Book vs. Movie - Confessions (2010)

If you are one of the twelve Bhutanese people who watched the 2010 Japanese revenge movie, “Confessions”, you may read this article. This is a comparison of the movie and the novel, and discusses the few differences and variations from the source material.

Note this: watching the movie is necessary to understand this article, but reading the novel is optional.

Note this also: There are major spoilers for the movie “Confessions”. But come on, you had ten years.

An entire character was left out

As far as movie watchers are concerned, the Shitamura household consists of Momma Shitamura and Naoki. However, in the novel, a small section is told from Naoki's older sister's point of view. She explains her family's ignorance of Naoki's situation and ends up finding her mother's diary in which Naoki's slow descent into madness is detailed. This omission of a character is quite understandable from a movie-making standpoint.

Naoki's sister was not an essential character and her role was carried out by narrative devices such as Momma Shitamura writing her thoughts in her diary and by explaining from Naoki's point of view directly. I have to give Kudos to the movie makers because this was a smart decision - by removing some characters, the focus could be shifted more towards the few main characters. This makes for the gripping and intense experience that Confessions is.

Naoki gets a shave.

In the movie, Naoki explains that his filth and grime is proof of him being alive i.e. not dead. Eventually, his mother slips a sleeping pill into his diet and gives him a sponge bath, trims off his nails and gives him a haircut. In the book, this sponge bath is not included but the haircut is. Momma Shitamura does have a strong argument for the haircut. She explains that she wanted to mess up Naoki's  hair so that he would be forced to go to the barber and come out of his room. However, an upset Naoki goes to get a bath and ends up shaving his hair. These scenes are not in the movie; and you try being a child actor and I'll tell you to get a monk's hairdo three weeks into shooting.

The blood scene at the convenience store is also explained. In the movie, Naoki is shown rescued by his mother after getting blood in the items at the konbini (that's a Japanese convenience store).

In the novel, Naoki explains that he got a razor and walked over the store. After cutting himself he wanted to spread blood over as many items as possible as a means of infecting other people with the blood.

These two sections are from Naoki and his mother's points of view, in the novel. These are present in the movie, albeit in a much more compressed form.

Shuya was annoyed by a talkative Naoki

Shuya in the movie is an intellectual kid with capabilities of a science prodigy with a dash of psycho. The book version of Shuya is mostly the same but he is also shown to be an overbearing, confident person who views  his other classmates as being lesser than him. His superiority complex (not to be confused with his mother complex) is a huge character flaw. Moriguchi also comments on him being the "biggest idiot" for trying to prove himself better.

Also, film Shuya only whispers one sentence to the naïve Naoki at the pool. Book Shuya's declaration to Naoki about using him goes down like a scene from an Anime. This deletion of a huge chunk of Shuya's dialogue made the movie more realistic and was an excellent choice.

Shuya's revelation to Naoki that he only brought Naoki along as an accessory, and didn't consider him his friend; plays out like a Anime scene in the novel. In the movie, it is more natural and makes the scene more disheartening, creepy and cinematically amazing. The scene is a very short one but shows us the working of the mental evil inside of Shuya's head.

Moriguchi was a more rounded character

Now, from watching the movie only we can understand that "Teacher's child gets killed by two students. Teacher's revenge ends with both students killing their own mothers."; which is poetic and beautiful justice. However, if you found that too neat to fit in the story, then you are right. It was simply happy coincidence that the revenge ended the way it did.

In the novel (Ms./Mrs./Ma'am/Sensei/Lopen?) Moriguchi -  I couldn't decide what title to give her - is shown to have only planned the revenge up to the addition of the HIV infected blood in the milk. However, Mr. Sakuramiya follows her and switches the infected milk, foiling her plan. Moreover, her long term plan for revenge is also shown to be quite disorganised. She reveals, in the novel, that she would have been happy if Shuya died as a result of the bullying from the classmates. She also displays slight sorrow and regret for the death of Mizuho – the class captain – at the hands of Shuya, although admitting that it is entirely Shuya's fault. In the movie, this part of Moriguchi is not shown. In the scene where she interacts with Mizuho, on screen, she seems to be a bit unhinged too. The novel does not portray Moriguchi as much of a calculative revenge planner as does the movie. There is a level of ice-cold, well-thought-out planning that the book does detail such as the HIV infected milk, manipulating Werther and so on.

If you haven't watched 2010's "Confessions", you should.

Peaceful Sparta recommends not saying 'Momma Shitamura' to your own mother. Instead read more articles from this blog.