Confession of Murder

Wow, impressive opening scene. The film is so well made and with the serious plot, it is a pity some of the scenes were made as comical as they did. The comic relief seemed completely out of place for this type of film. Thankfully, they abandon this during the second half of the film. After the halfway mark, we're hit with twist upon twist - and its both fascinating and shocking. Shi-hoo Park was excellent in his role. Notably, Yeong-ae Kim was also excellent as Victim's Mom.

When the big reveal comes about who really wrote the book, a lot doesn't really add up and some of the character's actions are questionable, but that aside, this was one of the most intriguing Korean films I've seen. The action scenes are so well made, it feels as if you're part of the action. The film's final moments are indeed a heart pounding adrenaline rush.

The bad: Really highly improbable car stunt and other action scenes that had the likelihood and ludicrousness of comic book writing. People jumping from rooftops; out of moving vehicles onto hospital gurneys or tops of other cars while fighting as if no more dangerous than on a kitchen table top, etc. I wasn't sure if it was meant to be spoofing movies that go cheaply overboard in that direction, or not. Decided not, that they were serious. A sadly laughable distraction that lessened the intelligence of the storyline. The good: As others will state it has a novel crime thriller twist and turn structure not seen elsewhere. Kudos for that.

Overall score = 6.

This movie was a strange mix of cartoon-funny, thriller, noir and drama, all packed in an adventure.

There are some twists you don't see coming, and when they do, they come down pouring. Some may find them predictable but considering the pacing of the movie I do not deem most of them predictable, except the first one, and this is not actually good all because of timing. Since I do not intend to share any spoiler here, it will be hard for me to explain my point of view, but I will give it a try: The movie twist-bombs you during a single scene of confrontation up until which you had time to dwell on possibilities but wouldn't, in my case at least, because I was too busy savoring the rich performances, an already gruesome and captivating story, and even if I saw a twist coming and try to wrap my head around it, it was hard for me to let the next twist sink in amid all the empathy the story and some of the performances forced me to experience. The shockers in this movie are serious in content and this crowd of twists causes a desensitization in the viewer that doesn't let the whole thing sink in. Where there could be a punch, these are like successive little slaps in your face.

I find the cartoonishly unrealistic scenes in the movie to be a treat. It was nice to watch but it also had a function: it gave a glimpse of the new characters that were introduced, the way a caricature does.

The social commentary is where the perfectly executed noir steps in. A great satire to public perception of psychopathy and how it is engineered by media. Might give some insight to those clueless people out there who haven't yet realized how we transitioned from denouncing behavior that exudes lack of empathy to glamorizing it, condoning the criminals it breeds, because, you know as well as I do how much we are attracted to people in Wall Street as they speculate and kill our future with a single phone call because of all that sexy hair and slick outfit and their "intelligence". Well, there is no "high functioning" psycho in the movie, but the commentary nails it nonetheless.

It is the pacing of the later twists with respect to twist content that led me to give this one an 7. The punch vs slap thing, in other words.

It is a great thriller tainted with abundance of stuff at the cost of more important stuff. The actors in this movie did a great job and character development could have been much better had the script allowed room for it. Come to think of it, this movie should have been at least half an hour longer. As it is, it feels like they crammed it all in 1.5 hour so as not to cut it short.

If you are binge thriller watchers, watch this one. It is a nice Korean thriller by all means. If you look for more in a movie, then I think it is still worth to give a shot. My guess is that you will be both delighted and disappointed but you will be nowhere near "what did I just watch?". No. This one's better than that.

A good South Korean thriller with a fantastic premise, but ultimately brought down by its over-the-top action sequences. Its really too bad the director though the movie needed more 'action scenes', when the suspense and storyline provides more than ample amount of excitement! South Korea is proving to be one of the most exciting filmmakers in the world, but this entry just barely lives up to that title. There are FAR more exciting and well put together SK movies out there, such as, 'Oldboy', 'Memories of Murder', 'Mother', 'I Saw The Devil', and quite a bit more.

Full Review at: www.simplefilmreviews.com/2014/05/confession-of-murder-2012.html

Confession of Murder is a movie that starts off all over the place... with a lot of weird cinematic and thematic choices that make the movie look very unrefined, but by the end you're left with a movie that stands its ground as a decent enough crime thriller with very interesting twists and turns.

And while what I will remember about the movie is its overall plot, it still irritates me to think that the viewing experience too could have been so much better had the director trusted the core of his own movie a little more. The odd and intrusive pacing, the over-the-top action, the comically exaggerated settings, the commercialized reveals, the unclear camerawork, the choppy editing... all seem to point at a lack of confidence during the making of the movie. And I wish it wasn't the case because this movie had the potential to be a more-than-decent crime thriller with a fresh take on the genre.

But nonetheless, by the end of it, the movie offers you a solid 2 hours of entertainment and fun. So go for it if you have the chance!