Confessions has stunning cinematography, amazing actors and a thrilling story. It should have been a great film. And yet when I finished watching it about 30 minutes ago I thought 'Hmmm, watch shall I watch now?'
Two obvious things that I didn't like: 1. If you've ever seen This World of Ours (oretachi no sekai), which was written and directed by then-19 year old Ryo Nakajima, this film seems like a bigger-budget film which simplifies complex problems in order to make the adults feel better.
2. Kind of related to the first one: Battle Royale looked at the issue of young people 'misbehaving' with the underlying assumption that kids have a sense of humanity. In Confessions, however, everybody is essentially mean and cruel (apart from one girl). Having done my secondary education in an inner city school, having had friends that robbed people, burgled, took (and sold) drugs, etc..., I would say from personal experience that Battle Royale is a far more realistic representation of young people than Confessions.
Overall then, the film is quite a superficial story, but given a sense of gravitas thanks to the amazing production values and cinematic techniques. But on closer inspection it's a fake: a silly thriller with nothing to say pretending to be more profound.
To top it off, it was all too predictable. I never throughout the film felt any genuine surprise by the obvious twists and turns.
Two obvious things that I didn't like: 1. If you've ever seen This World of Ours (oretachi no sekai), which was written and directed by then-19 year old Ryo Nakajima, this film seems like a bigger-budget film which simplifies complex problems in order to make the adults feel better.
2. Kind of related to the first one: Battle Royale looked at the issue of young people 'misbehaving' with the underlying assumption that kids have a sense of humanity. In Confessions, however, everybody is essentially mean and cruel (apart from one girl). Having done my secondary education in an inner city school, having had friends that robbed people, burgled, took (and sold) drugs, etc..., I would say from personal experience that Battle Royale is a far more realistic representation of young people than Confessions.
Overall then, the film is quite a superficial story, but given a sense of gravitas thanks to the amazing production values and cinematic techniques. But on closer inspection it's a fake: a silly thriller with nothing to say pretending to be more profound.
To top it off, it was all too predictable. I never throughout the film felt any genuine surprise by the obvious twists and turns.