Mou gaan dou II (2003) Reviews

• A fine follow up

  steve_b332005-02-06

  Thought the first one was one of the finest Cop thrillers in recent years and the follow up is equally brilliant - for obvious reasons its a prequel set in 3 time periods leading up to the events in the first movie. This time round Ming(Edison Chen - Andy Lau last time) and Yan(Shawne Yau - Tony Leung last time) are more peripheral characters - the main action concentrates on Inspector Wong(Anthony Wong) and his struggles against the Triads. The leader of the major gang has been murdered and his son Hau(Francis Ng) has taken over - he is a more ruthless boss and intends to take over all the territory that other leaders currently control. These include Sam(Eric Tsang) and its interesting how close Wong and Sam are before the events that end so tragically later - Wong would rather have Sam running things and it appears that Wong has conspired with Sam's woman Mary(Carina Lau) to have Hau's Father killed - only to see the son become worse than the Father. To complicate matters Yan is Hau's half brother who as a cop is willing to infiltrate Hau's gang but whose loyalty is put under pressure when he realises that Wong(who he is working for) had a hand in his Fathers murder.Meanwhile Sam is grooming Ming to become his mole in the HK Police(although Ming's attraction for Mary does complicate things). How this all pans out and leads to the events in the first film I shall leave but its an excellent film - a little complicated at times as you have to work out all the dynamics buts worth the effort - as mentioned the most poignant part is the relationship between Wong and Sam - they may be on opposite sides but have a closeness that will prove to be the central point of the story later. There is a fantastic scene where Hau contrives to have himself held in Police custody whilst the other gang bosses are murdered and the way the film cuts between his interview(where he reveals how he knows who killed his Father) and the other bosses being wiped out is worthy of comparison with Coppola's Godfather - the series has that whole epic feel and the way it culminates with the handover of power to the Chinese in 1997 with new bosses on both sides of the conflict coming to power is very well done. For once a sequel that lives up to the original........I shall be interested to see if Scorcese's remake can come close.

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• Unusually good prequel

  paul2001sw-12006-11-10

  Sequels are often a bad idea. If a second story is integral to our understanding of the first, it would have been included within it. Often, sequels seem like a cheap way to extract more life out of popular characters, by forcing the through fresh adventures which they either do not fit without contrivance, or which merely copy their previous escapades. 'Internal Affairs 2', however, is an exception. The first movie in this series was a complex thriller that was presented as the end game in a long battle between the Hong Kong police and criminal gangs; but the back story was only hinted at. This movie, actually a prequel, tells tells that story in such a way that it stands completely alone, and remains interesting although the audience already knows the ultimate ending; indeed, is arguably even more interesting because we know where the tale must end. One reason it works is because the film has different ambitions to its predecessor: that was a straightforward thriller of the highest order, whereas this film (no less good) is more character driven, and takes a wider perspective on Hong Kong society in general. Although the first movie was compared by some to Michael Mann's 'Heat', in fact it is this film that better bears the comparison as a tale of adversaries on opposite sides of the law, and it stands up to that comparison well: the subtle behaviours of the heroes and villains alike more interesting than the macho posturings of the gangsters and cops depicted in American movies. The only disappointment is the absence of Tony Leung from the original cast; but it's rare that two movies in a series are as complementary, and as good, as these two.

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• Outstanding and Recommended

  Griffin-152003-10-09

  After phenomenal success of "Wu Jian Dao (2002)" (or IA for short), a lot of hypes generated around when next two movies in the series are announced. I tend to ignore them and do not expect anything about IA2. Before I got into the cinema, "how would the screenwriters present this time,and how would they connect the characters between them?". After the movie, I would say I am not disappointed. Like IA, this is also a drama about clashes of characters, not in the form of breath-taking kung fu / wire-work actions we find in traditional Hong Kong cop movie, but starting from their own desire, intentions, hate and positions. If you are looking for a non-stop action flick, I am afraid IA2 would not fulfill you. But unlike last year's blockbuster, the main theme of IA2 is about the rise and fall of a great gangster family Ngai, other than about the police. The difficult part in making a prequel lies in the fact that as audiences all know too well the new appearences would drop-out one way or the other and the characters from IA must be okay. So the story does not waste efforts in describing most of the adventures, rather, concentrate on how these events shapes things to come. It is sure to the scriptwrites' credits and this alone casts a strong contrast to prequel movies like "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones" (2002). Moreover, it is not surprising for many audiences relating this with similar movies like "The Godfather". I am not comparing them here, but rather I would point out that the actor Francis Ng, who plays the new gangster head of Nagi family, runs the show. He plays a young, well-educated, cool,calculating, witted, cruel, cunning -- and unpredictable leader. As some critics say, a CEO-style triad boss. On the other hand, he successfully shows Ngai is actually a passionate man whose family comes first. On the other hand, late gang leader is screened for one shot only (pun intended), his character is only reflected, not by flashbacks, but by short monologues recited by Ng. It is a quite demanding job and I would say Ng has done a really good job here. Speaking of characters, another drift from IA, and many other traditional movies in the genre, female character actually plays "real" effects. Mary, played by Claudia Lau, is the closest girlfriend of Sam Hung. She is not just a powerless, declorative character. Like many female in the course of human history, she is the ignition point of the whole storm. If the audiences has not forgotten IA actually hints that Inspector Wong (played by award-winning Anthony Wong) and Sam Hung (played by also award-winning Eric Tsang) have known each other for a long time. IA2 unveils their long-time mutual respects, and how all these change as the story flows along. Anthony Wong still delivers a high standard of acting just like in IA and how he plays the 3 ups-and-downs of Inspector Wong is simply terrific. On the contary, gangster Hung, Wong's arch-enemy in IA, is much lighter and more human. As with Wong, this character experiences changes which shapes of what to be seen in IA. However, I find the last party scene is unnecessary and does not seem to connect with the firece and uncanny Hung we used to know. Relatively, the other major characters seems week. Mainland actor Jun Wu, plays another inspector who is a close partner with Wong. I could see the actor tries. Unfortunately, Wu's character is just too flat. His friendship and his clashes with Wong could not mark strong impressions among the audiences. I have a (probably false) feeling that this character is created to be destroyed and it is a waste of Wu's talents. The actors portriating the young Wing-yan Chan (by Shawn Yu) and Kin-ming Lau (by Edison Chan) would be the weakest link in IA2. Except for a few scene, Edison puts up a regular expression of somewhat between arragonce and anger. For example, towards the end of airport scene, Lau would have a mixed feeling of guilt, anger, loss and vengence. This is an important scene for Lau's self-centered character, however, the actor simply fails to convince me. The same goes to Shawn. He fails to play as someone who is torn between his role as a "policeman" and a triad member, his loyalty and duty. Most of the time, he just plays plain and "flat faced". To be fair, he gets a tad better towards the end of the movie as his character begins to merge with the character in IA. Nonetheless, young actors weight must less as the others. Speaking about continuity, IA2 does not fail in providing bits and pieces about the backstory of IA. And it is not hard for anyone to catch the images of other minor characters from IA. However, I have a few issues. First, in IA, we see Hung was an ambitious and man of vision, that is why he implants many moles in the police department in the first place. However, the initial character of Hung seems too soft and passive. Why does he stand by Ngai in the time of crisis? We could not see his importance rises afterwards. Why didn't he use the chance and take out his opponents or expand his influence in the triad, then? Was he just covering himself for his long-term plan? Also, why Wing-yan Chan remains in the end, even in light of his well-known ties with the Ngai family? How come does he becomes a subordinate of Keung? In IA, the position of Keung and Yan seems to have switched. Apart from some goofs (accuracy of shooting from a paper bag, ignorance of emptied handgun and way of corspes could be burnt to ashes), the run of the movie stops rather abruptedly twice as timeline transits from year 1991 to 1995 and from 1995 to 1997. The effects on and changes of characters are not appearent so it leaves the audiences with a lot of imaginations and mental exercises. (Not that I hate mental exercises, it is rare for Hong Kong movies to make me enjoy doing so) I think the director could handle the storytelling a bit better smoother and tighter. Despite of cliches, IA2 delivers a more powerful drama than the original. The acting, directing and many other technical aspects are top notch. The scriptwriters are very clever in telling from the other side of the theme and breaks away the shadow casted by the successful predecessor. Looking forward to see the real "final" this December. 8/10

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• Deserving prequel

  harry_tk_yung2003-10-06

  Spoilers Warning !!! Infernal Affair created a box office miracle in Hong Kong last year not because it is a particularly brilliant film, but because of the lame comparisons that went on before. Still, I.A. is a solid piece of work which, coupled with the hype that has been building up, becomes quite an act to follow. For I.A. 2 the scriptwriters' task is to strike a good balance of giving a life of its own and yet preserving an adequate link with the first one. The challenge is compounded by the fact that this is a prequel, dictating that the audience would know that the people they've seen before are not going to die here, a rather irritating handicap for a crime story. The scriptwriters met this challenge with a combination of strategies. First, borrow the main plot of underworld feud from The Godfather. Next, add a story line of an entrancing woman (and cast an entrancing actress for the role). Then, package the story into an ensemble type of performance arena where the audience can enjoy watching a good number of different roles, major as well as minor. Finally, move the story towards a monumental backdrop, the return of sovereignty of Hong Kong in 1997. The result: an immensely watchable movie and a deserving prequel to the first Infernal Affair. While I.A. 2 does not pretend to be a `Godfather', the movie does earn our respect, right from the opening shots, by demonstrating the meticulous efforts put into its production. Anthony Wong seems to be delivering a monologue, but is actually talking with Eric Tsang in a spartanly furnished room. Facing Wong, on the far wall, hangs a clock. As Wong's is shot from various angles, the tic-toc sound of the clock moves around the cinema, left, right, front and back, in relation to the angle of the shot. This is the technical aspect. This opening dialogue is also of paramount importance as it underpins the main theme of this prequel. What Wong says here explains his dark side not seen in I.A. 1, in a startling revelation later. In the brief synopsis that follows, I'll continue to use the performers' names instead of the characters', for simplicity. (synopsis starts) The story happens in three time slots, 1991, 1995 and 1997 (aptly correlated with the size of the mobile phones seen in the movie). Young Edison Chan's assassination of an underworld boss makes a blood bath seem unavoidable, in sparkling a feud among four lieutenants. However, thing are swiftly brought under control at the emergence of the victim's son Francis Ng, who, skilfully manipulating the four, put them in their place again. There is actually a fifth, Eric Tsang who has been most loyal to the dead boss. The irony is that the killing has been ordered secretly by his woman, Carina Lau, who thinks that Tsang should really be the man at the top. On the law enforcers' side, Anthony Wong sets up Shawn Yu (Tong Leung in I.A. 1) as a mole in Ng's gang, knowing that Yu is actually Ng's half-brother but trusting his intention to be a `good man'. At the same time, Chan (Andy Lau in I.A. 1) joins the police force as the gangster's undercover, as we have already seen in I.A. 1. Fast forward 4 years, we see Ng, ready to clean up his house by getting rid of `the four', taking Tsang into his confidence. A startling revelation is now made to the audience: while Lau ordered the assassination 4 years ago, she had a corroborator: inspector Wong. Ng has actually found out about this and vows to revenge his beloved father's death on both Lau and Tsang, even though he knows that the latter was really innocent. On the pretext of sending Tsang to Thailand to set up some cocaine business, Ng intends to send him to meet his death. Simultaneously, by a brilliant double play, he eliminates `the four' and at the same time reveals to the police evidence of Wong's conspiracy in killing his father. We then see Tsang in a tight spot in Thailand but are not shown what eventually happens. In Hong Kong, Chan, who has all this time been a secret admirer of Lau, shields her from Ng's revenge (Ng does not know that Chan is the actual killer of his father). But when he fails to win her heart, Chan betrays Lau, sending her to her death in the hands of Ng's gunmen. In 1997, approaching Hong Kong's historical moment, Wong is pardoned by the police as they need capable men like him to continue combating the underworld. He goes to Thailand to see Tsang whom we find had not been killed after all. In this prequel they are friends despite being in opposite camps, and have a common enemy in Ng. Back in Hong Kong, they continue to try to spin web around Ng, but find that all they have been able to lay their hands on will only put him behind bars for a few years, which is clearly not enough for Tsang for avenging his woman. Without going into details, it suffices to say that Tsang manages a plot that corners Ng, getting him eventually killed by the police. (synopsis ends) In this brief synopsis, I have left out a lot of details as well as some characters such as To Man-chat, who plays a less comic role here than in I.A. 1 and Wu Jun, mainland Chinese star playing Wong's partner and buddy. I want to mention also Roy Cheung (one of the five gunmen in Johnny To's masterpiece `The Mission' (1999)) who, without a single line here, has such a screen presence that leaves quite an impression. I mentioned at the beginning that the main challenge of this movie is to strike a balance between having its own life and yet maintaining a link with I.A. 1. Let's look at each of these two aspects. The new life is in the two new characters who could easily have been in a different story. The beauty is that they can be killed off (and they both ended up exactly that way), and the audience would expect some deaths in a crime yarn. Ng's story line, as mentioned, is primarily from Godfather. Ng, well known for his explosive screen image, is a completely different man here, composed, calculating, and it does not take a film critic or movie reviewer to see the resemblance to Michael Corleone. His story fuels the main plot of I.A. 2, giving it a life independent from the first one. Complementing this independence is Carina Lau, who adds glamour as well as femininity to enrich the movie's content. The scantily depicted but genuinely felt love between the visually most unlikely pair of Lau and Tsang is actually quite moving. As to the link with the first one, the 4 key characters – Wong, Tsang, Chan (young Andy Lau) and Yu (young Tony Leung) – have received varying treatments. Unlike before (or afterwards, if that make more sense to your temporal awareness), Wong and Tsang are friends here. I think this arrangement is quite deliberate for the obvious reason that watching them in the same old conflict as in I.A. 1 wouldn't exactly be a thrill to the audience. Tsang plays a much more passive and subdued role throughout most of the movie. It isn't until after Lau has been killed by Ng that he fires up. Wong, on the other hand, is much more controversial displaying a dark side of his character, which the movie tries to explain in his opening dialogue about witnessing on his first beat the violent death of his superior under the hands of a mobster. The situation reminds me of the old Hollywood westerns, in which the invariable commandment was `thou shalt not take the law into thy own hands' no matter how evil the criminal is. Wong, gnawed by the torturing frustration from seeing the killer freed after just a few years, does take the law into his own hands. Of the two young ones, Edison Chan has considerably more to do in depicting the formation of Andy Lau's character. Chan has displayed a maturing self-assurance, particularly in that charming, almost child-like smile behind which hides a chilling soul. Shawn Yu on the other hand does not leave that much of an impression. One more point and I'm done. The makers of the movie spared no pain in employing a staggering variety of background music. Choral chants are used lavishly, as are solo piano and guitar. Pulsating strings and urgent percussions are employed as usual in building up climaxes. Even the harmonic comes into play, and this one actually on screen at the conclusion of the extermination of `the four'. If I seem to make it sound as though background music has been over used, this is not my intention. Rather, they are employed skilfully and tastefully, contributing considerably to the success of the movie.

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• Everything you didn't need to know that badly

  cwx2006-06-06

  What a tangled web a studio can weave when they realize they desperately need to make some money off of a sequel to a film that didn't need one. That's not to say that this is bad, but it would strike me as an ordinary film even if I hadn't seen the extraordinary film that came before. This "sequel," despite the number, is actually a prequel, but it doesn't so much fill in the blanks as muddy up the waters; it's often confusing, it's not always clear if some of the new backstory really squares with the depictions we saw in the first one, and some of the more glaring questions are left unanswered (possibly for film number three). The young replacements the mole characters, previously played by Tony Leung and Andy Lau, are certainly not up to the task. Thankfully, the movie works because Anthony Wong and Eric Tsang reprise their roles as the respective cop and mob boss, and it is quite interesting to learn about a relationship between them that, from what I recall, was far from obvious before. I certainly wouldn't recommend watching this before the first one, despite the chronology, but I imagine it is worth satisfying the likely thirst for more that you will most likely have after watching the previous film.

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