Well, it made the final shortlist in the Best Foreign Film category of the 83rd Academy Awards for a reason. From Kamikaze Girls and The World of Kanako director, Tetsuya Nakashima, Confessions is considered his opus. And with good reasons. This is based on the thriller novel by Kanae Minato. With a strong 20 minutes opening monologue, Confession quickly establishes itself. It sets up the scene, introduces characters and creates conflict within 20 minutes with elaborate control and pristine intrigue. It's not perfect. It's not as detailed or as convincing especially actions coming from mere junior high school students but it enters a new type of fascination as a viewer. While the immoral practices presented in the film will make you question, it delivers the shock factor it needs. Perhaps the reason why it chooses that age group as its major protagonist (or should I say, antiheroes). Confessions is a revenge thriller that is cleverly wrapped into a psychological film. Yes, the actions will cause shock (perhaps not even for the lighthearted) but it's the mental manipulation, the monotone, the poker face and the polite words that Moriguchi (played by Takako Matsu) that makes everything a perfect blow, up until the end, almost pulling a perfect Chekhov's gun. While the intertwining confessions benefit viewers in giving a different perspective and a two-side of the story narration, it suffers from inconsistency especially in terms of clarity and length. Given the context of the story though, it makes you question how plausible the writing is. You can applaud Moriguchi's clever plotting but you question just how much, especially having junior high school kids here, how of much of what happens makes sense...in reality (being vague to avoid spoilers). A contrast in terms of style with Nakashima's The World of Kanako which incorporates fast cuts and heightened overtones, Confessions is slow, filled with slow motions that adds dramatic effect but renders the stab to the heart effect. Irony and contrast is a recurring theme. Lots of irony. Contrast in overall cinematography with dark colors against white background reflect the melo-dramatic feel, sometimes emo ballad curled in psychological mindfuck that the film tries to take. Lots of dark gray tones creating a gloomy ambiance. Contrast with English music with ironic lyrics and dramatic scenes make the scenes stand out. Ai Hashimoto, often called as an acting prodigy because of the massive pool of films under her belt at the age of 20 puts on her signature smug look that shows a character filled with secrecy. Yukito Nishii executes his character well, playing an innocent genius with dark secrets. His actions surprised me and I least expected that. He has great chemistry onscreen with Hashimoto. It's probably mean to say but Kaoru Fujiwara fits the stereotypical wimpy loner look which makes his acting effective and his eventual collapse all the more heartbreaking. Overall, Confessions is not a perfect film but the acclaim it gets is the way it handles the psychological factors it imposes on its viewers. It tries to ask you teach you a lesson about life, but actually you don't need that lesson. That's a red herring in the film. Everything it "tries" to tell you, you already know. And I think the film is just showing these underlying "lessons" out in the open using young teenagers for elaborated effect. It's not a film about evil per say but the little hidden dark side in all of us. But I'm just glad that it wasn't the least bit romanticized.