Third Window Films Acquire Lesson of Evil and Greatful Dead

After a strong selection of Japanese film releases over 2013 you couldn’t really blame Third Window Films from wanting to try something different and in 2014 it looked as if Korean titles were going to be dominant with only the magnificent Shady and The Story of Yonosuke representing Japan. Then, yesterday, Third Window Films released news of their latest acquisitions and it was major!

I was on my way to a Japanese lesson and checking my emails when I read that Adam had licensed Takashi Miike’s film Lesson of Evil and the indie title The Greatful Dead. My jaw dropped. If I had to sum it up in a word it would be OHMYGODYAY! for the former and Intriguing… for the latter. Both films will be released in the latter half of 2014! Here’s more info:

 

Lesson of Evil                         

Japanese Title: 悪　の　教典

Romaji: Aku no Kyoten

Running Time: 129 mins.

Director: Takashi Miike

Writer:  Takashi Miike (Screenplay), Yusuke Kishi (Original Novel)

Starring: Hideaki Ito, Fumi Nikaidou, Shota Sometani, Kento Hayashi, Hirona Yamazaki, Kodai Asaka, Kodai Asaka, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Takayuki Yamada

I am most hyped about this one. Takashi Miike is a favourite director of mine as reviews of Audition, For Love’s Sake, Thirteen Assassins, and One Missed Call make clear. He had a major hit at the end of 2012 with this film and it travelled to different film festivals like Rotterdam. The film is based on a novel written by Yusuke Kishi who has twice won the Japan Horror Associated Award and it stars great actors like Hideaki Ito, Takayuki Yamada (MILOCRORZE, 13 Assassins), Mitsuru Fukikoshi (Cold Fish) Shota Sometani and Fumi Nikaidou who both blew me away in Himizu. The DVD/Blu-ray case on the right sensibly goes for a look similar to the poster which was pretty cool.

Hasumi (Ito) is a popular teacher among students at Shinko Academy, a private high school, and well respected by the faculty and the PTA. However, one of the students Reika (Nikaido) feels something menacing lurking beneath his shining reputation. While Hasumi brilliantly solves one problem after another, from a teacher-student sexual harassment to group cheating to bulling, he starts to take control of the school. As the problems go away, Reika is uneasy about the way they are solved. Tsurii (Fukikoshi), an unpopular teacher at the school, despises the popular Hasumi and starts investigating Hasumi’s past and discovers that Hasumi is a real psycho.