Mou gaan dou II

INFERNAL AFFAIRS II is a prequel to the smash-hit movie about undercover operatives and their parallel lives in the Hong Kong police and Triads. This one explores the early lives of the characters played by Tony Leung and Andy Lau in the original, the actors replaced by newcomers Shawn Yue and Edison Chen respectively (Yue and Chen had bit parts in INFERNAL AFFAIRS).

The problem with this prequel is that it feels hurried and unnecessary, lacking almost all the qualities that made the first film so good. Leung and Lau were engaging actors who brought subtle nuances to their roles, but Chen and Yue feel bland and too fresh-faced in comparison. Realising this, the film-makers spend a lot of screen time with rivals Anthony Wong and Eric Tsang instead, but you can't help feel but the plotting in this one is redundant in contrast to the life-or-death stakes of the gripping original.

There's a distinct lack of emotional involvement in the film as the story develops, and although the technical qualities are strong, the twisty-turny plotting isn't. There are the requisite betrayals, executions and bombings, but they have a slightly tired quality to them. This isn't a bad film by any means, but it's one that's easily lost and indistinguishable during a decade in which Johnnie To made seemingly endless variants on similar themes.

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.

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.

Thought the first one was one of the finest Cop thrillers in recent years and the follow up is equally brilliant - for obvious reasons its a prequel set in 3 time periods leading up to the events in the first movie. This time round Ming(Edison Chen - Andy Lau last time) and Yan(Shawne Yau - Tony Leung last time) are more peripheral characters - the main action concentrates on Inspector Wong(Anthony Wong) and his struggles against the Triads. The leader of the major gang has been murdered and his son Hau(Francis Ng) has taken over - he is a more ruthless boss and intends to take over all the territory that other leaders currently control. These include Sam(Eric Tsang) and its interesting how close Wong and Sam are before the events that end so tragically later - Wong would rather have Sam running things and it appears that Wong has conspired with Sam's woman Mary(Carina Lau) to have Hau's Father killed - only to see the son become worse than the Father. To complicate matters Yan is Hau's half brother who as a cop is willing to infiltrate Hau's gang but whose loyalty is put under pressure when he realises that Wong(who he is working for) had a hand in his Fathers murder.Meanwhile Sam is grooming Ming to become his mole in the HK Police(although Ming's attraction for Mary does complicate things).

How this all pans out and leads to the events in the first film I shall leave but its an excellent film - a little complicated at times as you have to work out all the dynamics buts worth the effort - as mentioned the most poignant part is the relationship between Wong and Sam - they may be on opposite sides but have a closeness that will prove to be the central point of the story later.

There is a fantastic scene where Hau contrives to have himself held in Police custody whilst the other gang bosses are murdered and the way the film cuts between his interview(where he reveals how he knows who killed his Father) and the other bosses being wiped out is worthy of comparison with Coppola's Godfather - the series has that whole epic feel and the way it culminates with the handover of power to the Chinese in 1997 with new bosses on both sides of the conflict coming to power is very well done.

For once a sequel that lives up to the original........I shall be interested to see if Scorcese's remake can come close.

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