Infernal Affairs III

The third film in the series runs in two times at once. In one, Chan Wing-yan is still alive and working with the gunman Sam; in the other, after the end of the second film, Lau Kin-ming has risen inside the police, is trying to erase his own past, and is hunting another mole. The subject is not espionage but Lau coming apart. He has carried his own lie so long that he can no longer tell who is who, and as the film goes on, trust in his point of view dissolves with him. The form deliberately mixes the two time frames. Making the connections is left to the viewer and some passages only acquire meaning at the end. That choice drew the most criticism in the series; against the clarity of the first film, the narrative here is visibly tangled. The production closes the trilogy. The first film was remade in Hollywood as The Departed; this last part did not attract the same attention and is generally counted as the weakest of the three. Andrew Lau and Alan Mak co-directed. Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Andy Lau continue in their roles, with Leon Lai and Chen Daoming joining here. Who it is for: anyone who has seen the first two and wants closure. Who it is not for: viewers entering here; the narrative assumes both earlier films and repeats nothing.