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Infernal
Affairs
(2004)
Starring:
Andy Lau, Tony Leung Chiu Wai
Director:
Wei Keung Lau
Rating:
R
Distributor:
Miramax
Release Date:
09.17.04
Review
Posted: 10.06.04
By
George Schmidt
Hong
Kong "No Way Out"
The intriguing concept in the cops and robbers
vein of a mole infesting one gang or another is always a nice attempt
in breathing life into a quite-frankly creaky vehicle that is often
tweaked to death with no real originality.
In the latest Hong Kong genre buster the stakes
are raised when there is a mole in the police investigating the
gangland that ALSO has a mole (i.e. a cop has infiltrated a Yakuza and
vice versa).
Lau Kin Ming (Lau) is a gang member who has
managed for years to pass himself as an officer rising through the
ranks to the point of being assigned to Internal Affairs in order to
nab a suspected mole within the division (in other words him!) To
make matters worse the mole that is in his gang, a real undercover cop
Chan Wing Yan (Leung Chiu Wai) has been nearly a decade posing as a
rough and tumble minion who also knows there is a secret agent amongst
his staff back at HQ and can only rely upon his mentor SP Wong
(Anthony Wong Cho-Sang) who is managing to keep the operation one step
ahead with a hairbreadth's width from unraveling.
Despite a clever concept the film quite frankly
lags and drags until the final reel where things finally kick into
gear with a few too many twists frankly yet I can see where the
filmmakers were attempting to do a la "The Usual Suspects" and "LA
Confidential" (two superior noir flicks). The wonky second stories
involving a sexy psychiatrist and Lau's writer girlfriend seem tacked
on and inconsequential to the proceedings at hand.
Underwhelming and not unlike Chinese food, the
viewer is still hungry for action an hour later. Rumor has it Martin
Scorsese is lining up to do an American remake possibly with Matt
Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio; I wonder if audiences will buy the
premise a second time around - ya think?
Film
Rating:
κκ (out of
4)
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