Of the three films Infernal Affairs 2 is the best, followed closely by the first in the series and then there is the unnecessary, yet not disappointing, Infernal Affairs 3. All three deal with the same subject matter following undercover agents in the Hong Kong Triads as well as the corrupt cops working with the mobsters from the inside.
Infernal Affairs and Infernal Affairs 2 star Hong Kong superstars Andrew Lau, Tony Leung, Anthony Wong and Eric Tsang. Lau and Leung take a back seat in the fantastic Infernal Affairs 2 as Edison Chen and Shawn Yue take their place in the prequel to the first film Recently there has been a lot of talk about a sequel and a prequel to The Departed and for good reason, as I said before, the second film in this trilogy is better than the first and the third, while not horrible really didn’t need to be made, at least not into a feature film.
Where this series would have really struck gold would have been by making the continuation of the story a television show, telling the stories of what happened in the long drawn out process of trying to bring down Hon Sam (Eric Tsang) as Chang Wing Yan (Leung) was undercover for many, many years. The third film in the franchise really reads as just a piece of a much larger story and feels rather unnecessary from the git-go.
DVD wise, this is going to be the first time Infernal Affairs 2 and 3 have been available on United States regional formats. The box set also includes the previously released Infernal Affairs from Miramax Home Entertainment, but IA2 and 3 are being released as part of the Weinstein’s signature Dragon Dynasty collection and carry some new features.
Granted, the special features aren’t exactly all that special you will probably enjoy the making –of featurettes that come with both IA2 and 3 and then I enjoyed the montage of behind-the-scenes footage that came with IA2. It is apparent with this set that the third film is not exactly held in high regard as it only comes with the making-of featurette and a trailer but IA2 comes with a bit more.
To go along with IA2’s making-of featurette and behind-the-scenes look you also get a handful of deleted scenes and an audio commentary. Now let me tell you right here, this box set is an exercise in reading comprehension as you get over 330 minutes of subtitled goodness. Personally I had to take some breaks as I normally don’t concentrate on a home movie the whole way through and to miss a beat would be… not good. Especially since I can’t understand what they are saying as I make my dinner in the kitchen.
However, this is a trilogy well worth the money for anyone that enjoys clever crime dramas and anyone that enjoyed The Departed. My opinion is that the first film, while good, was a bit sloppy in editing and filmmaking, but The Departed is proof the story is very solid. The second film is fantastic and if you don’t buy this box set you should at least make sure to pick up IA and IA2 since you can’t have one without the other. IA3 is one you can probably skip, but it is a well made film, just a needless one.
Hopefully the brothers Weinstein will continue to bring American audiences some of the great films they have missed out on as they have done well starting with these three.