Infernal Affairs – Abstieg in die achte Hölle (2003)

Infernal Affairs – Abstieg in die achte Hölle: Directed by Andrew Lau, Alan Mak. With Anthony Chau-Sang Wong, Eric Tsang, Carina Lau, Francis Ng. In this prequel to Mou gaan dou (2002), Chan Wing Yan has just become an undercover cop in the triads while Lau Kin Ming joins the police force. Both the triads and the police find an enemy in a rival crime boss.

“Thought the first one was one of the finest Cop thrillers in recent years and the follow up is equally brilliant – for obvious reasons its a prequel set in 3 time periods leading up to the events in the first movie. This time round Ming(Edison Chen – Andy Lau last time) and Yan(Shawne Yau – Tony Leung last time) are more peripheral characters – the main action concentrates on Inspector Wong(Anthony Wong) and his struggles against the Triads. The leader of the major gang has been murdered and his son Hau(Francis Ng) has taken over – he is a more ruthless boss and intends to take over all the territory that other leaders currently control. These include Sam(Eric Tsang) and its interesting how close Wong and Sam are before the events that end so tragically later – Wong would rather have Sam running things and it appears that Wong has conspired with Samu0026#39;s woman Mary(Carina Lau) to have Hauu0026#39;s Father killed – only to see the son become worse than the Father. To complicate matters Yan is Hauu0026#39;s half brother who as a cop is willing to infiltrate Hauu0026#39;s gang but whose loyalty is put under pressure when he realises that Wong(who he is working for) had a hand in his Fathers murder.Meanwhile Sam is grooming Ming to become his mole in the HK Police(although Mingu0026#39;s attraction for Mary does complicate things).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHow this all pans out and leads to the events in the first film I shall leave but its an excellent film – a little complicated at times as you have to work out all the dynamics buts worth the effort – as mentioned the most poignant part is the relationship between Wong and Sam – they may be on opposite sides but have a closeness that will prove to be the central point of the story later.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere is a fantastic scene where Hau contrives to have himself held in Police custody whilst the other gang bosses are murdered and the way the film cuts between his interview(where he reveals how he knows who killed his Father) and the other bosses being wiped out is worthy of comparison with Coppolau0026#39;s Godfather – the series has that whole epic feel and the way it culminates with the handover of power to the Chinese in 1997 with new bosses on both sides of the conflict coming to power is very well done.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor once a sequel that lives up to the original……..I shall be interested to see if Scorceseu0026#39;s remake can come close.”