Infernal Affairs III

When it comes to movies, three is rarely the charm. The final segments of film trilogies have brought us the now Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger attempting to joke (T3: Rise of the Machines), Sofia Coppola attempting to emote (The Godfather Part III) and, most terrible of all, the Ewoks (The Return of the Jedi). This year has already seen the third and hopefully final Matrix film vanish faster than Carrie-Anne Moss's career, although nothing is likely to stop the last Lord of the Rings when it sweeps across cinemas like an army of ravaging orcs. In between comes Hong Kong's own Infernal Affairs III (IA3), the final chapter of the taut cops-and-triads, cat-and-mouse series that first broke box-office records last December. Can the last Infernal Affairs escape the curse of three?

Maybe trilogies only work for Tolkien. Though it remains visually stylish and features several excellent performances from some of Hong Kong's most versatile stars, IA3 sags under a load of familiar third-act baggage. Too little story spread over too much movie? Check. Total narrative bafflement for those who haven't dissected the first two films? Check. An unshakable sense of fatigue for the directors and audience alike? Double check. Even without the furry merchandising gimmicks, IA3 is more Return of the Jedi than Return of the King.

		LATEST COVER STORY Saddam Captured December 22, 2003 Issue Past Covers The Insurgents Dec. 15, 2003 ----------------- Kids and Drugs Dec. 8, 2003 ----------------- America and Bush Dec. 1, 2003 ----------------- Russell Crowe Nov. 24, 2003 ----------------- Jessica Lynch Nov. 17, 2003 ----------------- Tortured Minds Nov. 10, 2003 ----------------- Eating Smart Nov. 3, 2003 ----------------- Bollywood Oct. 27, 2003 ----------------- Tomb Raiders Oct. 20, 2003 ----------------- Bali Remembered Oct. 13, 2003 ----------------- What Went Wrong? Oct. 6, 2003 ----------------- What's Next Sept. 29, 2003 ----------------- Japan's Koizumi Sept. 22, 2003 -----------------   ASIA  Indonesia: JI still going strong  Afghanistan: Intelligence failures RELIGION  The lost Gospels ARTS  Movies: HK's film godfather  Review: One sequel too many? NOTEBOOK  Taiwan: Stuck in the middle  Japan: Searching for the stork  Milestones  Verbatim  Letters GLOBAL ADVISOR  Holidays: Champagne supernova  Kyrgyzstan: R and R in Bishkek  Malaysia: Hip hotels in Langkawi CNN.com: Top Headlines

For 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 a last-minute change that has Ming inexplicably arrested, thus removing any troublesome moral ambiguity.)

Fans of the first film might be surprised to see Leung co-starring in IA3 along with stalwart police chief Wong (Anthony Wong) and triad boss Sam (Eric Tsang), since all three were dead by the end of the original. But IA3 directors Andrew Lau and Alan Mak solve that potential casting problem by shifting the third film back and forth in time, a few months before the first IA and a few months after its end, when a seemingly free-and-clear Ming rejoins the cops. With Yan, Wong and Sam shimmering across the screen like walking phantoms, IA3 begins to take on the atmosphere of a ghost story, an impression that is reinforced when paranoid Ming starts seeing what seem like actual ghosts. Is he going nuts—or is he just confused, like much of the audience?

A close-cropped Andy Lau plays Ming as a man slowly discovering his own hollowness, but Leung's Yan, all nerves and charm, steals the film again, while Tsang and Wong shine in their brief appearances. Newcomers Leon Lai, as a possibly dirty cop, and mainlander Chen Daoming, as an imperially cold smuggler, fit seamlessly into the action. Only Kelly Chen, as the psychiatrist who connects Ming and Yan, falls flat.

The success of the first two IA movies showed that Hong Kong's commercial filmmakers, given time and money, could create works that combined the stylishness and spirit of local cinema with the polish and ambition of Hollywood. That energy fizzles out in IA3, but cinematically speaking, two out of three ain't bad.