When something happens in your life, how accurately can you remember it? We think we can, but apparently not that well. How about when something happens in someone else’s life - that we remember less well and then we also imagine all kinds of thoughts and emotions that they were having at the time. Accurate or not, that is the basis of our justice system.
Confessions is a Japanese film by Tetsuya Nakashima starring Takako Matsu as a teacher that decides revenge is in order. Revenge for (as she sees it) the murder of her young daughter at the hands of two of her students.
The film starts with a scene in a classroom full of unruly teenagers (and unruly teenagers is not our image of the Japanese schooling[1] system) with the class teacher giving her class notice of the fact that she will leave. Her reason for leaving is that she has had enough and cannot handle working in a class where she feels that her child’s murderers are able to be without a hint of punishment or remorse - something she blames on the legal protection that minors have within society[2]. As the law will not protect society, she has decided that she will - and her method is to contaminate the milk of the two students with blood. The blood of a man with AIDS. This should not give a short life, but it will cause their deaths (she said) and give them plenty of time to reflect and show remorse. Will she get her revenge or will the children win out?
As I hope the pictures should show, the film has quite a distinctive style to it and is beautifully shot and lit. Visually, it is very clean and almost "architectural" in the simple, clean visions it shows. The shots will often be shot perpendicular to the action and with a clear framing which reminds me a little of Wes Anderson. There is also quite a lot of slow motion and the lighting, which is often unnatural, can sometimes make it look like a music video - but an excellent music video. In fact, the soundtrack is pretty interesting in itself with songs by Radiohead, The XX and Boris all very well cued in.
The film starts with a scene in a classroom full of unruly teenagers (and unruly teenagers is not our image of the Japanese schooling[1] system) with the class teacher giving her class notice of the fact that she will leave. Her reason for leaving is that she has had enough and cannot handle working in a class where she feels that her child’s murderers are able to be without a hint of punishment or remorse - something she blames on the legal protection that minors have within society[2]. As the law will not protect society, she has decided that she will - and her method is to contaminate the milk of the two students with blood. The blood of a man with AIDS. This should not give a short life, but it will cause their deaths (she said) and give them plenty of time to reflect and show remorse. Will she get her revenge or will the children win out?
The structure of the story is non-linear but it does not jump about all over the place following a path with diversions - the start is the start (by and large) and the end is the end. This makes it easy enough to follow the narrative but there is enough verve within the story to keep it interesting. In terms of the "diversions", sometimes they will show the same scene from the point of view and then what you see is slightly different depending on how that person either saw it or felt it, which is kind of similar to the mid-90s classic "The Usual Suspects"[3].
The themes approached throughout the film are consistently well-developed and thought through with the vengeful teacher able to wreak much of her revenge from the sidelines just harnessing the peer pressure and bullying at any school. The two main suspects have different motivations and there are strong hints as to what made them turn that way with family life and pressure shown to be quite important. One of the characters is driven to have his genius recognised - the other just to be recognised at all. The themes involved in the film really do stretch out with a hugely relevant question about how adults should treat children - and in fact when they cease to be children.
The film is excellent with a great concept and "in" to the film with the compelling resignation speech setting the rest of the film up expertly. It looks great and sounds great so it really does tick the boxes of visuals, sound, story and thoughtfulness. I would highly recommend this film to pretty much anyone that can handle the themes.
Here's the trailer but you really should just watch the film.
1. As I have mentioned before, the school age is regularly used in the Japanese film world in recent years.↩
2. I think you are meant to sympathise with the teacher throughout and that this comment on the legal protection is to have audience support - but it should be noted that anti-social crime is relatively low in Japan and also in other countries that have this type of protection as re-offending seems to be checked.↩
3. Or, more pertinently, Rashomon of course. I think this footnote is, by referencing a famous foreign film but linked to a better known Hollywood film, essentially having your cake and eating it. Rather than having it and just admiring it which is what you do with cake apparently.↩
2. I think you are meant to sympathise with the teacher throughout and that this comment on the legal protection is to have audience support - but it should be noted that anti-social crime is relatively low in Japan and also in other countries that have this type of protection as re-offending seems to be checked.↩
3. Or, more pertinently, Rashomon of course. I think this footnote is, by referencing a famous foreign film but linked to a better known Hollywood film, essentially having your cake and eating it. Rather than having it and just admiring it which is what you do with cake apparently.↩
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