Takashi Miike to get dark again with "Aku No Kyoten (Lesson Of The Evil)"

by Chris MaGee

For a while now the general consensus is that director Takashi Miike, once the go-to guy to shock and disturb, had gone mainstream. His recent output had kind of bore that out: big budget remakes like "13 Assassins" and "Harakiri: Death of a Samurai", childrens' films like "Ninja Kids" and video game adaptations like "Ace Attorney". There's still a lot to like in Miike's recent films, but where are the dark visions from films like "Audition" and "Gozu" that are still haunting us Japanese film fans? It's possible that Miike's next project will be a throwback to those grotesque days... maybe.

Twitch announced this week that Miike's next project will be a screen adaptation of Yusuke Kishi's novel "Aku No Kyoten (Lesson Of The Evil)". Originally published in 2008 thge books tells the story of a seemingly respectable high school teacher who harbours murderous obessions, namely offing his students. It's reported that actor Hideaki Ito, who previously starred in Miike's "Sukiyaki Western Django", will star in the lead role.

While Tetsuya Nakashima seems to have sparked an interest in films about teachers doing ill to their students with his 2010 film "Confessions", we have to remember that Miike did that formula much better justice with his 2006 thriller "Scars of the Sun". Here's hoping this will be just as strong, and just as disturbing a film.

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