"Confessions" to represent Japan in the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar race

by Chris MaGee

It was announced this past Wednesday that Tetsuya Nakashima's latest film "Confessions" has been selected by the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan to represent Japan in the race for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar at the 83rd Academy Awards. The film stars Takako Matsu as a junior high school teacher whose daughter is brutally murdered. While she has no hard proof she strongly suspects that a group of her students are responsible for the crime and she sets out to avenge her daughters death. "Confessions is a real change of pace for director Nakashima who is best known internationally for his comedy "Kamikaze Girls" and the comic-tragic musical "Memories of Matsuko".

Japan has always had a more miss than hit track record with their selections for the Best Foreign Language Film race. The last few years have seen films such as Ryoichi Kimizuka's police procedural "Daremo Mamotte Kurenai (Nobody to Watch Over Me)" and Masayuki Suo wrongfull-accused court drama "I Just Didn't Do It" being chosen to represnt Japan. Those films didn't capture the Academy's imagination, but everyone knows of the surprise win in 2009 by Yojiro Takita's "Departures". Ever since then the hopes for Japan at the Academy Awards have risen exponentially. We'll all have to wait as the members of the Academy of of Motion Picture Arts and Science weed through the entrants from around the globe, whidle the choices down to only five and then announce the winner at the 83rd annual Academy Awards on Sunday, February 27, 2011.

Thanks to Tokyograph for this news and good luck to Nakashima and his cast and crew! Check out the trailer for confessions below.