bong (takeshi kaneshiro) is an ex-cop, an alcoholic and private investigator; he quit the force after arriving home to find his girlfriend had killed herself, but he still keeps in touch with chief (tony leung chui-wai), his ex-boss. when chief's father-in-law is murdered, his wife susan (xu jing-lei) asks bong to investigate; she believes the murder is more complex than it appears. chief can't get involved, as he's a suspect, but his influence allows bong to tag along with the investigating officer, tsui (chapman to), to see if he can come up with anything. bong soon begins to agree with susan...

following on from 2005's 'initial d', after milking their 'infernal affairs' films for all they were worth (andrew lau was even taking credit for scorsese's oscar win), andrew lau and alan mak have returned to narrative twists and turns. 'confession of pain' is a who-done-it thriller with a difference; we get to know who did it after only a few scenes, leaving us to watch takeshi kaneshiro as he tries to find out, whilst we wait for the motives to be disclosed. in my opinion, this just doesn't work and, ultimately, i just didn't care.

thankfully, kaneshiro is extremely watchable; sure he's a smouldering hunk of man-flesh, but his portrayal of bong's escapist alcoholism is one of very few reasons to endure this film. tony leung is completely out-smouldered, delivering a dull performance, of an already dull character. if it wasn't for kaneshiro i'd probably have stopped watching the film, although i did enjoy the supporting turns, from a bumbling chapman to and a breezy shu qi.

unfortunately, kaneshi's performance and the slick look of the film can't save it from its narrative issues; after a messy, exposition rich, introduction, closely followed by the reveal, the narrative clunks along until it reaches a distinctly unsatisfying conclusion.

kaneshiro good, film bad.