I have put off watching Martin Scorcese's "The Departed" until I watched the third "Infernal Affairs" (Mou gaan dou) movie. "The Departed" borrows from the whole trilogy. The trilogy is something like "The Godfather" trilogy. Not that its running time is comparable, but the original "Infernal Affairs" (2002) was a megahit in Asia, and its prequel "Infernal Affairs II" (2003) is arguably better than the first one. ("Godfather II" also includes a substantial prequel part.) And the third part of both trilogies ("Infernal Affairs III" was also released in 2003) ties up some loose ends, is tragic, and was less acclaimed than the first two parts.

But rather than having a Sofia Coppola, "Infernal Affairs III" has a new actress (Kelly Chen) and character (Dr. Lee) who holds her own with the established actors.

I let "Infernal Affairs III" sit around for far too long after watching the first two. "Infernal Affairs III" jumps back and forth between the shooting of undercover cop Sgt. Yan (Tony Leung) and the investigation of it by Internal Affairs Inspector Ming (Andy Lau) — after the case was officially closed.

Yan was undercover in the criminal syndicate run by Sam (Eric Tsang). Sam sent Ming to the Police Academy and is the mole the police suspect (as Yan was the mole Sam suspected).

Ming's antagonist and chief danger within the police department is Inspector Wing (Leon Lai) a steely sadist. Ming attempts to cast suspicions on Wing, while what Wing is aiming to do is never clear to me.

Ming is wracked with guilt, desperate as he is to keep his role as a supplier of information to Sam from being discovered. Ming goes to ask Dr. Lee about Yan, whose jail diversion was therapy with her. Dr. Lee practices hypnosis. Working undercover for gangsters, Yan cannot allow himself to be hypnotized. The humor in the movie is almost entirely his resisting hypnosis in particular and therapy in general, though the weight of operating undercover for more than a decade makes him someone much in need of therapy.

Lau codirected the movie with Mak Siu-Fai, who cowrote it. Lau also shares cinematography credit with Ng Man-Ching. Presumably he did not direct the scenes he was in and could not have shot them. (Lau and Mak, La and Ng shared credits on II, too, directorial credit with Mak on I and cinematography credit with Lai Yiu-Fai).

The first two "Infernal Affairs" movies were high-octane action movies with intense, complex performances by Leung and Lau. In III, it takes an hour for them to be in a shot together (and then I think that it is Ming hallucinating) and more than an hour and a half until there is an action sequence.

While as Ming, Andy Lau is anguished, as Yan, Tony Leung, is not. I can't remember a movie in which Leung smiles as much (and I have seen many). Yan was anguished about his long undercover assignment in the first two "Infernal Affairs" movies, but although his part in III is entirely before the end of what occurred in I and II, he seems resigned to his "fate" in III (the fate of working undercover; that he is going to die he didn't know, though the audience is reminded of that at the start of the movie).

I'd highly recommend the first two movies, and anyone who gets into them will want to see III, but III did not need to be made. Anyone watching III without seeing (and remembering!) I and II will be very confused.

(Both Lau and Lai are major pop recording stars in Hong Kong. I didn't see credits to either for any songs used in the movie and would not recognize them if there were any.)

The DVD has three entertaining trailers and a "making of" featurette in which Leung and Lai have illuminating things to say about the characters (not just their own characters). There is nothing about shooting the film, however. The audio and visual transfers seem quite good — thoug what there is to transfer is less dazzling than I and II.

©  2008, Stephen O. Murray

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age