Confession of Pain (Variety Review)

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Confession of Pain
Written by Derek Elley
Thursday, 08 March 2007
Story Categories: Film, Film review, Hong Kong, Media Asia, remakes,
"Confession of Pain"
("Seung Sing") (Hong Kong-China-Japan)

A Media Asia Distribution release (in Hong Kong) of a Media Asia Films, Sil-Metropole Organization (Hong Kong)/Polybona Film Distribution (China)/Avex Entertainment (Japan) presentation of a Basic Pictures production. (International sales: Media Asia, Hong Kong.) Produced by Andrew Lau, Cheung Hong-tat. Executive producers, John Chong, Yu Dong, Masaomi Takagi, Song Dai. Directed by Andrew Lau, Alan Mak. Screenplay, Felix Chong, Mak.

With: Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Shu Qi, Xu Jinglei, Chapman To, Emme Wong, Yueh Hua, Vincent Wan, Wayne Lai, Chan Bo-yuan, Shaun Tam, Monie Tung, Toby Leung. (Cantonese dialogue)

The "Infernal Affairs" helming-writing team of Andrew Lau, Alan Mak and Felix Chong fail to create equivalent frissons in "Confession of Pain," an extremely good-looking but dramatically weak cop-crimer that generates little real tension. Basic idea -- now set for a Stateside remake by Warners, with "The Departed's" Leonardo DiCaprio and scripter William Monahan attached -- is strong enough to work with intelligent retooling and casting, but this Hong Kong original suffers from unconvincing chemistry between leads Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Takeshi Kaneshiro and glossy direction that overpowers the characters.

With heavy promo and built-up expectation, pic hauled in a good but not spectacular HK$20 million ($2.5 million) locally last December, and has played well with female Asian fans of the two handsome superstars. In the West, it looks unlikely to achieve the cult popularity of the "IA" trilogy.
Neat idea of a homicide cop hiring a former police buddy to investigate a murder the former actually committed gives the game away early on and doesn't create sufficient other smarts to take its place. To develop real drama, as one man perversely sets up his own possible downfall by the hand of the other, the friendship between the two should be utterly believable. Instead, the onscreen chemistry between Leung and Kaneshiro is more actorly than genuinely felt.

Story opens in flashback to Christmas Eve 2003, as respected detective Lau Ching-hei (Leung) chats with partner Bong (Kaneshiro) at a party. In a puzzling sequence that seems designed simply to show the psychotic rage behind Ching-hei's buttoned-down front, the pair tail a suspect to an apartment where a woman is tied up. In a shocking development, Ching-hei viciously clubs the guy over the head. Afterwards, Bong returns home to find his g.f., Rachel (Cantopop singer Emme Wong), has slit her wrists.
Three years later, Bong is now a PI and heavily into the sauce; Ching-hei is married to onetime journalist Susan (Mainland star Xu Jinglei). In a bar where Rachel spent her last night, alky Bong picks up kooky waitress Feng (Shu Qi) and the pair end up in the sack.

At the same bar, Susan later asks Bong to investigate the still-unsolved mystery of the death of her father, Chow (vet Yueh Hua), and Ching-hei, who jokingly says even he is still a suspect, encourages Bong to take on the assignment.

In a technically clever sequence that melds the murder itself (in B&W) with Ching-hei and Bong visiting the former crime scene of Chow's apartment, the script makes explicit Ching-hei's guilt. But so far the official investigating team -- led by not-so-dim working stiff Tsui (comedian Chapman To, very good) -- only know the names of two men involved in the murder.The "third man" remains a mystery.

As Bong slowly edges closer to the truth, he realizes the dangerous game being played by his buddy. But Ching-hei still has another murder in the planning stage.

Pic pulls one neat twist while cross-cutting between this planned murder and a meal in a restaurant, but it's the only surprise in a second half in which most viewers will be ahead of the background revelations. With the two female roles severely diminished -- Shu phoning in her patented ditzy perf and Xu's perf hobbled by Cantonese dubbing -- the heart of the film should be the decaying friendship between the male leads. But dialogue plumbs no special depths and both Leung and Kaneshiro go through the motions.

High-gloss widescreen lensing by Lau and Lai Yiu-fan is aces, but too often becomes an end in itself. Ditto the symphonic score by Chan Kwong-wing. Result is an intriguing exercise in style that rarely becomes genuinely compelling. Original Chinese title means "Wounded City," playing on the melancholy at the center of the flawed script.

Camera (color, widescreen), Lau, Lai Yiu-fan; editor, Azrael Chung; music, Chan Kwong-wing; production designer, Man Lim-chung; costume designer, Giorgio Armani; sound (Dolby Digital), Kinson Tsang; stunt coordinator, Lee Tat-chiu; assistant director, Ask Lee. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (market), Feb. 14, 2007. Running time: 110 MIN.



http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/914/