Confession

I was unsure whether to mark this as an anthology, but ultimately I decided against it. Obayashi delivers a bunch of tangentially connected stories and vignettes, but they feel like parts of the same concept, with the essence of the film revealing itself through the sum of these short films.

The setting is Onomichi, a little rural town close to the sea. Some young boys grow up there and decide to make the most of it. Through several stories, we see how they face life with determination and get themselves ready to begin their adult life. But not all their games are innocent.

Like Emotion, Confession is a pretty experimental film, with Obayashi trying out different styles and concepts within the same film. He would revisit some of these themes in his later work, but never with quite the same vitality and energy. I like these old Obayashi films, a clear sign of what was to come.