Confessions of a Dog – Review

Third Window Films have sent us some really good films over the last few months. None, have been so pain stakingly brutal as Confessions of a Dog. I commend Third Window Films first and foremost because as a movie that clocks in at over 3 hours and tackles real occurrences within a corrupt Japanese law enforcement, it isn’t exactly an easy film to distribute. Sugata, best known in the West for small parts in Kill Bill and The Last Samurai, is exceptional! He is a simple beat cop assigned to a kōban, or a tiny street level police station. We know right away that Confessions of a Dog won’t be a sympathetic depiction of police.

The films’ examination of the link between Japanese values on honor and corruption also broadens the scope to implicate Japanese society as a whole for its own part in allowing such disgusting abuses of power. Projects like this are probably reserved for the term “ambitious failure” but as long as people see it, one doubts Takahashi will care. The primary purpose of Confessions is to educate, and it definitely does that. Sugata is exceptional and grows throughout, culminating in a performance of such intensity you cannot help but sympathize, even in the knowledge of his previous misguided behavior.

But there are some who find such a state of affairs intolerable. Freelance journalist Rikio Kusama first encounters Takeda during a carelessly scripted hostage crisis. It’s where he also encounters press photographer Kitamura. These are the types of professions that love to push and tug at plot points and subject matters they should just leave alone. While it is true that Takahashi’s main goal with Confessions of a Dog is to bring about change in the Japanese police force, such corruption unfortunately exists in all societies and at every level of society. Few in Japan have ever seen the movie, many due its content and others because of its length. At over three hours you would expect drawn out and unnecessary scenes yet this is far from the case and is actually to the story’s benefit, as we are able to fully appreciate and witness in detail, the rise and fall of a man and a professional.

I really don’t know what else to say. It is rare that such a lengthy movie can have me at a loss for words. It felt eerie and almost uncomfortable to watch a film that tackles issues the Japanese establishment would prefer to see swept under the carpet than discussed openly. As well as an exposing the police it also highlights a complicity and ineffectiveness in the local news media. It is powerfully played and has an epic feel. The movie details a litany of abuses that is so shockingly wide that it’s almost too odious to believe particularly the crimes performed by uniformed police. However, Takahashi stresses that “99 percent” of the events in Confessions of a Dog are true. So, don’t just watch this film to be entertained, watch it to open your eyes to the scum of this world and to better appreciate the society that us, as Westerners, enjoy on an everyday basis. This is not only a good film, but an important one that I am glad is finally going to see the light of day come Tuesday, March 14th. I urge everyone to pick this one up!