As a fan of Japanese anime and films, I was expecting to get another quirky taste of Asian fiction molded into the form of a thriller. I was surprised therefore to find some kind of badly executed Hollywood exercise.
The first disappointment came with the setting of the plot. A Japanese high school and all of the clichés that come with it doesn't make for a very original or interesting backdrop to a murder story. The setting and genre remind of the anime 'Deathnote', which actually had a more believable following of events and cast of characters (which is saying something as it featured Death gods and a magic notebook).
Looking past the setting and onto the characters things do not get any better. Three thirteen year old psychopaths who happen to be in the same form, manipulating and killing each other (and a toddler) off without remorse but still want their classmates and parents to love them just doesn't seem very likely. The teacher's controlled revenge is somewhat believable until she blows up an entire university to get back at one of her daughter's murderers.
This brings me to the pacing of the story. Within the first hour most of the plot is revealed in a monotonous confession by the teacher which takes away most of the tension from the plot. By this time the storyline dissolves into various characters' perspectives of the events. I found it impossible to really feel for any of these people, no matter how sad their stories were, as you already hate all of them for killing the teachers' daughter, their own parents or some cats. The climax involves the teacher devising a scheme in which one of the murderers' mother gets back from her honeymoon just in time to accidentally be killed by her own son. Also the computer generated clock in the second to last scene displays a different time than is seen on the real thing.
So "Confessions" certainly wasn't thrilling in any way nor was it very well executed. Did I at least get my fix of Japanese quirkiness, then? Well, no. The themes of existentialism and loneliness often present in Japanese cinema greatly appeal to me. The problem in Confessions lies in the people dealing with those issues; all of them are unconvincing psychopaths.
The first disappointment came with the setting of the plot. A Japanese high school and all of the clichés that come with it doesn't make for a very original or interesting backdrop to a murder story. The setting and genre remind of the anime 'Deathnote', which actually had a more believable following of events and cast of characters (which is saying something as it featured Death gods and a magic notebook).
Looking past the setting and onto the characters things do not get any better. Three thirteen year old psychopaths who happen to be in the same form, manipulating and killing each other (and a toddler) off without remorse but still want their classmates and parents to love them just doesn't seem very likely. The teacher's controlled revenge is somewhat believable until she blows up an entire university to get back at one of her daughter's murderers.
This brings me to the pacing of the story. Within the first hour most of the plot is revealed in a monotonous confession by the teacher which takes away most of the tension from the plot. By this time the storyline dissolves into various characters' perspectives of the events. I found it impossible to really feel for any of these people, no matter how sad their stories were, as you already hate all of them for killing the teachers' daughter, their own parents or some cats. The climax involves the teacher devising a scheme in which one of the murderers' mother gets back from her honeymoon just in time to accidentally be killed by her own son. Also the computer generated clock in the second to last scene displays a different time than is seen on the real thing.
So "Confessions" certainly wasn't thrilling in any way nor was it very well executed. Did I at least get my fix of Japanese quirkiness, then? Well, no. The themes of existentialism and loneliness often present in Japanese cinema greatly appeal to me. The problem in Confessions lies in the people dealing with those issues; all of them are unconvincing psychopaths.