Confession of Murder Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Confession of Murder Blu-ray Movie Review

The limitations here are not statutory.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 17, 2014

Say what you will about the American jurisprudence system (and heaven knows, there’s plenty to say), we at least have had the good sense to generally not have a statute of limitations when it comes to the most heinous crimes, including capital murder. Never having been to South Korea, and certainly not acquainted at all with their justice system, I can’t say for certain whether one of Confession of Murder’s central conceits—that Korea has only a fifteen year statute of limitations on murder cases—is true or not, but it at least sets up an intriguing premise that allows the film to poke around issues of guilt, remorse and even our celebrity culture, in what becomes a kind of Korean analog to some of the concepts informing Oliver Stone’s much loved and loathed Natural Born Killers. Make no mistake, though: Confession of Murder has nothing of Stone’s anachronistic approach, and in fact tends to undercut its own promise by investing in one of those “big twists” that not only defies logic but also may actually make some viewers angry at how they’ve been unfairly manipulated. Say what you will about such twist-meisters as M. Night Shyamalan, when they’re on their game their best work (as in The Sixth Sense) has an inherent logic which supports repeated viewings. Confession of Murder hinges on a blatant piece of misdirection that leads the viewer into believing one set of facts when there’s something quite different actually going on. Despite these issues (and at least one more which will be discussed below), Confession of Murder has a certain intrinsic allure as it depicts the story of a long dormant serial killer who suddenly emerges after the statute of limitations on his crimes has expired, releasing a “tell all” book about his killing spree which makes him an overnight sensation.

Writer-director Jeong Byeong-gil evidently has a background as a stuntman, and that proclivity is put to good use in a blistering opening scene which sees two combatants literally bursting through the glass wall of a little neighborhood tea house. It’s not initially clear exactly what’s going on, other than that two guys are having a rather violent brawl. Jeong’s hyperkinetic camera is all over the place, adding to a feeling of confusion, but it soon becomes clear one of the guys has taken a hostage and wastes no time in killing her, and then hightailing it down a series of labyrinthine South Korean alleyways. The other guy gives chase and despite having several chances to dispatch the killer, never quite musters up the will to shoot the guy, at least for a while. Even after one shot finds its target, the assailant, perhaps getting by on massive amounts of adrenaline, still has the fortitude to keep running, and his predator suddenly finds that he’s become the prey when the killer viciously stabs him, including slicing his face open in a scene that perhaps intentionally mimics the nose cutting scene of Chinatown . In a kind of creepy turn, the bad guy turns out to be wearing a kind of plastic mask, but from behind his disguise he lets the wounded man know that death is too good for him and that he has big plans for the bleeding man’s future.

The film then time shifts—twice, in fact—forward to provide at least a little context and back story for the chaotic melée we’ve just witnessed. It turns out that the bad guy was a mysterious serial killer who was never caught and who is thought to have committed at least ten vicious rapes and killings several years previously. The man chasing him was police Lieutenant Choi (Jeong Jae-yeong), who has been haunted ever since by his inability to bring in the villain. Choi has a permanent reminder of his run-in with the bad guy courtesy of a large scar listing out from his lips, a remnant of his last encounter with the murderer in the alleyway so many years ago. The crimes are once again in the news as the statute of limitations expires, and Choi attempts to drown his sorrows in the same little neighborhood café that he burst through the wall of in the opening scene. Adding to Choi’s distress is the fact that the son of the first victim, whom Choi has treated as his own brother since the murder, ends up committing suicide (in a fairly gruesome and graphic scene) when the statute of limitations expires, feeling hopeless that the perpetrator can now never be brought to justice.

As convoluted as this sounds, it’s actually all simply a prelude for what turns out to be the main thrust of the story, which finally arrives when a media savvy man named Lee (Park Shi-hoo) suddenly shows up claiming to be the murderer, with a tell all book going into graphic detail about each of the killings, something that gives immense credence to his claims. Choi of course is angry but intrigued, and when Lee becomes an overnight sensation in Korea, a sensation fostered by a combination of disgust and attraction, Choi is intent on somehow finally giving Lee the comeuppance he so richly deserves. He has to get in line, though, for despite Lee’s perhaps groveling attempts at remorse (he personally apologizes to surviving family members), there’s a rather convoluted set of attempts to kill him.

Even this is not the end of the wending road Confession of Murder takes, for ultimately a guy named Mr. J shows up, claiming that he is the real murderer. Even more of a media onslaught occurs, including several “debates” on Korean television where Choi and Lee go head to head and, late in the film, J also joins the proceedings. As might be inferred from this précis, Confession of Murder’s plot is so stuffed to the gills with various sidebars and tangents that it is often in danger of sinking under its own weight. Nowhere is this more evident than in the film’s climax, when a patently silly revelation suddenly casts everything that has happened before in a new light. Had Jeong chosen to close the film at the point where this revelation is disclosed and the real perp is supposedly finally brought to justice, things might have been better than they end up being. Instead, the film lumbers on for several more minutes, with a needless coda that sees the killer escaping (yet again), which of course ends up entailing a whole new manic chase scene, which finally culminates in a ridiculous (if perhaps cleansing) act of violence.

Confession of Murder dances around some fairly provocative material, probably most salaciously the media’s lionization of evildoers, but it never has the sense to concentrate on any given issue long enough to really develop it fully. The film has an inimitable mood and even deserves style points for Byeong’s bookending action sequences, but a film like this requires some sort of emotional connection to really work. Choi is an obviously conflicted character (an aspect that plays into the annoying “twist” that comes late in the film), but the viewer is so busy ferreting out the ins and outs of the many plot strands that it’s hard to get too worked up about his inner turmoil. Oddly, the one aspect where some people may feel a tug or two at their heartstrings has to do with the victims’ families. Unfortunately, those stories are too often pushed to the sidelines as the mystery of whether or not media darling Lee is actually the killer he insists he is takes center stage.

Confession of Murder Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Confession of Murder is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This digitally shot feature generally looks great in high definition, with a clear, stable image and some superb fine detail in close-ups (take a look at the skin textures in screenshot 2 for a good example). As so often is the case nowadays (especially with thrillers), a lot of the film has been rather aggressively color graded, of course once again to that cool ice blue/slate gray side of things, and that tendency, coupled with a number of sequences that take place in extremely dark environments, lead to a lack of overall detail and sharpness at times. While the non-filtered segment offer reasonably accurate looking color, flesh tones are just slightly pallid at times.

Confession of Murder Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

If one were to divorce the opening and closing sequences of Confession of Murder's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track from the bulk of the film, this audio rating would probably jump by at least a half point (maybe even a full one), for the action segments that bookend this film are awash in fantastic surround activity, so much so that it's almost hard to process all of it at times. But then the film settles down into a much more rote, dialogue driven affair where surround activity tends to be limited to ambient environmental sounds. There is still good immersion in some of these scenes, however, notably the hustle and bustle of the television studios where the "debates" take place. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is very wide.

Confession of Murder Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes (480i; 4:59)


• Interviews include:

  Jung Jae-young, Detective Choi (480i; 3:21)

  Park Si-hoo, Lee Du-seok (480i; 1:56)

• Trailer (1080p; 1:30)

Confession of Murder Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Confession of Murder has a good premise, but its execution is somewhat haphazard and ultimately too diffused by tangential subplots to develop the sort of momentum that is needed to sustain its conceit. If the film's many plot strands had been pared significantly (do we really need the late development of one of the victims being tied to Choi?), and the coda jettisoned, this could have been a really nicely taut thriller, despite its improbabilities. As it stands, it's certainly entertaining, though it never really manages to be overly involving. The technical merits of this Blu-ray are generally first rate, so those with an interest in this title should not be disappointed by the quality of the video and audio.