Confessions

An ordinary Japanese 7th grade has a shocking secret. Two students, referred to as A and B have accidentally killed the 4-year-old daughter of their class teacher. The class’ favorite A planned the murder for gaining the appreciation of his peers, but was unable to execute it. His “mother’s little angel” B didn’t want to be a coward and hence unwillingly committed the murder. But as Japanese penal code doesn’t permit the punishment of a juvenile plaintiff then both are free to go with official charges dropped...or that’s what they think since their their teacher has an unexpected confession to make – all of the best pupils are indirectly involved and none of the person’s guilty would escape from the punishment proportional to their crime.

Tetsuya Nakashima’s powerful drama CONFESSIONS is as shockingly breathtaking as it was Kinji Fukasaku’s remarkable “Battle Royale” a decade ago. Hailed by many critics as the Japanese “film of the year”, the controversial feature busting box office records at its homeland examines the depths of the dark closets of contemporary Japanese society – an ineffective school system and often unnoticed “one against all” school bullying or so called ijime, youth violence driven by the need for recognition and sense of impunity, parents neglecting their children’s need to grow up and ignoring their problems, and last but not least the public paranoia against HIV positive tested are just a beginning in Nakashima’s hammering list.

The ultra detailed plot taking twists and turns and has a firm grip of the audience until the very end, and opposing almost larger than life and esthetically soothing slow motion camerawork jointly hammer the message through – under the beautiful surface everyone has a dirty secret that cries for a confession.

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