Confessions, directed by one of my favorite Japanese directors, Tetsuya Nakashima, is one of the most disturbing and depressing movies I have watched this year. It is a psychological thriller of a grieving teacher turned cold-blooded avenger with a twisty master plan to pay back the students who were responsible for her daughter's death.

In the story, the major characters make confessions one by one. The more perspectives from which the murder is looked at, the more we know about the characters and their motives, which may remind the audience of A Stranger of Mine. As the story is unfolded, there are several surprising twists. While making confessions and sometimes touching on the subjects they are ashamed of, some characters refuse to accept the truth, tell lies and point the finger of blame at others to salve their conscience.

The director tries to explore the reasons why innocent children become evil teenagers with no conscience. Some seek attention because they are abandoned or physically abused by their parents. Some become vulnerable owing to their overprotective parents. Some feel lonely because they are nerds neglected and bullied by their peers. Some commit suicide or other crimes because they follow suit. Some tragedies are also attributed to the internet which allows people to gossip anonymously, the mass media which places too much emphasis on violence, and the law which exempts teenage murderers from being punished. Thanks to the convincing cast, the characters become lifelike.

The black-grey-and-white setting, which is very different form the flamboyance of Memories of Matsuko, is stifling and depressing. After watching the film, the images of crimson blood, white milk, snow-white sakura, the bleak classroom, the lifeless homes and the dimly lit school hall will linger in one's mind. Apart from these, the gloomy skies in the movie were reminiscent of the ones in Elephant by Gus Van Sant. Despite the ominous dark clouds gathering overheard, every cloud has a silver lining, which symbolizes that the director still believes in the goodness of human nature, despite its dark side. This belief is also reflected in the scene when the female teacher stares at the strawberry given by a kid and another scene in which she says "your new life has begun".

The mesmerizing classical music, spiced with a hypnotizing female voice, not only creates a shocking contrast to the disturbing scenes shot in slow motion, but also adds eeriness to the story. The sound effects are also memorable. When the female teacher puts down the last stroke of the word LIFE on the blackboard, the ear-piercing sound chilled me the bone. When the bubble pops, we feel hopeless.

The film would have been more gripping if the first confession had been shorter and less talky. Besides, the CG images at the end are mediocre. Also, it is a difficult movie for the faint-hearted to sit through.

On the whole, Confessions is a darkly disturbing, visually stunning and thought provoking movie ruthlessly exposing the root of various teenage problems and the dark side of human nature. After watching the movie, I left the cinema with a heavy heart. It conjured up images of several parricides committed by Hong Kong teenagers recently and I pondered on what had happened to our post 90's generation.

A surprise box office hit in Japan, 'Confessions' made its way to the Toronto International Film Festival, and also chosen as Japan's entry to the Oscars. However, it's a very Japanese movie I can only recommend to viewers who have seen over 50 Japanese films or prior experience with violent Japanese films. For everyone else, I would recommend less graphic Japanese value-of-life school films such as 'The Blue Bird' (2008) and 'School Days with a Pig' (2008).

Although there is a lot of blood spilled in the movie, it's still a mainstream picture with violence that's nothing compared to films directed by pre-2003 Miike Takashi, pre-2001 Kitano Takeshi, or most Japanese B-movies. What makes 'Confessions' a truly disturbing film, is that the horrifying acts of violence are done by teens, and adults' reactions toward them.

'Confessions' is the first non-comedy film directed by Nakashima Tetsuya, who is known for award-winning comedy films 'Kamikaze Girls', 'Memories of Matsuko', and 'Paco and the Magical Book'. The story is based on 2008 award-winning novel of same title, which tells the story of a teacher's revenge on two students who killed her daughter. The movie is thought-provoking as well as emotionally draining, and takes the saying "kids can be cruel" to a whole new level.

The Japanese term for teacher is "sensei", a title given not only to teachers, but also as suffix to other honorable occupations in society like doctors, writers, politicians, and lawyers. Teachers in Japan have traditionally been a highly respected occupation because they guide students not only in the subjects they teach, but also supposed to be mentors in life. In essence, a sensei performs the tasks of both teacher and student councilor for his/her class. The occupation has been glorified and beautified in abundance of modern literature with modern school dramas such as '3-B Kinpachi-sensei', 'GTO', 'Gokusen', and 'Rookies', where teachers connect with delinquent students by relentless trust and hard work. In 'Confessions', however, the teacher played by Matsu Takako is depicted as an emotionless and cruel individual who sets out to take the matter into her own hands by teaching the value of life through horrifying revenge. It even pokes fun at the glorified teacher's image in media with lines like "I don't trust any of you, you're all talented liars", and the absurdity of the passionate teacher who was totally unaware of the situation. The student violence and coldness of the teacher is very reminiscent of 'Battle Royale' (2000).

Acting and casting in this movie were superb. I have been a Matsu Takako fan for a long time, but it was by far her best performance ever, and handled her unlikely dark role surprisingly well. Her control of emotion was right on in the first half as a ruthless teacher who suffers from tremendous pain, but hides her feelings in front of her students. In the second half, her character break down a couple of times, and it wasn't very hard for me to sympathize with the character despite the horrible things she did. Kimura Yoshino, and Okada Masaki both played their parts brilliantly in supporting roles. The casting was ridiculously well-done because all the characters felt so real, which brings a chill down my spine because it seemed like such frightening events can actually happen in real life. The child actors also performed very well, depicting the ill state some of the classrooms in Japan, and the twisted thoughts juvenile minds can have. Teen model Hashimoto Ai, who played Student A's girlfriend especially shined. She definitely will have a great career ahead if she can continue to perform at this level.

The story is unveiled through confessions of various characters in the movie, sometimes repeating the same event from different perspectives. Everyone expresses their own hopes and despair, sadness and hatred. The fast narratives combined with hauntingly beautiful slow motion imagery and mesmerizing background music gave this film an eerie, gloomy atmosphere that complimented the story, as well as an exceedingly engaging flow of plot development. My only complaint is that the movie is slightly overproduced with excessive use of slow-motion throughout the film that offset the climax scene, which used high-speed camera and CG. But overall, extremely well-directed and bold art house human horror mystery.

The movie addresses common social issues in Japan, such as bullying, abuse of child protection act, discrimination, and suicide from a whole new angle. 'Confessions', like many fine traditional Japanese films, is very emotionally draining, but keeps up the suspense throughout the film.

By taking lives so lightly and easily in the film, the director conveyed the true value of one's life.

I have seen more than 4000 movies and can tell that this one chained my eyes like many others did not, which were supposedly recognized by the World as something important or serious. A very strong story, very high-quality presentation of the story, very beautiful work of the cameraman and director. I rarely say that, but it's sure a masterpiece.