Confessions - revenge Janaese style

So obviously the big film event at the moment is the final Harry Potter. I've been really busy recently so I've not had the chance to get to the cinema yet, I expect I'll be able to see it some time this week. Last week though I was able to catch up on watching some of the LoveFilm DVDs I've had sitting around for a few weeks. The first of these I watched the other day is a Japanese film called 'Confessions'.

Yet another one recommended by the Radio 5 Live film reviews, 'Confessions' is a film in which the opening 15 minutes consists of a near-monologue for the main character to explain the premise. She is a school teacher whose daughter has recently died, she explains to her class how she knows that in fact two of the kids in the room were her killers. She further explains that she has had her revenge on this pair by poisoning their milk with HIV-infected blood. As pandemonium breaks out in her class she tells them how the effects of this poisoning will become apparent in a few months, and that when they return to school after the holidays she will have long quit her job.

Fear of children is a classic storyline. And not just in Japanese film (although 'Battle Royale' is a classic case in point), John Wyndam's 'Midwich Cuckoos' is a classic of modern science fiction that plays up fear of the unknown and portrays children as an enemy within complete with their own codes of conduct, language and culture that adults can't hope of comprehend. Vilification of the teenager is so commonplace in media that it often goes un-noticed - consider James Dean in 'Rebel without a cause' to realise that this is hardly a modern phenomenon.

'Confessions' presents teen culture as an impenetrable web that a teacher can only scrape the surface of, but by making waves in can create unexpected consequences. Our teacher here, by telling the class that a killer lies within, creates a culture of recrimination and whispering that soon turns sour, then descends into anarchy and worse.

Part revenge thriller and part psycho-drama, 'Confessions' is an enjoyable film that's somehow sobering at the same time. It has an odd visual style that makes it look more artsy than it really is, so please don't be put off the first time you see a lingering shot of raindrops. Check it out - it has an interesting ending...