| Confessions | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Tetsuya Nakashima |
| Written by | Tetsuya Nakashima Kanae Minato (original novel) |
| Starring | Takako Matsu |
| Editing by | Yoshiyuki Koike |
| Release date(s) | 5 June 2010 |
| Running time | 106 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Confessions (告白 Kokuhaku) is a 2010 Japanese drama film directed by Tetsuya Nakashima.
Contents |
Yuko Moriguchi (Takako Matsu), a junior high teacher, announces she will resign. She reveals that her daughter, Manami, was killed by two pupils in her class, whom she dubs "Student A" and "Student B". Her disclosure of their behavior soon reveals their identities, but she recognizes that they will escape punishment as legal minors. Instead, she admits to injecting her dead husband's HIV contaminated blood into the milk cartons that the murderers have just drank from. The rest of the film describes the aftermath of this event in a series of first-person narratives from the two students, Moriguchi, and others.
A new enthusiastic teacher is appointed. Student A, Shuya Watanabe, continues to attend classes but student B, Naoki Shimomura, has developed psychiatric problems. It is revealed that Shuya, who planned the murder, did not actually kill Moriguchi's daughter by electrocution; instead she drowned because Naoki threw her into the pool.
Naoki is worried that he will soon die from AIDS and refuses to clean himself, as he equated the smell of untamed hair and body odor to being alive. His mom tries to help but fails as Student B reacts violently to her gestures and shuts himself in his room. It is revealed later that Student B killed Manami on purpose, as a gesture to validate himself in the eyes of Shuya, whom he considers his only friend. His mother eventually realizes that her once good and kind son has transformed into an unknown monster. Seeing no hope, she decides to end their lives, but in the ensuing struggle, she is killed by her son, who is captured by the police.
Shuya describes how his mother divorced his father when he was young because she was unhappy with the role of a house wife and chose instead to pursue her scientific ambitions. He wants to prove himself to her and to earn her attention, which evolved from clever little inventions to gruesome recordings of him killing and dissecting animals. His first public invention, an electric anti-mugger wallet, earns him a science fair award but fails to make the headlines because of a sensational murder that occurs on the same day. He decides to kill someone so that he can become front page news.
After the incident, Shuya befriends Mizuki Kitahara when they were forced to kiss by the rest of the class as part of their escalating bullying tactics against him. Mizuki discovers that Moriguchi had lied about the blood-contaminated milk, reasoning that it was an implausible method of revenge to begin with and that someone so concerned with the value of life would not do such a thing in the first place. Mizuki begins to develop feelings for Shuya, revealing to him a side of herself she'd never shown to anyone else: namely, that she sees Lunacy, the online handle of a teenage girl who killed her parents in a sensational poisoning incident, as her "other self." When she confronts Shuya for not facing his mother and harboring an Oedipus Complex, Shuya kills her out of rage.
At graduation, Shuya plants a bomb to kill himself and his classmates, but the bomb does not go off and is revealed to be missing; he then receives a call from Moriguchi telling him she had moved the bomb to his mother's office, killing her instead. Moriguchi appears at the end, and tells Shuya, overcome and humiliated, that this was her revenge, and that his redemption now begins, but she adds, "just kidding", referencing to what Shuya told her when he confessed that he killed her daughter.
Soon after the film had started showing in 266 cinemas, it had already grossed ¥269,835,200 with 194,893 audiences, breaking the record previously held by I Give My First Love to You. It kept grossing and became the highest grossing film for 4 consecutive weeks in June. It grossed over ¥3,500,000,000 in the 8th screening week, and finally, the gross revenue reached the record of ¥3,850,000,000. It is ranked as the 7th highest grossing Japanese film in 2010.
The film received a widespread positive response globally, with critics praising a variety of factors including good adaptation from the book, the director's style, and the acting, particularly by the child actors. The film holds an 80% 'fresh' average score at Rotten Tomatoes.[1]
Although people under the age of 15 cannot view the film in Japan, the cast is almost full of students of around 13.
The film was selected as the Japanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards.[2] In January 2011, it made the final shortlist.[3] It won the awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay & Best Editor at the 34th Japan Academy Prize.[4][5] Also, it had 6 nominations in 5th Asian Film Awards, which is one of the films with most nominations (with Let the Bullets Fly).
| List of accolades | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Award / Film Festival | Category | Recipent(s) | Result |
| 83rd Academy Awards[3] | Best Foreign Language Film | Confessions | Made January Shortlist |
| 14th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival[6] | Jury's Special Award | Confessions | Won |
| 35th Hochi Film Awards | Best Director | Tetsuya Nakashima | Won |
| 84th Kinema Junpo Best 10 Film Awards | Best Film | Confessions | 2nd place |
| 53rd Blue Ribbon Awards | Best Picture | Confessions | Won |
| Best Supporting Actress | Yoshino Kimura | Won | |
| 2011 Élan d'or Prize | Best Film | Confessions | Won |
| 34th Japan Academy Prize | Best Picture | Confessions | Won |
| Best Director | Tetsuya Nakashima | Won | |
| Best Screenplay | Tetsuya Nakashima | Won | |
| Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role | Takako Matsu | Nominated | |
| Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role | Masaki Okada | Nominated | |
| Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role | Yoshino Kimura | Nominated | |
| Best Cinematography | Masakazu Ato, Atsushi Ozawa | Nominated | |
| Best Lighting Direction | Susumu Takakura | Nominated | |
| Best Art Direction | Towako Kuwajima | Nominated | |
| Best Sound Recording | Masato Yano | Nominated | |
| Best Film Editing | Yoshiyuki Koike | Won | |
| 5th Asian Film Awards | Best Film | Confessions | Nominated |
| Best Director | Tetsuya Nakashima | Nominated | |
| Best Actress | Takako Matsu | Nominated | |
| Best Supporting Actor | Masaki Okada | Nominated | |
| Best Supporting Actress | Yoshino Kimura | Nominated | |
| Best Film Editor | Yoshiyuki Koike | Nominated | |
| 2011 Cinema Award | Best Film | Confessions | 1st place |
| 30th Hong Kong Film Awards | Best Asian Film | Confessions | Won |
| 2nd Theater Staff Film Festival | Best Picture | Confessions | Won |
| Best Leading Actress | Takako Matsu | Won | |
|
|||||
|
|||||