Infernal Affairs II

A Hong Kong crime film telling what came before the first one. The year is 1991. The head of a criminal family is killed in the street and his four lieutenants divide the territory. Ming is that family's son. He will enter the police and stay there; the order comes from his own side. Yan is thrown out. He is taken out of the police academy for undercover work, his identity is erased, and he is sent into the same family. From there the film spreads over six years. Four bosses, a superintendent, a woman, and a handover approaching. What the narrative is interested in is not espionage but fate: neither young man chooses; one is put on that road by his family and the other by his superior. The relationship between Wong and Sam is at the centre. A policeman and a criminal use each other for years and both pay for it. The end of the period rests on a date. Hong Kong changes hands in 1997 and the film uses that night as a turning point. The narrative is far more crowded and much slower than the first film. It works like a family saga rather than an action picture. The ending connects to the beginning of the first film and leaves the two young men there. The production was prepared quickly after the first film's success; the third came out in the same year. Shawn Yue, Edison Chen, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, Francis Ng and Carina Lau are in the cast. Andrew Lau and Alan Mak directed. Who it is for: anyone who has seen the first film and wants the background. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the first film's tension; the narrative is scattered, there are too many people, and the pace is low.