Film critics say two superstars starring against each other is better than one, but two big names in the directorial seat is too many.

Confession of Pain (Shang Cheng) is an exception. Hong Kong veteran directors Wai Keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak's latest co-operation starring Tony Leung (In the Mood for Love, 2046) and Takeshi Kaneshiro (House of Flying Daggers, Perhaps Love) comes off a treat.

Since the Infernal Affairs (Wujiandao) series, Lau and Mak have established their reputation as excellent storytellers. The trilogy once created a box office miracle in Hong Kong in 2002 and 2003, and its Hollywood remake by Martin Scorsese topped the 2006 US box office for weeks.

In Confession, the story can be best described as how two men deal with their painful past. Cop Qiu Jianbang (Kaneshiro) one day returns home only to find his girlfriend has committed suicide, with a baby in her. He quits his job, becomes a drunkard and a private detective. His late boss and buddy Liu Zhengxi (Leung) also has to find a way out of his miserable memory. His solution is to destroy all those involved, including his beloved and himself.

For those expecting a pleasant experience watching Leung's acting, this movie comes as a surprise. The character wears glasses because he is hiding a big secret and never wants others to really understand him. And Leung, famous for his killer eye contact, proves that even behind two light brown pieces of glass, his eyes can act thrillingly.

Quite different from Leung's signature roles as Mr Sentimental in the 1930s' Shanghai, this time he tries to make a breakthrough with a negative role. His performance convinces people that he will handle the bigger challenge in Ang Lee's in-shooting Se Jie, in which he plays a traitor.

And Kaneshiro, one of the most beautiful faces among Asian actors, is very qualified to star opposite the Cannes best actor. It's by no means an easy job to really drink to play a drunkard, let alone at the same time, he has to keep sane to act against Tony Leung. But he makes it.

The plot, like the two directors' previous works, goes smoothly if you don't consider those suspense and sudden twists, as well as the bloody and violent scenes, as obstacles in understanding.

But the confusion and visual thrillers are not the key points. Even someone with no clue about the storyline can figure out the answers about half way through. The directors have given enough clues, and even scenes, to explain who is holding the secret, and the violent scenes, if compared to many other Hong Kong gangster movies and the Hollywood counterparts, is not that unbearable and unforgettable.

Obviously the two experienced in directing are not playing quiz games with the audience.

The film has a Chinese name that literally means "a painful city," which refers obviously to Hong Kong, where the story takes place. The story starts with a dazzling night scene on Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour on Christmas Eve. The neon lights decorate the city a heaven, where people laugh, hug, and share their joy, while no one seems to feel the atmosphere of any "pain," as if the word is just an illusion.

But it does exist, not only in the two protagonists, but also in all of us. If there is a Brokeback Mountain in everyone's heart, like the popular saying went last year, there should also be a painful city in everyone's heart.

Facing the painful city inside, some choose to leave it behind, some tries to revenge, and some just forget it, as if it never happens.

As for the two in the movie, one used to try to figure out the reasons of the pain and indulged himself in the research, but at last drags himself out of the torture by tolerance and a decision to move on; while the other plans a conspiracy for 20 years, gets his revenge finally, but only to find the pain still there and hurts more fiercely.

(China Daily December 26, 2006)