Confession of Pain

Lau's attempt to recreate the success of Infernal Affairs is a bit too obvious. On paper, there isn't too much wrong with this film, but for all the money and talent that went into it, Confession of Pain struggles to stand out from the crowd. My expectations were a tad higher going in, though I will say that I never got bored while watching.

Hei is a police detective who is investigating the murder of his father-in-law. Even though he does a very thorough job, every angle or detail he checks out leads to another dead end. Hei is faced with a perfect crime, and so he calls in the help of Bong, a private detective. Bong is dealing with mental issues, but he is known for digging into a case like no other.

The performances are solid (but what did you expect, with Leung and Kaneshiro as leads), the presentation is slick and the film hits all the genre notes. The twists are a bit basic though and Lau puts a strong focus on the story, which draws out the runtime. Confession of Pain is a more than adequate blockbuster, it's just that the potential was there to do more with it.