- Information:
- Title: (Infernal Affairs II or Mou Gaan Dou II)
- Certificate: (15)
- Released by: (Tartan Video’s Tartan Asia Extreme Label)
- Run Time: (114 minutes)
- Origin: (Hong Kong)
- Language: (Cantonese)
- Vintage: (2003)
Set between the years of 1991 and 1997, Infernal Affairs two begins ten years before the events of Infernal Affairs and tells the story of how the young Yan (Shawn Yue) and Ming (Edison Chen) got involved in their dangerous lives as a police stooge and a triad mole.
The Story begins with Inspector Wong (Anthony Wong) and Sam (Eric Tsang) behaving like the best of friends in a police station. Yan is embroiled in the family saga of a triad cartel inextricably liked with his origins and which he wants to get away from. Meanwhile Ming deals with his obsession with boss Sam’s Wife, Mary. (Ploy courtesy of Tartan Video’s DVD Release plus multiple changes)
The film is directed by Andrew Lau (Chow lok yuen) and Alan Mak (Yuen mong shu) and stars Edison Chen (Tau man ji D or Initial D), Shawn Yue (Gong Wu), Anthony Wong (Jing mo gaa ting), Eric Tsang (Daai Cheung foo) and Francis Ng (hak bak sam lam) as Lau Kin Ming, Chen Wing Yan, Inspector Wong, Boss Sam and Ngai Wing Hau respectively.
Infernal Affairs two is in essence a prequel to the 2002 smash hit that everyone loves, it was nominated for a total of fourteen awards or which it only won three. Those Awards included a win at the Hong Kong Critics society awards for best film and a win at the Hong Kong Film Awards for the best original film song along with 11 more nominations that didn’t come good. (This is an indication as to the originality of the film)
I went into this film thinking “Ohh! Great, another sequel”, But then I found out it was a prequel and not a sequel so I readjusted my thoughts mainly because when done right a prequel can beat any sequel cold out of those icy sea’s. I got going and started watching it with what was now a clean slate when it comes to opinion and found myself viewing a film that on it’s own would have had so much charisma it could have taken the world by storm, but instead I found myself fixated on the very fact that some of the details clearly contradict the original Infernal Affairs. An example of this lack of attention was the very fact that in the first film Keung is said to have worked for Sam for the last five years yet in this film he is still working for Sam but only two or so years too early.
As much as these contradiction annoy me I found the film to be enjoyable and a good distraction for the duration, I can’t possible think of giving it a rating as high as the original for the very fact it’s not as original and for those contradictions. For that reason Infernal Affairs two receives a rating from me of…
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