The Statute of Limitations in South Korea is something often criticized in their films, it’s an outdated and archaic perspective that needed to be abolished. I think most of us can agree on that, but that doesn’t change that it created a lot of scenarios to talk about in their films, and a lot of concept worth talking about. I found Confession of Murder at Family Video and didn’t know anything about it at all.
That’s one of the funnest ways to discover movies for the first time, having absolutely no idea what it’s about. That philosophy is also a lot of the reason why a large amount of the movies I watch end up being terrible low-budget horror movies. But the feeling of discovering one that doesn’t suck is immeasurable if you ask me. I didn’t know anything about Confession of Murder, and I didn’t even know it was a South Korean film. The cover-work was enticing enough, (it wasn’t the cover-work shown at the top of the review nor is it any that I can find online.) and I figured that it’d be a nice filler film to culminate the night. A film for background noise while talking with one of my friends. By that time though, it was already 5am and both of us were exhausted, but I have a lot to say about what I was conscious for.
Confession of Murder is a 2012 South Korean action thriller film directed by Jung Byung-gil, starring Jung Jae-young and Park Si-hoo. Let’s start off by discussing the acting, because I have a feeling that it will be one of the least interesting aspects of the whole review. This isn’t to say that it’s bad. In-fact, I think I would even say that it’s commendable.
Park Si-hoo has the most enjoyable performance of the film, at least for me, and while his character starts out carrying a certain spectacle and novelty, his acting is enough for his character itself not to become overwhelmed. Other-wise, the film itself is filled with decent performances. They aren’t tremendous performances and none of them are what I would call great, but they are what I would call solid.
The most interesting aspect of the film is the premise – the film begins with a serial-killer evading the police before disappearing from sight, until, after the statute of limitations has expired, the killer reveals himself to the world with a tell-all book about the murders he has committed. Everyone is a little skeptical first, but when he reveals facts and details about the murders too specific to simply disregard.
I don’t want to dwell on any specific components of the storyline because it’s very easy to reveal detrimental elements. I will say it’s a concept that definitely peaked my interest. In-fact, I love the idea. The mistake that this film makes is that it becomes clouted with so many ideas and happenstances. I wanted it to play it serious and keep the suspense raised up to the oomph degree. This film did keep the heart-beating fast, but in a much different way than being suspense. The film is more intense than suspenseful. The film isn’t at all what I expected and definitely has a lot more action than I would’ve suspected it from it. A lot of the action is actually very inspired and well-done, in-fact, most of it is. A lot of it is extremely over-the-top and nonsensical though, and that really goes against what I wanted for this film to be. That’s fine, as long as you go into it with your brain checked at the door. The trouble is that the film starts off with a little bit more depth than that, and so it feels a little disproportionate to see it head in such a direction like it does. Even still, the action-scenes are definitely a plus to the film even if they’re outlandish.
About the happenstances and coincidences, that’s actually the biggest complaint I have about the film. There’s a lot of good ideas in the film, but they’re so illogical and unlikely that it demeans the entire film as mindless. I like some of them. Don’t mistake this as me saying this about all of the twists and spirals the film has. I like some of them. But others are a little too heavy-handed and outlandish for me to take them seriously. They took me out of it more than anything and so did one or two of the characters. I wanted them to keep it simple, and I feel like they could’ve kept it simple, but instead they elaborated and took a lot of what had me interested out of it.
Confession of Murder isn’t a bad film. I might even call it a good film. I am disappointed though to say that it isn’t a great one. The characters are solid and so is the acting, but some of the characters take away from what I am interested in. The action-scenes are driven and about as wacky and mindlessly entertaining as any action-fan could want to expect. I still can’t help but feel like a terrific concept was squandered as a result though. I would call it a decent film with great ideas, watered down my good action and a messy plot.
Thanks for reading…