Given the Hong Kong film industry’s predilection for multiple sequels (God Of Gamblers 5, anyone?) and the phenomenal international success of the original (the Hollywood remake has Di Caprio attached, allegedly), few will be surprised to see Infernal Affairs 2 hitting our precious screens.
This prequel traces the origins of Yan (Yue) and Ming (Chen) and their respective, intertwined destinies as undercover agents working for opposing sides. Like most late twentieth century films from the former colony, there’s a playful moral ambivalence at work and IA2 begs questions such as who’s more corrupt – the undercover cop exploiting family connections with the Triads, or the ruthless unorthodox police? Is there really honour among thieves? Is anyone in the Triads not working for the police? That sort of thing.
Happily, the wonderful Anthony Wong (of Young And Dangerously fame) and Eric Tsang (Comrades; Almost A Love Story) show up for a Godfather derived subplot, but neither they, nor the lovely Carina Lau (from the miraculous Days Of Being Wild) can raise this to the blistering standards of the original Infernal Affairs.
Where that film did a great impression of a pre-1997, latter day wuxia pian (replete with reunification blues), the prequel goes the distance and actually sets the film during the anxious, shifty period of British withdrawal. Of course, all the generic nuances are present and correct - Mexican stand-offs, gushing Cantopop ballads, operatic emotional outpourings, intense male bonding - but where Infernal Affairs hit you fast and hard with a tsunami of hip, knowing iconography, the prequel is much more of a drip-feed. It has its moments – the nostalgia for the Union Jack and pictures of the Queen is downright lip-quivering - but I wanted chaos and butchery and bangs and crashes and homoeroticism. Did I want too much?