Infernal Affairs II

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.

The directors mentioned that the reason behind making 'Mou gaan dou II' (aka 'Infernal Affairs II') was that they wanted to provide some background information and history on the first movie so that the viewers understand the situations better. However, having seen the first movie, I don't see why there was a need for a film about what happened before. Why does everything need to be explained? 'Mou gaan dou' was quite straightforward and as a stand alone it's an excellent action thriller. The prequel is a different genre. It's more a crime drama and it lacks the slickness, steady pace and coherency of the first film, not to forget Lau and Leung's strong performances. Most of the first hour painfully drags on. While 'Mou gaan dou' centred around Yan and Ming, 'Mou gaan dou II' is mainly about Sam, Wong and Hau (who play their leaders in the first film). Here Yan and Ming are merely supporting characters. Unlike in 'Mou gaan dou', here most of the performances are passable rather than great. Wong and Tsang do a fine job in the leading roles. In addition Ng does a brilliant job too. Lau's Mary appears to be too sketchy but she does well. Yet, even with the flaws, 'Mou gaan dou II' is not a bad film but rather an okay film because there are some noteworthy sequences especially towards the end where Hau meets his fate and Mary's murder.

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.

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 Wong. An OK film but not a scratch on the original and not even necessary viewing to enjoy that better film.

What a tangled web a studio can weave when they realize they desperately need to make some money off of a sequel to a film that didn't need one. That's not to say that this is bad, but it would strike me as an ordinary film even if I hadn't seen the extraordinary film that came before. This "sequel," despite the number, is actually a prequel, but it doesn't so much fill in the blanks as muddy up the waters; it's often confusing, it's not always clear if some of the new backstory really squares with the depictions we saw in the first one, and some of the more glaring questions are left unanswered (possibly for film number three). The young replacements the mole characters, previously played by Tony Leung and Andy Lau, are certainly not up to the task. Thankfully, the movie works because Anthony Wong and Eric Tsang reprise their roles as the respective cop and mob boss, and it is quite interesting to learn about a relationship between them that, from what I recall, was far from obvious before. I certainly wouldn't recommend watching this before the first one, despite the chronology, but I imagine it is worth satisfying the likely thirst for more that you will most likely have after watching the previous film.