Word: triad
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...meter-tall actor: over the past 30 years he has worked steadily and made a name for himself as one of the most reliable?and castable?actors in Asia. Lately, however, Tsang has won over critics as well as moviegoers with a more sinister turn as Sam, the triad boss in the hit trilogy Infernal Affairs. He relished suspending his animated persona. "I love this role," he grins. "I play the Mafia boss so everybody has to stand behind...
...those who missed the first IA or failed to take detailed notes of it, a little primer is in order. Ming (Andy Lau) is a triad spy who infiltrates the police force, while Yan (an unusually harried Tony Leung) is a cop under cover with the triads. Each tries to root out the other during the compact, brutally tense first film; Ming, who likes working with the good guys so much that he wants to sever all of his criminal ties, blows away Yan, and walks away scot-free. (Not in the mainland China version, however. Nervous censors there forced...
...Hong Kong's moribund movie industry. The tight, tense cop thriller showcased two of Hong Kong's top actors as a pair of dueling moles: corrupt police inspector Ming (Andy Lau), informing for a criminal gang; and Yan (Tony Leung), an undercover cop who had infiltrated the same triads. Infernal Affairs raised the bar for what a Hong Kong film could be, and its commercial success guaranteed sequels?a slight problem given that most of the cast is killed off in the original. Instead, co-directors Alan Mak and Andrew Lau decided to go prequel for the first sequel...
...although by the end of the film Yue has managed to capture some of Tony Leung's moral queasiness while Chen assumes a bit of Andy Lau's cold-blooded charm. The focus is on the grownups: Anthony Wong's borderline-rogue police inspector; and Eric Tsang's joyful triad tough, who goes from being a naive mid-level criminal to a malevolent little (and powerful) toad, willing to whack any and all enemies. Given room to act by a story that stresses character rather than plot, both add depth to their memorable performances in the original...
...Like any good sequel, IA2 cranks up the violence and the gore by several notches, and the film's murky visuals are a deliberate counterpoint to the original's silver-skinned crispness. That makes sense?IA2 muddies the moral waters until no one, cop or triad, escapes without some implication in its cycle of violence and death. Who knew that a Hong Kong cop flick could offer such a subtle pleasure as moral complexity...