Reviewed by: Sydneyguy Date: 07/24/2007 Summary: i confess, its average!! They try to make a movie thats a little different but unfortunately it doesnt work!! Tony Leung looks aged, im not sure if thats on purpose!! Takeshi kaneshiro looks great, but that was from all the females i know!! Chapman To always play his roles with little effort. Shu Qi is there to look pretty and act ditzy, a normal role for her. Yueh Hua looks real old, but then again, he is!! Its good to see a shaw brothers legend on the screen. All the actors play there characters well, its just the story!! Did Tony Leung do it or not? Your not quite sure whats happening, could what you be seeing some type of dream sequence or is it something else. This is the most intriguing part of the movie. But that isnt saying much The movie feels like its going through the motions, nothing much seems to happen and when they do, it feels like a let down. A cant believe Hollywood wants to re make this, just shows you Hollywood really has ran out of ideas, because they must be desperate to take this!! The movie is watchable, set your standards low and maybe you wont be disappointed!! Reviewer Score: 6

Reviewed by: dandan Date: 03/01/2007 Summary: one hundred and ten minutes of pain... 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.

Reviewed by: STSH Date: 01/08/2007 Summary: Stylishly down and dirty Dark, disturbing, very gory, well photographed, well acted. Looks like Andrew Lau is paying serious homage to Martin Scorcese. I've long found Leung Chiu Wai, little Tony, to be an irritating actor, perhaps because of the number of irritating roles he played in his early career. But even from such an starting prejudice, I must admit that he has improved, and continues to do so. He turns in a fine and multi-faceted performance as the troubled senior cop. Just as good is Kaneshiro, as the tortured alcoholic and former sidekick of Tony's, and the two bounce off each other like two old buddies, despite serious tension between them, as the story makes clear almost from the outset. Pity the same can't be said for Shu Qi. Sorry fans, but she's wasted here. She's little more than an accessory to Takeshi, and is not given the space in the story to do anything more. Sigh. Chapman To provides brief flashes of comic relief from the mostly morbid and menacing proceedings, and Xu Jing Lei turns in a believable performance as the daughter of the rich murder victim, also as Hei's wife, who calls in Takeshi to help the investigation, which has stalled in the hands of the police. While not a great film, it is worth a look, and is perhaps a part of the ever increasing feedback loop between Hollywood and HK. Reviewer Score: 6

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