The speed and efficiency of the Hong Kong film industry may
be admired and respected abroad, but it also has its drawbacks.
The original "Infernal Affairs" was a deftly crafted thriller
about cops and triads infiltrating each other's ranks. It
updated John Woo's urban chivalry with less melodrama and more
post-Colonial existentialism. And rightly, it was a major
commercial and critical success.
With its momentum still strong, co-directors Alan Mak and
Andrew Lau, along with screenwriter Felix Chong, immediately
got back to work and turned their story into a trilogy. The
first "Infernal Affairs" focused on the yin-yang story of two
nemeses forced to stay undercover in each other's world -- an
unhappy cop planted inside a criminal gang and a triad mole in
the police department who wishes to free himself of his shady
side.
With "Infernal Affairs 2," the filmmakers try to top
themselves by going the "Godfather" route. That is, they
attempt to put the story on a bigger canvas, expanding the
scope of the themes and making the narrative more epic.
Unfortunately, Mak and Lau aren't Coppola and Puzo. Rather than
contextualize the happenings of Part 1, the movie has so many
story lines, it simply loses focus.
In essence, it's a prequel to the first film. The two main
protagonists are young teenagers here just entering their
covert positions, so the drama shifts instead to their
superiors in the prime of their career. Eric Tsang is Sam, a
middle-level triad guy who has an unusual friendship with Wong
(Anthony Wong), a cop on the organized crime unit. Their trust
gets severely tested as the pressure of being on opposite sides
of the law presses down on them and their associates.
Sam has to contend with power struggles and double-crossing
rivals, while Wong fights the urge to break laws to maintain
them. The credo "what goes around, comes around" haunts
characters like an old score waiting to be settled.
There's great dramatic material here. But alas, the
filmmakers try too hard for too much. In striving for grandeur,
they drop the ball. The great duality of the two moles in the
first movie is now diluted. There are now so many subplots
heading in so many directions, any cohesive thematic thread
gets lost and tangled.
What does remain is a great sense of fateful melancholy.
The acting, for the most part, is powerful and committed. Wong
and Tsang are solid Hong Kong performers whose exposure to
Western audiences has been limited to minor roles in Jackie Chan (Wong in "The Medallion") and older Wayne Wang (Tsang was
in "Eat a Bowl of Tea") movies. Also creating a real presence
is another veteran, Francis Ng, as crime kingpin Hau.
However, if you haven't seen the first "Infernal Affairs,"
you're bound to be confused in the narrative mess. In short,
this has the feel of an ambitious but rushed project. The
finale of the trilogy comes out in December.
Media Asia Films presents in association with Raintree
Pictures and Eastern Dragon Film a Basic Pictures production.
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