Penance

Minato is two for two for twisted psychological Japanese noir. What she did with deadly milk cartons in Confessions made quite the debut splash. She goes back to school here as ten-year-old Emily is raped and murdered on school grounds. The four friends who find her corpse are expectedly traumatized—but three years later, any semblance of recovery is irreparably destroyed when Emily's mother invites the quartet for tea and fancy cakes, only to threaten the girls: find Emily's murderer before the 15-year-statute of limitations or risk revenge: "I'll make you suffer far worse than Emily ever did." Twelve years pass, the 15-year expiry looms, and the girls—now young women—reveal the horrifying penance they've each performed. From nightmare to nightmare, narrator Karissa Vacker aptly retains tight control throughout. Her youthful voice initially works well when the characters are still young but tends toward an immature pitch as they age. That she clearly doesn't speak Japanese further mars her presentation.