Infernal Affairs II (2003)

IA2 has lived up to its predecessor's name. Although the supporting actors, Shawn Yue and Edison Chen, paled in comparison to their more experienced and classy leading men, their acting was A.

I just find it disturbing that in most triad and police movies in HK, the female roles are rather limited. This is in particularly true in IA1 ans IA2, where the female roles were either guest roles or supporting roles. Carina Lau's character should have been given a bit more coverage, esp she's such a fine actress and would be able to handle a much bigger role by herself.

Eric Tsang, Francis Ng and Anthony Wong were in fact the ones who brought their movie characters to life. A good effort to Shawn and Edison but kudos to the older actors! Hopefully, IA3 would be as good as IA and IA2.

Fmovies: I was and still am huge fan of the first film AI, sadly after much anticipation and hype about AI2, all i can say is sigh... I have to say, it would have been pretty hard to expand the first film's story, especially with 3 of the 4 main characters biting the dust, so kudos for the writers for coming up with this prequel's story line. As is usually the case, whenever the prequel is released, the story becomes incoherent, the prequel expects the viewer to understand the sequel, at the same time, discover the various motivations behind the original film. The movie itself had a lot more characters than the first, which in my opinion, was a classic mistake of Singaporean film-makers, making the movie lose its essence of having a few main characters and really developing their characters to the extent that viewers want to watch the prequel and follow their story. The beginning was a complete mess, strange new faces appearing all over, each seemingly important but felt like a total stranger. Whats more, the story seems to centralize on the two supporting cast in the first film, but towards the end, I'm still puzzled over the relationship between the superintendent and Sam, to me, this prequel fails to account fully for the bad blood between the two. To add to my disappointment, the 2 main cast from the 1st film failed to make an appearance, all in all, sigh...

Now, IA 1 achieved what other normal cat-and-mouse cop flick couldn't: being inventive and intelligent. And it made a lot of money, so the directors decide to make 2 more films. Instead of cashing in through bad sequel and then worse prequel (Think Ringu, Ring 2/Rasen and the really bad Ring O), it breaks the cliched road by doing the prequel first and then the sequel, except that the prequel isn't bad or worse. Which BTW will become the subject of this review. IA 2 is one of the best HK film (possibly the best) in the year of 2003. In fact, it is far more superior than first. Here's why: 1. Instead of the normal gangster film, IA 2 gives us a glimpse of what really happened that changes the two IA 1 character into what they become in the future. Some might argue that this is supposed to be the film of the two main characters in IA 1. However, we must also consider the two supporting characters on why they become enemies and why they are hot on each other's tail. 2. Its story really sums up well. BTW, the reason why the triad boss took the undercover cop under his hands is that he still didn't know about the undercover's background.

In conclusion, IA 2 is far more superior than IA 1. Let's wait for the third installment.

Infernal Affairs II fmovies. This film is a good example for the fact that good and fertile story is the key of film making. "Infernal Affair II" shows how to inherit an original story and expend its scope in a reasonable, even creative way. It is a very good experience watching this film, the actors are good, the directing is skilled and the sequences are intensive, and the climax is stunning, but meanwhile, it always makes you have some ideas connecting to the Godfather series. No matter its epic scale and clues of scenes, you can feel their respect to(or, borrowing from?) the Coppola's legendary film(maybe only the first two...) that's a good try, but not an original one.

a very important work of Hong Kong Cinema in the 90s

Worth watching, especially with the original "Infernal Affairs" 7/10

Set before events in Wu Jian Dao, the murder of the head of the Ngai family see his son, Hau, stepping up – immediately upsetting the power balance in the region. Small time boss Sam has a close relationship with officer SP Wong both of whom wish to see the Ngai family removed from the scene. Meanwhile, triad Lau Kin Ming is sent to infiltrate the police force and gradually work his way up with help from Sam while Wong sanctions Chen Wing Yan (the half brother of the Hgai family) to infiltrate the triads and work his way up to Hau.

I approached this film wondering what it would do – how would it manage to be interesting given that we already know (from part 1) how it goes. I also expected it to be roughly the same as the first film in terms of being an enjoyable thriller – however this was not the case and it was hard to get into the film for what it was. The story is not really about Yan and Ming so much as it is about the leading figures behind them – this film belongs to Sam, Wong and Hau and this was a bit of a surprise but one I was able to get over quickly and settle into a pretty interesting story where we see the shift of power in the HK crime families – unsurprisingly framed by the shift of political power from Britain to China. However interesting it is the film lacks in several areas. Firstly the praise for the first film seems to have got to the makers' heads and part 2 is a much more overblown affair that injects every scene with a sense of overblown drama that it tries to create as oppose to earn. This is a little tiring as it seems to be forcing us to accept the film as some sort of epic where it would have been much more effective to underplay the story and let it stand on its own. Making this more annoying is the fact that the script doesn't really help the audience much and only the sharpest viewer will make it through the first 20 minutes without struggling to get hold of the story and work out who everybody is.

In stark contrast to the tight thriller of part 1, this film is a much bigger story and, as such, occasionally struggled to keep me emotionally involved. Sure, the politics of crime were interesting and produced plenty of good stuff but only occasionally did I get behind the characters and struggle to know who to support like I had in part 1 – in fact the film could have easily lost Yan and Ming without losing much story. However it is still worth seeing as it does manage as a bit of a twisty crime story (but not a thriller) but even as this it doesn't really stand out as being that great. The loss of the great performances from Lau and Leung is a massive hole that neither Chen or Yue ever get close to filling – the fact that the material gives them no help either is not their fault. As before, Wong and Tsang are both good and they benefit from being the focus of the prequel. Ng is a good addition as Hau and he is suitably professional, cold and has a powerful presence suiting his character – it also helps that he was very easy on the eye too! As with the prequel, the female parts are pretty thin and the potential to use Lau's Mary better is not taken.

Overall this is not a bad film by any means; in fact it is an OK story of crime between the ruling families (as shown by a few individuals) however the film hurts itself by trying to force itself into the shape of a 'sprawling crime epic' when nothing in the material actually justifies this aim. The poor use of Yan and Ming is a problem that is only slightly helped by the increased focus on Sam and SP

A loose prequel to 2002's hit Infernal Affairs, this goes back to the 1980s and '90s when the Hong Kong police force and the city's ruling triad sent undercover agents into each other's organisations.

Tony Leung and Andy Lau are missed as the supermoles (played here by young look-alikes) but directors Andrew Lau and Alan Mak have something smart up their sleeves, shifting the emphasis of the story onto the able shoulders of the pair's world-weary veteran superiors. Anthony Wong and Eric Tsang are excellent as the morally compromised cop and likable but capable capo, ageing friends who understand they stand just over the line from each other.

A knowledge of the first film helps navigate the labyrinthine plots of the dizzying opening act but once it finds its pace, it's a slick, slow-burning thriller all the way – marred only by the directors' occasional lapse into Godfather pretensions – while the backdrop of 1997's hand-over of Hong Kong is effective shorthand for the huge changes taking place within the forces of both law and disorder.