I was not expecting Takashi Miike’s latest to be a courtroom drama, but the bone-chilling details of the case in SHAM keeps him in familiar territory.
We spend the first 20 minutes of the film witnessing a racist and sadistic teacher tormenting one of his students. Just when we can’t hate this monster more, Miike employs the Rashomon effect, switches to telling the story from his perspective, and we start questioning everything we have seen up to that point.
The thought provoking film is based on a true story taken from the headlines in 2003, and it is more relevant than ever in the age of social media where the press and the public are eager to condemn everyone at the drop of a hat.
Go Ayano and Ko Shibasaki impress portraying both versions of their characters plausibly. Miike’s mastery of the medium is on display throughout and he is reunited here with Hideo Yamamoto, who was the DP of many of his most beloved films including Audition and Ichi the Killer.
