Kokuhaku (Confessions)
Sometimes high definition is a gift and it definitely applies to this film. It looks extremely stylish. Nakashima used a poopton of special effects, just like in “Shimotsuma Monogatari” but in this film, it exudes the air of a cold beauty instead of the silliness I have seen before. Both choices suit their respective films, and I could only be in awe of how surprisingly nice the directing looked like.
I recommended the film to 6451 without having seen it before, and luckily he liked it so I am glad I did. It was a sign that I should finally get to watch it myself. Ultimately there are two ways of seeing the film – through the eyes of a weeaboo or through the eyes of a normal person. The weeaboo has seen this kind of story a million times before and typically knows how they play out. Almost every character in the film would feel like a cliché (they really are). The normal person has probably heard a lot about Japan, and even if they didn’t, typically the fact that Japanese kids are being bullied or stressed at school is pretty well-known, just like the hentai anime stuff. Now, as a weeaboo it’s possible to dislike the film for its banality and exaggerated, utterly unrealistic characters, yet at the same time, having greater knowledge in the topic would give a feeling of familarity. For a normal person, such stories are probably not too unusual compared to Charlotte Gainsbourg’s self-mutilation in “Antichrist”, yet the darkness of the film – especially concerning such young children – could be hard to bear if one hasn’t seen it too often. In any case though, the film has garnered pretty widespread acclaim; after all, the storytelling is pretty impeccable and, unlike Ai no Mukidashi, the actors in the film are actually really good despite their youth.
When it comes to the goriness of Japanese films, I can only think of Loris who postulated that he finds all of Japanese society perverse. It’s a common view especially when one is confronted with little more than Japanese films which made it into the Western world, and I find it hard to refute even though I don’t particularly like this type of common psychology à la “Those Japanese are all perverted pedophiles who need to vent their aggressive frustration from the wars”. Usually this kind of view is popular among Chinese nationalists, but I guess it’s not too far-fetched when one gets their information through manga, anime and Japanese films either. Scary.
My personal last “experience” with Japaneseness consisted in wearing a yukata yesterday. You’d think it’s just a straight piece of fabric completely devoid of sex appeal, but in reality, for me it made me more aware of my ‘femininity’ and the curves of my body than any other piece of clothes I have ever worn, including mini-skirts. (Though admittedly I have never worn corsages outside the bedroom.) The yukata naturally makes you walk more gracefully, arrange your arms around your bags in a specific way and in my case, it made me stand straight. And finally, even though the silhouette is very straight, the string that holds the entire thing together wraps around your waist, further contributing to this feeling. Considering that these clothes are still (sometimes) worn today whereas in China nobody wraps their feet anymore, personally I am not too surprised at where the theories about how Japan has to cope with their perverse past is coming from.
I definitely think that “Confessions” is worth a watch, and I am glad that 6451 saw it. Maybe it’s not necessarily the most interesting start into Japanese films (for that, I think “Departures” is much more wonderful) but all in all, I’d say it was very well-crafted. And I absolutely love a great vendetta story.
I am not sure I have really seen another vendetta-themed movie before. At least nothing comes directly to mind. I guess that means this is the best one, if indeed I have witnessed a vendetta-flick before. The movie was very good, and although I was not emotionally involved with the characters, I was very drawn into the story. Of course I come from the weeaboo perspective.
I find it interesting how the child actors are not actually old enough to legally see the movie themselves in Japan. I wonder if their good acting comes from the natural cruelty of children or if the director worked some awesome magic?
Haha, “Old Boy” is the vendetta flick to end all vendetta flicks, and apart from that I’d say that “Le Comte de Monte Cristo” is the vendetta book to end all vendetta books. Vengeance makes a great story, really. XD
I think most of the kids really play themselves. When I was 13 I was thinking of putting the world to ashes too, I think. None of these childish thoughts are serious, thusly they are even more cruel. It’s a common thing that actors don’t really know what is exactly going on when they play it, which is also why I doubt it’s detrimental for, say, Dakota Fanning to play a rape scene. That is what good acting is about, after all. You are constantly aware that what you are doing is not real, but you have to play it as if it is.