitely not meant to be "crowd-pleasers". My feeling is that those of you who have enjoyed his more extreme films will like Lesson of Evil while everyone else will probably find it quite frustrating. I personally am glad that it is available to see on Blu-ray. RECOMMENDED.