Gen Takahashi's Confessions Of A Dog was a leap of faith by the director. The Japanese police are a near bulletproof institution in their homeland, and to make a film criticizing them in such a brutal and searing way was certainly a risky operation. Filming began the day after Christmas in 2004 with a projected 2006 release date.  However, upon completion, no cinema in Japan would touch it. As Takeda, played with intense solemnity by Shun Sugata, says in the film, "there are two things no Japanese should question: the Emperor and the police". Takahashi did the latter, and as a result, no one saw the film for almost five years.

Confessions Of A Dog is a story of police corruption of the most vile sort. It involves police running drugs, killing snitches, beating their captives, guilty and innocent alike, and lying about all of it with a straight face to the Japanese press, who question nothing. As one editor says in the film, "the police investigate the crimes, we report their findings". That is it, no more work to be done. Unless of course, you are Kusama, a freelance investigative reporter, not something terribly common in Takahashi's Japan. Kusama knows there is something fishy about the police force, but he needs a partner to help him break the story and get attention. Kusama finds a partner and finds his story in Takeda, a hulking beat cop who gets moved up the ranks a little at a time, losing a bit of himself every step of the way.

J. Hurtado / twitchfilm.com