Infernal Affairs III

The story has concluded and it's all over. In terms of quality, the series is showing a downward trend; here, it was just about connecting the third story to the previous two films and making sense of it all somehow. I think they managed to do this with dignity, but the echoes of the first film remain so strong that Infernal Affairs III is simply the third installment in the series, nothing more. (05/05/2014)

The premise of the second installment may seem unnecessary to most viewers, but I was satisfied while watching it. The third installment finally introduces a plot that largely takes place after the first, so it is unclear what the resolution will be. Both Andy Lau as Ming and Tony Leung as Yan once again have many opportunities to showcase their acting skills. As for the story itself and the atmosphere, this time it returns to the tone of the first installment, purely a police thriller, perhaps not with as urgent a tone. It remains true that the original film would have been perfectly sufficient on its own, but it doesn't matter when watching this excellent and remarkable trilogy. (08/04/2007)

Despite the heavy-handed take-off, an excellent movie. No doubt about it. It’s just that it’s an absolute, and I mean absolute, waste of space. Not even the fact that the creators are very clever, ingenious and never cheap in their flogging of this dead horse can change that. The entire cast led by Andy Lau is thoroughly convincing again. No doubt about that. I don’t even regret watching part three, but, in the same way as part two, it’s extremely unlikely that I would ever watch this again. What a come-down since the first Internal Affairs. P.S.: And to display the outcome of the picture as a background illustration for the main DVD menu could only have occurred to Intersonic. (03/06/2008)