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.

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

The latest Korean action-thriller to hit theatres in Singapore, 'Confession of Murder' is a gem of a film that can be compared to the likes of 'Old Boy' and 'Memories of Murder'.

At the heart of this movie is the tale of Detective Choi, whose quest is to capture the one thing that evades him. It's a very human resolve and one that is particularly relatable to the people of our time. We're not all cops searching for a suspect, but very much like Detective Choi, we have that one answer that we seek our entire lives and work hard to find out. The prevalence and influence of the media, plastic surgery, as well as blind devotion to a public figure have all been gracefully written into the script, and so surrounding that story is a context so rooted in reality that it could very well be our own daily lives.

The performances in this film are truly commendable, particularly those of the stuntmen for the deadly accurate execution of the stunts. In particular, the main actors brilliantly brought in the subtle aspects of their characters, in order to bring humanity to a larger-than life drama, effectively giving a hook for the audience to relate to the movie on a deeper level.

There is also dark humor in the movie, which brings some levity into an otherwise dark world that the audience becomes immersed in. One almost feels guilty for laughing, which is a testament to the irony of the humor. What makes the situation on screen so humorous is how exceedingly close it is to what would happen if such a thing were to take place in real-life. Such a thing is almost never portrayed in films for the sake of cinematic impact- but by doing the opposite, 'Confession of Murder' turns itself into almost a satire and criticism of popular culture.

This is one film that defines 'order in chaos' and does so with a great deal of style. The makers of it have taken a complex plot and planned it out with such precision that even to the non-Korean speaking viewer, the story being told is clear and concise. There is no beating around the bush with this film. The pacing is just right such that Confession of Murder never loses the audience's attention, and even at the most tumultuous times of this film (such as one of the many fast-paced dialogue exchanges), details are never lost. Even the action sequences have been tightly-choreographed in order to mould into the complex camera-work and it shows on screen as a beautiful and graceful wedding of skills from both cast and crew.

The twist at the end is also a reminder of what great cinema is and is capable of doing, i.e. shocking the audience by leaving out one aspect of the story and then revealing it at the end only to change the audience's entire perspective of what has happened all along. It is making the audience feel like they should have known better. It also proves the uncomfortable truth that we are capable of being fooled, and that reality as we perceive it is often imperfect.

In this film, the peripeteia then leads to a startling climax which fulfils the purpose of every character in this film before moving down into a resolution which leaves no loose ends untied. Indeed, 'Confession of Murder' is a film indeed worth watching and a tale highly relevant to our celebrity-obsessed times.

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.

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.