Sometimes, admittedly I question why I put so much of my time into watching films. When so many of them turn out to be average and forgettable, why should we as people celebrate the film industry so proudly? And I'm glad that whenever I do begin to question myself about this, a film like Confessions comes along. A film so powerful, so unpredictable and just so damn beautiful you know that it won't leave you for a long time. The imagery used is so beautiful, the tone is so chillingly cold and I cannot stress just how refreshing it is to finally find a film which could consistently surprise me with it's constant twists and revelations.
Takako Matsu as the grieving mother and teacher to her child's killers, Yuko Moriguchi, portrays her character to a level where simply her presence absorbs you in. Underneath her cold, bitter and dertermined shell you see a broken and fragile woman who will do anything to help her cope with her child's death while the younger actors who dominate so much of this film amazed me with the raw acting talent they could already show so young. Yukito Nishii and Kaoru Fujiwara have you held almost breathless as their lives and motives for each action slowly unravel while Yukito Nishii in particular chills you down to the core with his darker side you slowly see more and more of as the film progresses. Ai Hashimoto has a key role of holding the film together and keeping the three lead characters linked for much of the second and third acts of this film, and she manages this so effortlessly that I can't help but see bright futures for all three of the young actors involved in this.
It's a shame for both the people that made this film and us as audiences in general that this film will never really be seen anywhere close to the extent it deserves too on our shores thanks to so many of us as a filmwatching public not having the effort to read subtitles when we watch films and our dominating multiplexes that are too scared to show us anything that hasn't been crammed full of CGI and Hollywood taglines. But please, if you're feeling brave and want to try something different, hunt this down on DVD or Blu-Ray, watch it. This has effected me like little other films ever have, and even just for that reason alone this now deservedly becomes my first full marks film of the year.
10/10
