Infernal Affairs 3 (2003)

"The Departed" meets "Mulholland Drive" meets "Infernal Affairs"

I don't think this is overrated one bit; a travelogue of madness, corruption, and the looming shadow of slain innocence, "INF3" is damn near perfect. Andy Lau definitely takes the cake here as the corrupt and just about totally crazy Inspector Ming, now head of Internal Affairs.

The dreamlike flow of the film takes it's cues from David Lynch; and you can tell that the director was very flattered that Martin Scorsese adapted "INF" for "The Departed"--when Wai (likable as always playing undercover cop Yan in Ming's demented flashbacks) smashes an ashtray over a rival Triad's head just as DiCaprio smashed a glass over someone's head in Marty's version. Plus, the corrupt officer from the original is now renamed "Officer Billy", like "Billy Costigan". So I guess people who complain about Scorsese "ripping off" "INF" should stop, since the creators themselves seem tickled pink.

Rather than people just getting shot constantly and elevator doors opening and closing, we Mak's real writing and directorial talent as he depicts the tortured soul of Ming, a man awash in the blood he has on his hands: it is clear that his mission to "be the good guy" was a failure from the getgo. As Shen, the undercover cop playing arms dealer says, "Men are changed by events, not events by men"--true, and Ming can never escape the events he changed.

We are also treated to some of the things we didn't see in the original: Eric Tsang is touching as the confused Triad Hon Sam, so loyal to Yan that he breaks a bottle over his head to protect from ultimate retribution from another gang. The theme of self sacrifice is strong in this film, and vengeance as well: the unforgettable last scene in which Ming finally "answers for his crimes" (without managing to accomplish the goal of getting rid of himself entirely) is unforgettable. This movie is art.

A brilliant conclusion to the trilogy.


February 11, 2008

bad screenplay, bad acting, directing, editing, nothing but bad

ridiculous plot, one dimensional cardboard-like acting (especially leon lai's rigid dead-like-fish-out-of-water performance), incoherent dialogs, horrible editing and directing, every thing is so bad if compares it to the first one. the second one has already turned bad but not as bad as this 3rd increment. the screen writers were obsessed with abnormal twists of the plots and tried to twist every section of the scenario to the extreme but unfortunately almost messed up the logic flow of a storyline. nothing deep but shallow all the way. just like a magician overplayed his black magic and suddenly found himself exposed completed without white gloves, long sleeves, and black cloak, even the white pigeons turned out to be dead. nothing could be hidden up in his sleeves or the tall hat. nothing at all. curtain call, drop it sooner than later. April 11, 2007

Flawed but still good.

This is a good movie don't get me wrong but it was a real let down. This was not as strong as the first 2 of the trilogy. The one thing we do get to see is the downfall of andy laus charector both mentally and profesionally. The movie shift to much from the past to the present that you start to whish that they stayed in one place for one second so that you can get a grasp of what is going on. This is like the godfather the first 2 are a masterpiece but the 3rd part even though it is good it leaves you dissapointed by the way it turned out in the end. If it was not for the great performances from everyone this would have gotten a three star from me. February 25, 2007

"Everything will be OK tomorrow."

Infernal Affairs III doesn't live up to its predecessors, but not for want of trying. Its biggest problem isn't the intriguing prequel/sequel structure that juxtaposes the aftermath of the first film as Andy Lau tries to be the good man he wants to be, with disastrous consequences, alongside the last months of Tony Leung's undercover man life. Rather, it's the fact that it takes so long to really find its stride. It's not until the two-thirds mark that it really kicks in with a hospital scene where past, present and possible future collide that completely wrongfoots you. You're suddenly in a whole new place that makes you rethink what you thought was going on, leading to a powerful ending that isn't as affecting as II, but leaves one character quite literally in the circle of unending, inescapable hell. It's also here that the theme of loss of identity starts to work overtime, as Lau forgets who he is, participating in the dead Leung's sessions with the court-appointed psychiatrist and setting out to expose a corrupt cop oblivious to the fact that the evidence incriminates himself.

While Lau spends most of the movie thinking he's digging a tunnel when he's actually digging his own grave, the flashback scenes involving Leung are very different to his character's trajectory in the previous movies. If Lau is a bullet train to hell, for the first time we see Leung's character in his happier moments as he is filled with hope for a future the captions gradually counting down to his death constantly deny him. In that sense it's less subversive than the first two films, which broke time-honored HK thriller tradition by letting the bad guys win, but it works on its own terms, and while it does take too long to sort itself out (or rather for the characters to lose sight of themselves), there's a constant governing intelligence to it that separates it from other HK pictures of its ilk. Indeed, it's only really in comparison to the other two films that the third seems the lesser. It probably would have helped if they'd spent a little more time on it - it was released only two months after the second film. However, you really need to see the films in the order they were made to get the most out of them: nearly all of the film's emotional touchstones (such as the oft-repeated "Everything will be ok tomorrow" or the song that first linked the characters) relate to the previous films. January 18, 2007

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