Product Description

(Action/Foreign) Directed by Wai Keung Lai and Siu Fai Mak, IA 2 is the prequel and IA 3 is the sequel to the highly successful original Infernal Affairs, the movie on which Martin Scorcese based his recent hit, The Departed, on. In Infernal Affairs 2, Yan is assigned to be an undercover cop in the the triads while Mings joins the police force.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #55193 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-02-13
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Thai
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 119 minutes

Amazon.com
As every Asian action devotee will tell you, Infernal Affairs 2 is not a sequel but a prequel to Hong Kong directors Wai Keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak's Infernal Affairs (2002), which served as the inspiration for Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning The Departed. Gone are original stars Andy Lau as Lau (the Matt Damon character from The Departed) and Tony Leung as Chan (Leonardo DiCaprio's counterpart); pop star Edison Chan and Shawn Yue, respectively, play younger versions of the two leads as they begin their careers as a Triad member feeding police information to mobster Hon Sam (Eric Tsang, reprising his role from the first film) and a mole infiltrating Sam's organization. A side plot involves the son (Francis Ng) of a murdered Triad leader who causes trouble for all three characters. As with the original film, the violence and bulletplay is both operatic and frantic, and the truths, half-truths, and false identities labyrinthine in their complexities; viewers are advised to watch the first Infernal Affairs before tucking into this disc, unless they wish to be hopelessly confused. The Special Edition DVD includes seven deleted scenes, somewhat dull commentary by Anthony Wong (Inspector Wong, on whom Martin Sheen's role was based), Mak, and Tsang), a 20-minute making-of featurette that includes interviews with much of the cast and production team, and a "Confidential File" that sets more behind-the-scenes footage to music. The trailer and teaser spot round out the extras. -- Paul Gaita

Customer Reviews

Diabolically ambitious sequel
Infernal Affairs II is one prequel you definitely shouldn't see before the original - so much of the interest comes from spotting throwaway details that assume more importance in the original film, and the character revelations are far more fascinating if you've seen the original. Take the opening monologue: standard enough - until you see who it is that Inspector Wong is opening up to: what we know about their eventual fates and the implications it has about their relationship is far more intriguing than if you choose this outing as your starting point.

With no Andy Lau or Tony Leung this time round, their younger selves played by the lacklustre Shawn Yue and Edison Chen are sidelined in favor of their superiors. It's a wise decision: Tsang and Francis Ng are superb, although curiously Anthony Wong isn't as good as in the original in a more expansive and more morally compromised role. The first half hour is awkward, but the deferred violence following the death of the local triad boss is well handled and the film fires into life with some genuinely great filmmaking once the consequences start catching up with the various characters.

The influence here is clearly the Godfather films, but whereas Godfather II was ultimately just a typical sequel exercise in underlining and escalation, this back story really does add layers to the original, with Eric Tsang becoming a genuinely tragic figure in his final scene. Where Godfather II tended to use history merely as a backdrop, here the handover of Hong Kong becomes an integral part of the film. The final montage of power being handed over from one nation to another, as police badges are replaced alongside criminals photos on the wall carries real weight and substance: it's what the film is all about - the loss of authority and the gaining of power, given the feeling of a requiem rather than a triumph by Chan Kwong Wing's eloquent score. Not as good as the original, true, but still very impressive indeed and miles ahead of Scorsese's bloated remake of the original.

not bad, but not great either
a very pretentious imitation of hollywood's 'god father'. but this hongkong mafia don is a much too exaggerated and pretentious one, also badly acted. the plot is a bit too far-fetched, trying to be very complicated and at times, quite messy. putting a short and fat guy as a powerful key player was a very bad casting job too. not bad, but definitely not great. my only impression after finished watching this film is nothing but way too pretentious.