DLAznMovies.com: Infernal Affairs Trilogy

Genre: Crime, Drama
Starring:
PART 1:
* Tony Leung Chiu-Wai as Chan Wing-Yan
* Andy Lau as Inspector Lau Kin-Ming
* Anthony Wong as Superintendent Wong Chi-Shing
* Eric Tsang as Hon Sam
* Chapman To as Tsui Wai-Keung
* Gordon Lam as Inspector B
* Kelly Chen as Dr. Lee Sum-Yee
* Sammi Cheng as Mary
* Berg Ng as Inspector Cheung
* Dion Lam as Del Piero
* Edison Chen as Young Lau Kin-Ming
* Shawn Yue as Young Chan Wing-Yan
* Elva Hsiao as May

PART 2:
* Anthony Wong as Superintendent Wong Chi-Shing (黃志誠)
* Eric Tsang as Hon Sam (韓琛)
* Edison Chen as Lau Kin-Ming (劉健明)
* Shawn Yue as Chan Wing-Yan (陳永仁)
* Carina Lau as Mary Hon (MARY姐)
* Francis Ng as Ngai Wing-Hau (倪永孝)
* Hu Jun as Superintendent Luk Kai-Cheung (陸啟昌)
* Chapman To as Tsui Wai-Keung (傻強)
* Liu Kai Chi as Sam Suk (三叔)
* Roy Cheung as Law Kai-Yin (羅雞)

PART 3:
* Andy Lau as Inspector Lau Kin-Ming (劉健明)
* Tony Leung as Chan Wing-Yan (陳永仁)
* Leon Lai as Superintendent Yeung Kam-Wing (楊錦榮)
* Chen Daoming as Shen Cheng (沈澄)
* Kelly Chen as Dr. Lee Sum-Yee (李心兒)
* Anthony Wong as Superintendent Wong Chi-Shing (黃志誠)
* Eric Tsang as Hon Sam (韓琛)
* Chapman To as Tsui Wai-Keung (徐偉強/傻強)
* Ng Ting Yip as Inspector Cheung Ng (吳SIR)
* Wan Chi Keung as Officer Leung (梁SIR)
* Lam Ka-Tung as Inspector Lam Kwok-Ping "Inspector B" AKA Officer Billy (林國平/大B)
* Sammi Cheng as Mary
* Edison Chen as Young Lau Kin-Ming (少年劉健明)
* Shawn Yue as Young Chan Wing-Yan (少年陳永仁)
* Carina Lau as Mary Hon
* Waise Lee as Chun

Release year: 2002, 2003, 2003
Language: Chinese - Cantonese
Subtitle: English

SYNOPSIS:

The Infernal Affairs Trilogy is the Chinese equivalent of The Godfather Saga, a gangland epic that is both a tremendous artistic achievement and a pop culture phenomenon. Hong Kong superstars Tony Leung (In the Mood for Love) and Andy Lau (House of Flying Daggers) play, respectively, triad member Yan on one side of the law and police inspector Ming on the other. While this could be the set-up for many generic crime thrillers, the twist is exactly where each character's loyalties lie. Yan, it turns out, is actually a deep-cover police officer working in the triads, while Ming is a triad mole working in the police department. Both were recruited at a young age and have been undercover for so long that no one suspects them. Neither man knows of the other's identity, but at a certain point each will be assigned the task of hunting out the spy in their own organization (essentially looking for themselves) while simultaneously trying to find and stop the other.

RATING: 9.5/10

USER RATING:

REVIEW:
" This is a juicy concept with plenty of opportunity for cat-and-mouse thrills. The first Infernal Affairs from 2002 certainly delivers on that promise, but also goes above and beyond in its attention to fantastically rich psychological depth and the personal relationships of the characters. Each man is conflicted in his duties, struggling to understand and assert his own identity in light of what he must do for his job. Each must face a distinct moral dilemma and decide who he really wants to be. Do the ends truly justify the means? Is redemption possible for a person who has done so many terrible things to achieve a goal he isn't even sure he believes in anymore?

Infernal Affairs is a tightly written and directed movie that packs a lot of substance into its 100-minute length. It has hardly a single wasted or extraneous moment. It has excitement and suspense, rich character development, terrific acting from a large cast, and manages to guide the audience through a labyrinthine and complex plot while developing strong attachments to even minor characters. Its tragic, ironic climax has deep emotional resonance, though unfortunately a last-minute tacked-on ending is something of a cop-out and the movie would have closed stronger if the credits came up a couple of minutes earlier. Despite this minor flaw, however, it is one of the best movies to ever come out of the Hong Kong film industry. The picture was a blockbuster hit throughout Asia, won countless local awards, and spawned two back-to-back sequels the following year of 2003.

If it seems like the first movie should be a self-contained entity with no room for a sequel, Infernal Affairs II proves just how ambitiously filmmakers Andrew Lau (not related to the actor) and Alan Mak really set their sights. Taking a cue from The Godfather Part II, the directors retraced their characters' steps by staging the second movie as a prequel depicting the recruitment and early careers of the teenage Yan and Ming. Almost the entire original cast returns, with the exception of Leung and Lau, whose characters are played by the same younger actors used in the first picture's flashback scenes.

Far from the redundant cash-in it might have been, Infernal Affairs II tells an engrossing story that adds further depth to the events of the first movie by showing us the scope of the backstory leading up to them. With this entry, Infernal Affairs becomes more than just a crime drama; it's a true epic of honor, loyalty, morality, and family. Given a chance to shine here are the father-figures from the first film of triad boss Sam (Eric Tsang) and Inspector Wong (Anthony Wong), whose complicated relationship was hinted at but not fully revealed the first time around. The prequel is longer and a bit messier than the original, with a lot of new characters and a jumpy structure that can be confusing on first viewing. The two teenage leads also look a lot alike, which can be disorienting. On the other hand, it has several genuinely powerful, operatic story arcs and a number of shocking twists. It's a worthy follow-up that both builds off and adds to its predecessor, and was another big critical and commercial success.

Tony Leung and Andy Lau return in Infernal Affairs III. The most complexly structured of the three movies, the final entry serves as both a direct sequel to the first movie, its primary storyline picking up a few months after the original's climax, and a between-quel with a number of flashbacks that take place after the events depicted in part II but before those of part I. Having successfully kept his identity and motives a secret, Ming finds his life falling apart as he deals with the fallout of his previous actions. His wife has left him and the police department has moved him to a desk job as they sort out the investigation of his interaction with Yan. Eventually reassigned to Internal Affairs, Ming's first job is to dig out the other triad moles in the police force. Both out of his desire to do the right thing and a desperate need to cover his own ass, Ming hunts these men down and whacks them one by one until facing off against Inspector Yeung (Leon Lai from Heroic Duo), a man he is convinced was Sam's most important mole and will be the best target to pin his own crimes on.

For whatever reason, big movie trilogies rarely ever conclude on their strongest note. So it is with Infernal Affairs III, which while still a pretty good movie overall is unfortunately the least successful of the series. Most of the blame is due to the film's overly complicated structure, which jumps around too much for the viewer to ever get a firm handle on what's going on or to develop attachments to any one storyline. Although flashbacks allow most of the original cast to return in some capacity, the compelling characters of Sam and Wong are reduced to mere cameos and even Yan hardly has much to do here. Tony Leung doesn't seem particularly involved in the role, as if he'd lost interest, and worse his clean-shaven appearance (he must have shaved for another movie and not had time to grow out his straggly facial hair) makes him look older and creates a number of continuity errors with the events of the first movie. The film's plot has too many twists for its own good. The movie seems to have three or four different endings before finally drawing to a close, and the scene that does finally end the series was not the most effective choice.

What does work in Infernal Affairs III, however, is the continued evolution and breakdown of Ming's character, a man so obsessed with finding personal redemption that he loses sight of the true effects of his actions. The movie also has some clever reworking of the events from part I as we see the version of the story as Ming tells it. Part III even goes out of the way to fill in some of the unexplained gaps in the first movie, such as why Yan was wearing a cast early in the picture, why he was working in a stereo shop for one scene, and why he visits a psychiatrist. Perhaps not all of these details were necessary to explain, but by the time the trilogy is over it has a satisfying cohesion from one part to the next, and feels as though the entire story were elaborately mapped out in advance, unlike many other "trilogies" where one hit film is followed by two needless cash-in sequels. "

Source: DVDTalk

PREVIEW:
PART I