The strong turn Infernal Affairs makes to resemble the Godfather trilogy, in both form and content, is a successful one. The film is essentially a prequel, going back to 1991 to a time when Eric Tsang’s Sam was a lower boss fighting for power, and Anthony Wong’s Inspector Wong had more important triad troubles on his hand. Their close relationship dominates the film, while Shawn Yue and Edison Chen reprise their roles as a younger Yan and Ming just starting out their jobs as moles and working their way up in the background.
Directors Andrew Lau and Alan Mak wisely take The Godfather 2 approach to sequels-- rather than aim for a recreation of the previous film’s success, they opt to fill in the background stories, focus even more on the characters and add to the experience of the first. The film content itself even seems to mimic The Godfather with its parallel assassination scenes, the triad wars, the father-son succession, and of course, the essential extended family portrait. Still that’s not to say it’s even close to a remake-- most of the elements are in fact, unique to the Infernal Affairs series, from the dark night-time mood, to the massive web of a plot and the slick, catchy rockish soundtrack. And the events here hardly feel as epic as The Godfather (or the original Infernal Affairs for that matter) because the film sets out to create a history and do a character study meant to simmer until everything comes to a boil years later.
Viewers may miss the star-power of the first, or find themselves unsatisfied by the mellow climax, but this sequel gets points for staying true to the characters with well-written arcs, all while providing two solid hours of entertainment. For a movie with so much hype built up around it, Infernal Affairs II plays it smart.
Reviewed by Tarun
