Confessions

Despite having already read the book and knowing fully well what was coming, I was still shocked. Confessions is a disturbing film, a morbid film and what happens is mind-blowing. It is disheartening, scary even, to see middle school students who are close to demented, with no heartfelt mercy or sympathy, who can kill freely for baffling reasons. At the same time, the adult characters are just as heartless. The teacher, Yuko Moriguchi (played by Takako Matsu) is intimidating – her only purpose in life after the death of her daughter is revenge; far from the typical adult mentor and role model that we are so used to seeing.

But the reason why I gave a higher rating to the film than the novel was because the director, Testuya Nakashima, did a marvelous job at taking a mediocre book with stagnant flow and transforming it into an intelligently crafted suspenseful film that maintains realism and proper flow. The 'blue' look (most obvious in the classroom scenes) and the ominous, monotonous soundtrack just adds to the film's darkness. Though the initial confession by Ms. Moriguchi is rather long winded, the rest of the film will consistently confuse, startle and even upset audiences. You will see children involved in relentless bullying and even cold-blooded murder – the middle school students' performances are astonishingly convincing. By the end of the film, you may feel cheated at such a disgusting and horrifying ending. You will be astounded and maybe even depressed at mankind's depravity – if that was the intention of both the author and director, they succeeded in playing a cruel joke on us all.

A good review doesn't always have to be long, and there are really just a few words needed to describe this movie. Stunningly beautiful cinography, dark, disturbing, and yet Great! That being said, don't dive into this thing if you plan on watching a good fast revenge flick, because this was mentally challenging. You always have to sit analyzing everything that's happening from beginning to end, and there's really not a lot of breakes.

I had read a few of the reviews here before watching this movie, but I had no idea the movie was going to be like it was, watch it to find out, most definitely worth 2~ hours of your life.

This movie really is amazing and left me awestruck, it really is a frightening beauty with really good cinematography and visual elements for a Japanese movie. The plot unravels slowly while giving away certain hints of what is going on bit by bit and is done really well and is put together piece by piece in a outstanding manner. The students are way more obnoxious in this movie than I would have expected from a Asian middle school but to some degree it was necessary. This film really shows the ugly side of human nature how it's sometimes the weak that bully the people that is weaker than them. It was a little bit difficult to believe students in a Asian middle school would act obnoxious as they did in this movie, although I seen far worse in the US but it wasn't difficult to just go with it or stretched so far it was not believable at all. This has different elements put together in a well crafted manner and the psychological aspects of it is very well done, it may seem like a revenge movie or a movie about grief at first but that is only a part of it. What I really liked is how almost none of the characters is nothing like how they may seem at first. It's like you need to be in their shoes or their point of view in order to understand. If this movie was only about revenge than the film would have been over really quick and wouldn't have been as good and would have lacked the character study it needed, but the emphasis on different characters that were involved makes this movie brilliant with good psychological aspects to it. Hatred leads us to look at a very narrow view of things without looking at the whole picture and this is a part of what the plot to this is about. There is no simple and straightforward character in this which plays a big part in this story. This movie really does fit it's positive reputations and is well deserved of it, this is one of my favorite Japanese movie of 2010 from japan. Don't miss out on this brilliantly crafted movie.

9/10

This little stormer of a movie really takes Asian extreme movies in another direction. A revenge movie that will keep you intrigued and interested till the end. The Far East market has been the home of great originality in the terror & horror film markets, and this is one great highlight in that vein.

The film begins in a school classroom where the teacher tells her pupils that she is leaving, and then begins to tell a long tale revolving round her life and the tragic death that haunts her (her "Confession"). This leads to serious repercussions for some of the pupils. Twists and turns in the story then unfold for the viewer as we are retold further confessions to piece it all together.

A very cerebral movie, the direction masks the revenge story at its heart with a very art-house look and indie soundtrack. A very original film, the acting is exceptional especially from the young school kids. Our lead lady who plays the class teacher is mesmerising as she leads the opening long confession scene. It was a very well delivered scene by her and sets the tone beautifully.

The film begins quite psychological but it then does slide into more graphic detail. Takes you by the hand and leads you down the dark heart at its centre. You don't ever seem to know what to expect.

It's great to have such a fresh original movie. Acting, story and direction are superb. A film I'd highly recommend to all who enjoy dark hearted movies.

Sometimes I feel like I have to watch a lot of Asian thrillers just to find one that really works. For every 50 or so I watch, there will be only one 20th Century Boys or Confessions. The film works on pretty much every level, though it might be a bit hard to follow for some.

The story starts with a pretty simple event. What you're completely unprepared for is that such a simple act will spiral completely out of control into an incredibly twisted series of events. You see...this is one of those movie that will tell (relatively) the same story from different angles and perspectives. That bit may throw some people off, but I promise it all makes sense if you're paying attention. And you should be paying attention, because watching the whole thing unravel is a hell of a lot of fun.

Every movie has at least a couple drawbacks, however minor. One minor thing that kind of irritated me was the frequent use of slow motion shots. I understand using it to emphasize the importance of a shot, but this is just a little out of hand. Also, I wish some of the alternative tellings of events happened more linearly at some points. In some cases results are shown before the audience has a chance to even follow the story line to what leads to said action. But those are both minor nitpicks, really. On the whole, the movie is just plain excellent.