If you were to go into the Japanese crime-drama, Sham, without any advance knowledge, you might assume it’s the new film from Kore-eda or Oscar-winning filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car). Going into the movie knowing it’s directed by Takashi Miike is likely to lead to all sorts of expectations, since, for better or worse and to most Americans, Miike will always be best-known for his gory 1999 horror film, Audition, and other similar genre fare. In fact, Miike has made over a hundred movies in his native Japan, a good percentage, which have never been released in the United States. It was already a little strange to see his name attached to a movie debuting at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, since we normally would see his movies at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal (he has three there this year) or at the New York Asian Film Festival.

Sham is adapted from journalist Masumi Fukuda’s 2007 non-fiction novel, “Fabrication: The Truth About The ‘Murder Teacher’ in Fukuoka,” which in itself is a true story and a grounded drama with none of the gore or anime influences that have been pervasive in Miike’s more recent filmography. It does make one wonder how this project came his way and whether the filmmaker is deliberately trying to change his image even back home.

Set in 2003, the film revolves around the behavior of an elementary school teacher named Seiichi Yabushita, played by Gô Ayano, whose first appearance in a Miike film was the 2009 gangster film, Crows Zero 2. We meet the teacher as he’s haranguing one of his young students (Miura Kira) for being mixed-race with an American grandfather, which seems to be motivation enough for the teacher to demean the student horribly in front of his classmates. Later, he urges the boy to jump off the school roof, which leads to his parents wanting Seiichi to get suspended, and that soon leads to a criminal case that ruins his career. As with many true stories, not everything is what it seems, and we soon are watching the same story but from the teacher’s perspective, which makes one think that someone has clearly been lying. 

There are aspects of Sham that feel very much like Kore-eda’s Monster from a few years back, where there is an incident at a school involving a teacher, with other details and perspectives revealed that make the viewer question what is true. Other recent movies that have explored similar themes of classroom impropriety include the German Oscar nominee, The Teacher’s Lounge, or the even more recent Norwegian drama, Armand, starring Renate Reinsve. Obviously, the idea of what is happening to kids when they are at school outside their parents’ care, or even what is happening to them at home, unbeknownst to teachers, is something that has generated much interest among filmmakers, but more internationally than here in the States. 

Much of Sham takes place in the courtroom, where various individuals and witnesses share what they’ve seen and what they know about the incidents for which Seiichi has being accused. We also watch how the allegations are affecting his home life and ability to find another job. So much about Japan living involves maintaining a positive public perception, or at least a low profile, and that’s impossible once the allegations against Seiichi are made public. In that sense, Sham is also reminiscent of Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt, a film for which Mads Mikkelsen should have received an Oscar nomination for his performance as a teacher falsely accused of molesting a student. Like with Sham, you’re given enough of the benefit of a doubt to think that Seeichi didn’t do some of the horrible things that we actually see him doing during the film’s first act. Are those scenes meant to be lies that are visualized for the viewer’s benefit? It’s hard to tell, and that’s one of the more frustrating aspects of Sham. 

There are other times when Sham moves at a glacial pace, with moments that drag so much it’s hard not to get irritated about it. There is one long scene with Seeichi sitting at a table discussing the case with his lawyer, essentially one long two-shot that seems to stretch on for 15 or 20 minutes, making one wonder if Miike-san’s editor or producers were afraid to speak up and say something about how that scene kills any potential momentum. 

Lacking many of Miike’s flashier bells and whistles, Sham may be somewhat disappointing to the Japanese filmmaker’s long-time fanbase, yet it could be seen as a step forward for Miike as a filmmaker, only since it’s more the type of film Japan might consider pushing for its Oscar submission. Some aspects will be relatable to Americans, for sure, especially those with children in school, but other aspects (like the glacial pace) don’t help to make it one of Miike’s less memorable or impactful efforts.

Rating: B

At this point, Miike’s Sham doesn’t have American distribution, but following its recent premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, it’s scheduled to open in Japan on June 27, and then screen at the Fantasia International Film Festival sometime in July or August.

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Director: Takashi Miike

Screenwriter: Masumi Fukuda, Hayashi Mori 

Cast:  Kô Shibasaki, Gô Ayano, Kaoru Kobayashi, Kazuki Kitamura, Fumino Kimura, Kazuya Kamenashi, Ken Mitsuishi

Producer: Keiichi Hashimoto, Shigeji Maeda, Misako Saka, Ken’ichi Wasano

Production Co: Toei

Rating: Unrated

Genre: Drama

Language: Japanese

Release Date (Theaters): June 27, 2025 (Japan)

Runtime: 2 hours, 9 minutes

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You can watch the Japanese trailer below: