short film reviews, criticism, and occasional musing.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Infernal Affairs 3 (2003, Hong Kong)

Whoa. If Infernal 2 was labyrinthine, plot-wise, Infernal 3 ratchets things up another degree, but does it almost entirely inside Ming’s (Andy Lau) head. After killing Yan (Tony Leung, very welcome in flashbacks), Ming is out to rid the Hong Kong police department of all of Sam’s other moles, but he’s having trouble keeping it together – Yan’s insomnia seems to have transferred to him, along with his obsession with the female shrink, and possibly other parts of his personality. In short, Ming is going nuts, but it’s hard to gauge how nuts until the final half hour, because the story keeps slingshotting back and forth between the present and six months before Yan’s death. It’s simultaneously less and more confusing than Infernal 2 was, and might actually have been more successful had it concentrated on Ming and used Yan only to flesh out Ming's growing instability, but Infernal 3 doesn’t detract from the myth, and does end up adding some interesting depth to the central characters.

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