Film Review: INFERNAL AFFAIRS III (2003)

Directors: Wai-keung Lau & Alan Mak
Running Time: 118 mins (approx)Certification (UK): 15

Genre: Thriller/Drama/Crime
Hong Kong Release Date: 12th December 2003

Watched on Sky+ Monday 4th April 2010.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

My infernal ‘Infernal Affairs’ marathon concludes with the third part of this epic saga. This time we’re closing in on another mole in the Police force. The trouble is, we keep slipping back into the past so we can see how this guy ties in with it all. To be honest it’s a bit of a mess but here’s a brief summary while I can still remember it (summary haters, and those that don’t wish to know about the plot, take some bad guys out while I write the next paragraph).

Lau Kin Ming has now been cleared of any wrongdoing in the death of the undercover cop, Chan Wing Yan. He can now concentrate on finding other moles in the Police force. His attention is drawn to SP Yeung Kam Wing who seems to be keeping his cards very close to his chest. Another candidate is Shen Chen, a man who, at one time, was Hon Sam’s partner. Not everybody is who they seem to be and add to this a lot of flashing backwards and forwards in time, it makes for a rather confusing plot… Think I’ll leave it there, I’m getting confused.

It’s pretty well made, but it seems very cobbled together and has little coherence. The plot is very hard to follow and a bit of a mess of a screenplay doesn’t really help. Performance wise; Tony Leung Chiu Wai was pretty good as Chan Wing Yan, as was Andy Lau as Lau Kin Ming. Of the rest, Leon Lai did a decent job as the enigmatic SP Yeung Kam Wing and Daoming Chen was pretty good as Shen Chen.

The first two films were really good and so I found it hard to believe this one could be so bad. It almost feels like it was rushed out too quickly after the success of the first two and suffered greatly for it. It certainly lacks the punch of the first two and as such is a rather disappointing conclusion to the trilogy. NOT recommended.

My Score: 4.6/10

LINKS:
(RT = Rotten Tomatoes)
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0374339/
RT Page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/infernal_affairs_3/
Trailer: