It is one of the biggest truths of international cinema, that the level (of extremity if you prefer) the highschool drama has reached in the Japanese movie industry, in actually unparalleled, with films that range from “Confessions” to “Flowers of Evil”, from “Crows Zero” to “Liverleaf” and from “Assassination Classroom” to “Lesson of the Evil, including everything between. Hideo Jojo, who has mainly worked in adult films, in an adaptation of the manga series “Joshikosei ni Korosaretai” by Usamaru Furuya, presents another testament to the fact.
“To Be Killed by a High School Girl” is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival
The absurdity here mostly revolves around the main protagonist, Haruto Higashiyama, a young, smart, and handsome history teacher, whose appearance in Niitaka High School has made him immediately popular with his students, and particularly the female ones. Higashiyama, however, harbors a rather dark secret, since his biggest dream is to be killed by a beautiful high school girl and in a fashion that can only be described as the perfect crime. This desire has led him into planning his whole life in order to achieve this goal, with his hiring in a highschool being the first big step. To achieve it fully, he needs to find which student will do the deed, and his favorites are four quite different girls, Maho, Aoi, Kyoko, and Aika. While everything goes to plan, an acquaintance from the past, Yuko, is also hired in the same school, just as the stage play Higashiyama has arranged is about to take place.
Hideo Jojo directs a film whose basic idea is so absurd that it ends up being horrific, particularly in the way Higashiyama has planned the whole thing and is micromanaging his students in order to achieve it. Furthermore, the fact that the overall atmosphere of the movie, at least until the last part, is of the happy-go-lucky style, actually adds even more to this approach, by highlighting how much of a sociopath the protagonist actually is. As he is living in a thriller essentially, and the rest of the people around him, including Yuko, in a highschool drama/comedy, his mentality becomes even more evident, as he is presented as the only villain in an otherwise relatively normal environment.
This illusion, however, changes with a rather intense twist that shows that he is not the only sociopath in his environment, in probably the best aspect of the script. Furthermore, its placement within the narrative and its overall presentation is ideal for the progression of the story, thus highlighting the job done both in the direction and the editing.
The overall atmosphere also benefits the most from Daisuke Souma's cinematography, with him including bright and colorful images in the scenes where the protagonist appears to be normal, and darker in the ones he reveals his true self, with the stage play sequences being the apogee of his work. The difference in the twist arc that extends in the visuals, which are more saturated, also works quite well.
Kei Tanaka as Higashiyama embodies the duality of his character quite fittingly, even if with a bit of hyperbole on occasion. Sara Minami as Maho is equally good in a role with much depth, while Yuumi Kawai as Aoi, Riko as Kyoko and Mizuki Kayashima as Aika round up an overall quite good cast, highlighting their differences and similarities as much as the school's “politics”.
Truth be told, “To Be Killed by a High School Girl” never reaches the level of Miike's“Lesson of the Evil” that follows a similar narrative path. Nevertheless, it is well shot, the story is quite intriguing in its manga-style premises, and the whole movie emerges as rather entertaining, from beginning to end.
