Fantasia Fest 2025: Sham Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

Writer-director Takashi Miike’s Sham is a grounded, chilling courtroom drama following the struggles of Seiichi Yabushita (Ayano), an elementary school teacher who faces social and legal repercussions of an accusation from a student’s mother, Ritsuko Himuro (Shibasaki). Faced with accusations of mentally and physically abusing one of his students, the film focuses on his efforts to clear his name in a world that is so quick to discard him.

As explained in detail with Blazing Fists, Miike has proven his capability to adapt to multiple genres throughout his extensive career, this time tackling the courtroom drama. The film initially indulges audiences into the perspective of detesting Seiichi, as Miike paints the picture of a discriminatory and violent teacher constantly harassing his student, Takuto, to the brink of possible suicide. Miike’s filmmaking exercise in the first act emulates how fast the public, including viewers, can resort to ostracizing an individual off a quickly fabricated story. Ritsuko, provides an emotionally powerful act that can easily manipulate bystanders to handily believe the cries of a heartbroken mother going to incredible lengths to protect her child when it really is a sham.

Once Sham shifts focus towards Seiichi to make his innocence apparent in the film’s real intention, viewers are still hesitant to believe what they are watching is real. This notion mirrors how any average individual can have internal crises in beliefs upon being presented with factual evidence to confirm the real truth, when they were so quick to believe the first perspective presented to them. Ayano admirably showcases the mental and physical anguish, along with the frustration of helplessness, behind a society trying to break Seiichi’s character down when being a kind teacher is all he wants to be. Shibasaki’s turn from concerned mother to pathological liar exhibits her impressive range, as the act that she puts on heavily influences everyone she contacts, including the school board, the justice system, and the media.

Overall, Takashi Miike utilizes powerful performances from Ayano and Shibasaki to carry his grounded courtroom drama. Sham incorporates this Rashomon effect to show how easily the public can fall for a heartfelt cry for help, ignoring any level of devious fabrication and factual evidence that could make the difference between saving and ending the livelihood of an innocent individual.

still courtesy of TOEI COMPANY

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Costa Christoulas

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