Title: Confessions aka Kokuhaku
Genre: Drama
Director: Nakashima Tetsuya
Format: Movie; 106 minutes.
Dates: 5 June 2010

Synopsis: Moriguchi Yuko is a middle school teacher and a single mother. However, her only daughter has recently died after drowning in the school pool. Yuko’s class is out of control, and she’s decided to resign, overwhelmed by the responsibility but quietly hopeful that her last lesson will have an impact. Convinced that her daughter was killed by students in her class, Yuko is intent on proving it.

The Highlights
Cinematography: Lots of slow-motion shots and a drab colour scheme; the backward explosion scene is awe-inspiring.
Plot: Surprising plot twists occur with rhythmic regularity.
Tone: Pessimistic, depressing and vindictive; this movie hates fourteen year olds, and after watching it, so will you.
Music: Any soundtrack with Radiohead in it gets my thumbs up.
Ending: Mind-blowing.

Based on a 2007 novel by Minato Kanae, Confessions is a grim, thoughtful revenge thriller which has a small handful of extremely well-timed and heavy-hitting plot twists. It’s not a perfect film, and it occasionally becomes too smitten with its own cleverness, but it is an ambitious and very well-executed movie that has an ending so meticulously planned and majestically delivered, it makes anything in Death Note look like it was from a jun’ai story.

One of the striking things about Confessions is its style. Filmed with a drab, gray filter, scenes are interspersed with time-lapse shots of dark clouds and slow motion is used to an excess. Occasionally, it becomes overbearing, but the editing lends itself to the movie’s grim, vindictive tone. Director Nakashima Tetsuya loves playing with the sense of time: in addition to the use of slow motion in pretty much every second scene, there are a few scenes towards the end of the film that are played backwards, the most remarkable of which involves a wonderfully constructed sequence where the shattered pieces of an explosion slowly restore themselves back together. The use of foreshadowing is also excellent: we’re shown brief glimpses of people who die outside of the story’s chronology. The questions then become “who killed them,” and “how.”

The actors bring the characters to life, especially Matsu Takako who is brilliant in the lead role. Youngster Nishii Yukito stars as Watanabe Shuya, and his soft speaking lends a creepy air to the story’s main antagonist. Kimura Yoshino is also good as a distraught mother. The soundtrack features an array of notably talented artists, with Boris providing a number of the malevolent, minimalist tunes, and PoPoyan, The Xx and Radiohead also adding to the movie’s disheartening tone.

Confessions doesn’t find many positive things to say about fourteen-year olds. Its commentary on juvenile law and justice rings a bit empty, but it hits the ball out of the park when it tackles the issue of ignorance about HIV. The movie is ironic in the way it uses Oedipus complexes, but these are ultimately plot devices, as is Moriguchi’s easily-manipulated replacement teacher, Terada (Okada Masaki). The most interesting relationship that develops is between Shuya and his self-destructive class president girlfriend, Mizuki.

The title, Confessions, is apt, as each character is given a fair amount of time to share their own startling revelation. It starts out as pessimistic and shocking, but develops into something surprisingly profound, with an ending so thorough in what it tries to do, that it becomes both rewarding and cathartic. It has a deliberate pace, and while there is a bit of fat around the edges, particularly with the editing and visual presentation, the script is full of intrigue and the shocking plot twists come with enough regularity to stave off any chance of boredom.

The Rating: 8

Reviewed by: Sorrow-kun