Infernal Affairs III
This is the final part of the financially and critically successful Hong Kong trilogy INFERNAL AFFAIRS. Not quite as exciting as part 2, part 3 is a different kind of film and provides a fitting conclusion. Although the warning signs were out, in as much as this part will go back in time to before Tony Leung died in part 2, it manages to do this in a clever and rarely contrived manner....
This is the final part of the financially and critically successful Hong Kong trilogy INFERNAL AFFAIRS. Not quite as exciting as part 2, part 3 is a different kind of film and provides a fitting conclusion. Although the warning signs were out, in as much as this part will go back in time to before Tony Leung died in part 2, it manages to do this in a clever and rarely contrived manner. Still included are the tension, the tightly constructed plot and the occasional action sequence.
This one focuses on Ming (played by Andy Lau), who is trying to make up and catch out anyone he suspects of being a mole for the Triads, within the police department. As a member of Internal Affairs, he himself had been a mole in the police, for the triads and now he is trying to become a good man. As Tony Leung was a mole for the police who had infiltrated the Triads, Lau is forever trying to copy and make up for the wrongs he caused Leung. Lau becomes aware that the superintendent (Yeung) working in the secretive Security Wing, may indeed be a mole. Lau then starts to plot and scheme to try and catch this man out. However, as Lau is also in the middle of a marriage break up and because he is gradually becoming more unstable, all that he seems to take for granted may not appear to be what it appears to be on face value. Tightly plotted, we also are in the same position as Lau, waiting for Yeung to slip up and for Lau to catch him out. But as with the complexity of and seeming closeness between the Triads and the police, Lau’s mentality seems to inhibit him from making informed decisions.
The film presents the story around a timeline with inter titles that revolve around Tony Leung’s death in part 2. Although a very unoriginal storytelling device to keep Asia’s most popular star in the script, it is actually pretty effective. His story, which in this part shows his happier side leading up to his death, is contrasted with Lau’s disintegration in the present.
Although it is not the tense action spectacle of the second film, this one does add depth to the other two movies, capturing moments between the action from the former two movies. This one is more character based, or character focused is probably a better expression, than the others and as such really involves a knowledge of the previous two movies to make it make any real sense.
The greatest advantage that this movie has going for it is the addition of Dao Ming Chen playing Shen, another character who we are not sure where his loyalties lie. He is a presence over the whole film, and considering his little amount of screen time that is no mean achievement. He is cool, calculated and above all a mystery. On one front he is a gun runner from Mainland China but on the other hand he is umbilically connected to Superintendent Yeung, who Lau is investigating.
Once again, the technical qualities of the film making are excellent. Apart from some pretty poor focus work on some of the close up shots, the cinematography is excellent overall, moving between slick sequences and tightly scripted character scenes. The claustrophobia that most Hong Kong movies have is also limited due to half the film taking place in large spaces or on the top of office buildings, which adds up to creating an effect of giving the film a more epic feel, which is in keeping with the epic characterisation throughout this trilogy.
The tragedy in this film and the narrative of the whole trilogy, is that everyone involved in this world of crime ultimately becomes a victim. Characters lament on the loss of Leung and those drawn into Lau’s world also start to have their views clouded. This confusion and need for clarity even having an ultimate effect on exposing those who have got their heads and hearts in the right place. It is a tragedy, there is no doubt. Although the ending is good, we are also exposed to the classic trilogy ending of having about 15 endings placed one after another. Although for THE LORD OF THE RINGS both the filmmakers and a lot of the audience alike just didn’t want it to finish, INFERNAL AFFAIRS is not exactly on that scale, so the number of endings here is a little overboard. However, that said, it was still more entertaining than the majority of Hong Kong action flicks, minus John Woo’s masterpieces of course.
The picture quality and sound were both excellent. The picture was crystal clear and the framing good as a whole. The sound added a lot to the experience of the film and even plays about with the panning of the sound when a character is speaking off camera (although not as effective in this regard as Takeshi Kitano’s BROTHER, which is the best example that this reviewer is aware of).
EXTRAS
MAKING OF (12 MINS)
This is a short pretty standard segment that presents some of the actors and the two directors telling us about some of the things they were trying to achieve in the final part of this trilogy. This is accompanied by clips, edited together like it is trying to replicate a machine gun, showing the filming of some of the sequences. The actors discuss their characters and how great their co stars are, and the directors fill us in on what they were trying to achieve. One small quibble was that the Chinese names of the directors were not translated to English, so it was hard to know who was who when they were talking. Ultimately it was informative but too short.
Knowing that there is a 6 disc Hong Kong version of the trilogy out there, it is pretty clear that there will be a double disc edition of this out sometime (the reviewer’s assumption), so just getting 12 minutes of extras is not really good enough. This happened with IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE and other films as well, where you buy the original version and then within 6 months a special edition has come out. I understand that a company must maximise the potential of its releases but this is a bit cheeky lulling the very same people who will want the 2 disc edition to buy the one disc version first. Anyway, it may not happen, so I could end up eating my own words in this case but it is out of order when it does happen, and unfortunately it is too often.
The one drawback on this DVD is the lack of extras. However, as the conclusion to the Trilogy this is a good piece of entertainment, way above the majority of Hong King action movies. It is recommended that you watch the first 2 films before you watch this one as you will get a lot more out of it. As the vibe around this trilogy at present is that Scorsese is nearly finished the Hollywood remake with Jack Nicholson, Brad Pitt, Di Caprio, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg, these films will be getting more notorious within the next near, so you could do a lot worse than checking them out now. As an aside INFERNAL AFFAIRS part 1 was stacked with extras, so it is probably the best place to start.
This page has been read:
2194
times