Tetsuya Nakashima
Confessions

I want to start this review with a possibly strong statement, a provocation that might annoy someone: East Asian cinema is the best cinema in the world, despite those ignorant phrases (forgive the offensive expression) like "eh but they have almond eyes, they make ugly and boring films; I don’t watch yellow-faced films, they're dull; etc," which demonstrate a racism and cinematic ignorance that makes the skin crawl.

That being said, Confessions. I must admit that this is the first film by Tetsuya Nakashima that I have ever seen. Confessions is an extremely powerful, devastating, and emotional film like few others. A perfect mix of genres, a base of a dramatic film to which layers of revenge movie, thriller, and a hint of horror are added, along with a dash of tragic romance. And everything is perfectly balanced thanks to a masterful writing job that translates into an equally masterful directing job.

The story is set in the world of adolescence, but represented with a very mature and intelligent gaze, avoiding the banal stereotypes that have always plagued films dealing with that period of life. Although the protagonists of the story are kids, the real protagonist is a teacher. Their teacher: a woman whose daughter was killed by one of the students. And she decides to take revenge without becoming the protagonist of a blood spiral (as happens in most revenge movies, like Kill Bill, Lady Snowblood, or I Spit on Your Grave). Her revenge is much more insidious and cruel because it works on the psyche of the kids, who end up self-destructing. The teacher, in this way, is a puppeteer, and the students' lives are her puppets. The cruelty and violence of this film are disquieting and disturbing but, at the same time, extremely exhilarating.

If you can, watch this film in its original language. I am not saying this for that feud (in my opinion, unnecessary and stupid) "original language vs dubbed." I myself sometimes watch them in the original language and sometimes dubbed. But Confessions is probably the only film I will always and only watch in the original language: both to preserve the excellence of the performances of the young protagonists and because the elegance of the Japanese language (which, however, I neither know nor understand) perfectly matches the narrative and directorial elegance of the film.

I don’t want to say anything more to stimulate your curiosity. I will just say one last thing: absolutely make sure to watch it.