Infernal Affairs III

Tony Leung and Andy Lau return along with a cast of new and old Infernal Affairs members in the final chapter to the trilogy.

Infernal Affairs part I was a very good film, and usually good films are hard to follow up to. As the final chapter to the trilogy, Infernal Affairs does deliver certain aspects that made the first film so successful in its production. However, despite the filmmakers' noticeable attempts to make this a worthy ending to an epic story, it just falls short. The cast and the visual part of Infernal Affairs III has no problems because they're still incredible overall, but the movie just tried to do so much that it may work in some areas but overall, it feels like a mess.

Infernal Affairs II tells of two stories, one is the couple of months leading up to the events of the first film, and the other is ten months after the death of Tony Leung's character. During the flashback, the filmmakers were trying to make Tony Leung a sort of funny character and I think it is just because for an undercover agent to always feel tense will only doom him, and the filmmakers tried to bring some simple human happiness into his life. The second time frame is about Andy Lau's pursue to become a true clean cop and how he must find clues to pinpoint Ming, a new character in IA3 played by Leon Lai. Andy suspect that Leon Lai is another mole hidden in the police station as he tries to find clue to bring him down; but more importantly, it is so that Ming would not stick Andy out for being a mole himself.

The film is a bit over-ambitious, but there are parts of the movie that certainly blend well. Andy Lau's hallucinations and the flashback relationship with Tony Leung and Kelly Chen are two of the more memorable parts of the film. Also, the inclusion of Leon Lai and Chen Dao Ming works surprisingly well. However, in the end, the film feels messy and the conclusion doesn't really mix with the overall storyline of the movie.

And finally, the director's cut version of the movie is better than the theatrical one because it adds some much needed information and the ending of that movie is better (The actual ending of Andy Lau's character does not change, but the directors just chose a better angle to end the trilogy.)

Overall, Infernal Affairs does indeed succeed more than it disappoint. Watching Infernal Affairs III doesn't make Infernal Affairs I better, but it is a very nice and welcome addition to the franchise.

Year: 2003
Director: Andrew Lau and Alan Mak

8.5/10