Confession of Pain

Confession of Pain
Confession of Pain
	Film poster
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	傷城
Simplified Chinese	伤城
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Shāng Chéng
Yue: Cantonese
Jyutping	Seong1 Sing4
Directed by	Andrew Lau; Alan Mak
Written by	Felix Chong; Alan Mak
Produced by	Andrew Lau; Cheung Hong-tat
Starring	Tony Leung; Takeshi Kaneshiro; Shu Qi; Xu Jinglei
Cinematography	Andrew Lau; Lai Yiu-fai
Edited by	Azrael Chung
Music by	Chan Kwong-wing
Production; companies	Media Asia Films; Sil-Metropole Organisation; Basic Pictures
Distributed by	Media Asia Distribution
Release date	21 December 2006;
Running time	110 minutes
Country	Hong Kong
Language	Cantonese
Box office	HK$14,182,296

Confession of Pain is a 2006 Hong Kong crime drama film directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, starring Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Shu Qi and Xu Jinglei.

Plot summary

Police inspectors Lau Ching-hei and Yau Kin-bong arrest a rapist in 2003. When Yau returns home later, he sees that his pregnant girlfriend has committed suicide by slitting her wrists. Yau is so depressed with her death that he indulges in alcohol and turns in his police badge to work as a private investigator. He becomes obsessed with finding out the reason for his girlfriend's suicide.

Three years later, Yau discovers that his girlfriend had actually cheated on him and she was waiting at a bar for her secret lover on the night she died. Her secret lover did not show up that night because he was involved in a car accident. Yau initially thought that he will be angry with his girlfriend's lover, but he ends up taking care of the comatose man in the hospital. Yau gets over the unhappy incident and falls in love with Hung, a girl who sells beer in the same bar.

Lau's wife, Susan, is the daughter of the billionaire Chow Yuen-sing. One night, Lau and two accomplices break into his father-in-law's residence, where they kill Chow and his butler, Uncle Man. Later, Lau lures his partners-in-crime to a rundown house and murders them, after which he attempts to make the scene seem as though the two of them killed each other in a dispute over the loot. Susan is not convinced that only the two killers were involved, so she hires Yau to help her investigate further. She has also become paranoid after her father's murder, so Lau has to discreetly give her pills to calm her down and put her to sleep.

After a long investigation, which includes a few dangerous confrontations with a "suspect", Yau discovers Lau's secret and dark past. Chow Yuen-sing had murdered Lau's family members in Macau several years ago when Lau was still a boy, and he bribed the police to close the case. Lau survived, took on a new identity, and grew up in an orphanage before moving to Hong Kong, where he became a police officer. Lau seeks vengeance on Chow and he pretended to fall in love with Susan and married her. He attempts to kill Susan by drugging her and locking her inside the kitchen after turning on the gas. Susan survives, but is badly injured because there was an explosion, and ends up in hospital.

Lau visits Susan in hospital and mentally confesses the truth to her. She reveals that she already knows he tried to murder her because she was still partially conscious when he drugged her and locked her in the kitchen. She then asks him if he ever really loved her. Lau realises that, in his desire for revenge, he has destroyed a new family he created with Susan. Susan does not believe him, loses her will to live, and dies. Yau meets Lau outside the hospital and tells him his conclusion. Lau returns to Susan's room, where he feels overwhelmed by guilt and eventually commits suicide by shooting himself in the head.

Cast

Tony Leung as Lau Ching-hei
Takeshi Kaneshiro as Yau Kin-bong
Shu Qi as Hung
Xu Jinglei as Susan Chow
Chapman To as Tsui Wing-kwong
Elliot Ngok as Chow Yuen-sing
Emme Wong as Rachel
Wan Yeung-ming as Uncle Man
Wayne Lai as Chan Wai-keung
Ricky Chan as Lai Sun-wah
Ben Yuen as Wong Ming
Cheung Kam-ching as Chan Wing-fu
Elena Kong as Chan Wing-fu's wife

Soundtrack

Ayumi Hamasaki performed the theme song Secret, which appears in the international release of the film. The Mandarin theme song in the Chinese version, Secret of a Forlorn City (傷城秘密), was performed by Denise Ho.

Distribution

Confession of Pain was released in Hong Kong theatres on 21 December 2006. The two-disc DVD edition, two-disc DVD special edition (with postcard book) and VCD edition were all released in Hong Kong on 14 February 2007. The DVD editions feature audio in DTS-ES and a second disc featuring a documentary of the making of the movie, photo galleries and other bonus features. The Japanese release rights went to Avex Trax, with the title "Kizudarake no Otokotachi" (傷だらけの男たち), which roughly translates as Heavily Scarred Men.

Sponsors of the film include: Giorgio Armani, Ayumi Hamasaki, 1010, San Miguel, Citicall, Philip Stein, D-Link, Neway and APM.^[2]

Reception

Box office

Confession of Pain opened in Hong Kong in the same week as Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower and was beaten on the opening day, but was still able to generate box office revenues of HK$3 million on its opening weekend.^[3]

Critical reception

Critical reception towards the film was mixed. Most critics positively reviewed the performances by Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro,^[4]^[5] but criticized the script as being weak^[5]^[6] or lacking suspense because it gives away too much too soon.^[7]^[8]

Andrew Chan of the Film Critics Circle of Australia writes, "Ultimately the film is too predictable to be a thriller, too few “Chapman To” to be a comedy and far too much Shu Qi to be not entirely annoying. With that being said, the most important element that this film lacks is the almost non-existent connection with the audience and the effect is leaving the audience muddled up and confused."^[9]

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for seven awards in the 26th Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction, Best Costume and Make-Up Design, and Best Original Film Score.^[10] However, it only won one award for Best Cinematography.

Awards and nominations
Ceremony	Category	Recipient	Outcome
26th Hong Kong Film Awards	Best Screenplay	Alan Mak, Felix Chong	Nominated
	Best Actor	Tony Leung	Nominated
	Best Cinematography	Andrew Lau, Lai Yiu-fai	Won
	Best Film Editing	Azrael Chung	Nominated
	Best Original Film Score	Chan Kwong-wing	Nominated
	Best Art Direction	Man Nim-chung	Nominated
	Best Costume and Make Up Design	Man Nim-chung	Nominated
13th Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards	Film of Merit	Confession of Pain	Won

Remake

A Hollywood remake of Confession of Pain was announced by Warner Bros., who bought the rights of the film. Leonardo DiCaprio's production company, Appian Way, is producing the film alongside Roy Lee, who brokered^[11] the remake deals on Asian movies from The Ring to Infernal Affairs. At the moment, however, it is not yet known if DiCaprio, who also starred in the Hollywood remake of Infernal Affairs (another Lau/Mak film), The Departed, will also star in the film. William Monahan, who won a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for The Departed, will work on the script.^[12]