Memorable, crazy movie

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

I can't say that I thought too much about this movie, though I have since found out that it is the prequel (as opposed to a sequel, which most movies ending in a 2 are). While there were action scenes, and a lot of shooting, it did seem hard to follow with no real continuity between the scenes. What I gathered was that this movie begins in 1993 and leads up to the hand over of Hong Kong to the Chinese (where it ends) though this event is only in the background.This movie follows the story of a police officer whose goal is to bring down the triad family, the Ngai, before the handover of power, but in doing so sees many of his colleges killed. However, within the Ngai family, the patriarch has died, which has left the family in a vacuum, and the various sons are all wrestling for control. While this is happening, one of the sons is expelled from the police force due to his family connections, but is then recruited by another officer to infiltrate the family and collect evidence, and his reward is a position as a police officer.As mentioned, this movie was quite confusing, difficult to follow, and seemed to have too much going on at once with too many characters. While things do become clear as one gets to the end of the film, the movie does drag on quite a bit, and once the end arrives, you feel glad that it has.

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.

First I want to point out the bad point; The plot is convoluted and requires the viewing of the original and possibly its sequel, IA3 in oder to watch this one to full effect. This is definitely not a good place to start for someone who wants to watch the trilogy, the original would be better for them. I watched the original before this and that really engrossed me into the story of this one.The good points; the acting, cinematography, soundtrack.Acting; All round great performances giving each character an extra layer of depth. Shawn Yue and Edison Chen are fantastic with their understated performances. If they over played their parts it would have ruined the whole movie. The other newcomer Francis Ng also shines as the triad boss and the regulars such as Eric Tsang are brilliant like usual.Cinematography- The night time locations are used more often than the original and makes the movie all the more atmospheric.Soundtrack- I have to say it was the haunting soundtrack that made me give the movie a 9 and not an 8. The music really helps build the tension and dare I say it, nearly made me cry (I'm really macho).This isn't as good as the original but it is uniquely different which is a good thing.

It was great to see Francis Ng's tour de force performance in Infernal Affairs II. Really great to see an actor's coming-of-age. The intricacies of his character was handled with great sensitivity.I thought the casting of Mainland actor, Jun Hu, as Luk as was rather odd at first. While he played his part well alongside Anthony Wong, his lines had to be dubbed into Cantonese. Then when I looked the company credits I realised IA 2 was a co-production between HK and the Mainland. Having Hu (and Dao-Ming Chen in IA 3) in one of the leading roles was perhaps a commercial decision (for the Mainland market) or a requirement of the co-production deal with the Mainland co-producer. While the younger version of Yan and Lau did not quite live up to the very high standard set by Tong Leung and Andy Lau in IA 1, IA 2 was more than salvaged (or excelled IA 1 some might say) by the best ensemble performance that Hong Kong had to offer by Eric Tsang, Anthony Wong, Francis Ng and Carina Lau.