Mou gaan dou III: Jung gik mou gaan

Plot synopsis:
Infernal Affairs III uses parallel storytelling, flashing between the past and the present.Five months before Yan's deathYan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) seeks to uncover the link between Triad boss Sam (Eric Tsang) and the mysterious mainland triad boss Shen (Chen Daoming). Since Sam's ascension to the seat of triad lord was due to Ngai's (Francis Ng) death (see second film), Sam is suspicious of all those who followed him in the past. He tests Yan's loyalty by asking him to smash an ashtray on Shen's follower during a negotiation, resulting in Yan being arrested by Inspector Yeung (Leon Lai Ming). After being released, Shen smashes a bottle of liquor on Yan's head and called truce between his gang and Sam's gang.At the same time, Yan is prosecuted by the police for violent behavior. His superior Wong (Anthony Wong Chau Sung) manages to persuade the court to allow Yan to go and see a psychologist instead of being sentenced to prison. Thus we are shown how he met Dr. Lee (Kelly Chen) regularly for psychological therapy. The two subsequently begins a romantic relationship.Later, Sam asks Yan to deliver illegal arms to Shen but he himself and other members of the gang did not turn up. Yan delivers the cargo but Shen's gang discovers it is just empty boxes and both gangs begins firing gunshots at each other. Shen and Yan shoot each other in the battle, but both aim at the limbs. Shen thus discovers that Yan is a cop just as Yeung arrives at the scene. Yeung then tells Yan that Shen is not Shen (but actually an undercover cop from the mainland). Yeung also tells Yan that it was due to Yan leaving the police cadets that he gained top honours, thus revealing that Yeung knew Yan is a cop. The three shake hands and wait for the mayhem to die down before returning to their bases.Ten months after the events of Infernal AffairsFormer Triad mole turned top cop Lau Kin Ming (Andy Lau) has been demoted to administrative duty pending the investigation of his involvement in the death of Yan and Billy (Gordon Lam Ka Tung). In a flashback, we see a version of events that transpired through the lie Lau tells the police; Billy was the mole who wanted to kill Yan and Lau was there to arrest him when he shot Yan in the head, leading to Lau shooting Billy.After months of investigation, he is transferred back to Internal Affairs. He struggles to whitewash his past and keep his cover, while finding out a fellow Security Division Inspector (Yeung) has ties with Shen, the alleged mainland triad boss who had connections to Sam. He tries to determine whether Yeung is another former mole out to execute anyone who could give him away. A battle of wits develops between Ming and Yeung as each tries to learn the other's secret.Meanwhile, Ming's sense of identity collapses as he begins to lose track of reality, wrestling with his deep guilt in Yan's murder. He has trouble sleeping and is continuously using sleeping pills and is in the middle of going through a divorce with Mary (Sammi Cheng) due to her knowledge of his secret.Ming sets up security cameras all over the Security Division floor and Yeung's office in order to spy on him. He also steals and hacks into Dr. Lee's computer and finds Yan's file. He learns about Yan and his psychological trauma soon deteriorates to the point where he begins to think he is Yan. He even makes it his own personal mission to apprehend "Lau Kin Ming" and to catch Yeung on behalf of Inspector Wong. After seeing an incident where he holds out his gun and talking to an imaginary person, Lee brought Ming back to her office and hypnotises him. Under hypnosis Ming reveals to a shocked Lee that he is Sam Hon's mole.Ming continues to suspect Yeung is related to the mainland Chinese gang and Sam. He breaks into Yeung's office and steal tapes from his safe, using his spy cameras to determine the code. He thinks he hears tapes of Yeung relating information to Sam and he leads his team to the Security Division to arrest Yeung, just as Shen arrives. As Ming plays the tape, a conversation between himself and Sam from the movie theatre scene in Infernal Affairs is played and his second-in-command tries to arrest him instead. Ming suffers a psychotic break, asks for a chance to be a good man, but Yeung declares that "I am a policeman." the same way Yan did. Ming finally breaks and yells out "I am also a policeman!" and fires at Yeung's forehead, killing him. Ming is then shot by Shen who snuck a gun behind his back in case a fight would break out and he falls on the floor. Ming then attempts suicide by shooting himself in the neck, but fails.Present DayA series of flashbacks play, revealing that Yeung and Shen, upon the death of their friend Yan, wanted to avenge him by finding out who the mole was. Shen suspected Ming and set up a ploy to lure him to them. Yeung broke into Ming's office and found the tapes of Ming's conversations with Sam, proving Shen right. Yeung subsequently put the tapes inside his safe.Yeung is buried next to Yan in the police cemetery. Shen and Lee pay their visits. Shen said to Lee: "Events change men, but men do not change events. But these two men are extraordinary because they changed events."Ming ends up crippled and catatonic, lost inside his own mind, haunted by the spirit of Mary Hon (Carina Lau) and locked in his own personal "Continuous Hell". His divorced wife Mary visits and tells him, "Our baby can say "papa" now." As the picture fades into the next scene, the camera pans down onto Ming's finger, which is tapping out in Morse Code, "H-E-L..." (and then the start of another 'L' as the picture dims).But right before the movie ends, it returns to one final flashback of after the incident with the failed cargo trade between Yan and Shen. Yan reports his findings to Inspector Wong on the phone as he's walking through the busy streets of Hong Kong. He enters an electronics and music store, where he finds a bag of cocaine in one of the speakers. Suddenly, Ming (Andy Lau) comes in and wants to buy an audio system...

Tags: violence, flashback

Review:
Infernal Affairs 3 builds cleverly on the plotline of the first movie, but with its complex story and frequent switches between past and present, is likely to seriously confuse anyone who comes to it without having seen Part 1 first to understand the two main characters.
With frequent flashbacks, the film focuses on extending the story of Triad mole Ming (Andy Lau), warping up the tension as the stresses of his double life become intolerable.
What this film does is overlay the previous stories with an additional layer of romanticism and complexity; but there's a certain lack of focus to the plot, with almost all of our favourite characters already dead by the end of the second film (although, in flashback, there's a rebirth for the great Tony Leung, absent from part two).
Why didn't it come out.We got to see quite a bit of Tony Leung in this film, and that is always a good thing.It was very distracting the way the film jumped back and forth through time.
It was trying to tie up the loose ends, but it was disconcerting.It could have been an outstanding film, but it'll just have to be great to see the actors and enjoy their performance..
Where Scorsese's recent version of Infernal Affairs all the loose ends pretty much got tied up during the film whereas with the original we were left with an open (but much more emotionally impacting) conclusion.
Personally I thought the first film was an enjoyable cop thriller but I didn't think it was brilliant or developed characters that well but the tension was great.
Leung is good again but his scenes don't seem as relevant or as interesting within this film  again it is probably to do with the lack of emotional buy-in I felt with his character; his performance is natural and engaging though.
Again I didn't think much of the use of Chen but Wong and Tsang are both solid in their small returns.Overall then an effective and enjoyable film if you love the series and the characters; an interesting one if you have seen the first two films and a pointless one if you are looking to join in at the last minute.
Tying up the loose ends of the series, the film isn't tense enough or emotionally impacting enough to be worth a look unless you are really already into the characters but it is an interesting way to bring things to an end  with restraint and tragedy rather than excess..
Having now watched the entire INFERNAL AFFAIRS trilogy, I've concluded that only the original film was necessary.
The first sequel took the form of a prequel, an entirely extraneous piece of back story that adding nothing to the original and would have worked better as a stand alone movie.
This, the second sequel, is even worse, a muddled attempt at tying together both prequel and sequel, adding in lots of entirely superfluous stuff and additional characters that are all entirely necessary.Tony Leung returns to the movie series, but his scenes amount to nothing more than padding; his character was so carefully delineated in the first movie, there's entirely nothing to add.
But it's still rather unnecessary, and would have been much better had it been tied up at the end of the first film, as Scorsese did when he remade the series as THE DEPARTED.Overall, INFERNAL AFFAIRS 3 feels confused and muddled.
While in the U.S. the 3rd movie of anything is suppose to be the large-scale, big-budget, battle-destruction-galore ending to a series, Infernal Affairs 3 shamelessly does the opposite and delivers an introspective look devoid of any "battle" scene at all.
Now that IA has become somewhat of a cult following (ironically the story is not meant to go any further) it seems fitting that we are delivered a film as if the cutting-room floor pieces were placed together from the previous two movies and sequenced for the conclusion.The story attempts to elaborate the most important details of the series and not presenting them in sequence, only a handful of present scenes exist which each are periodically given a large delve into the past.
IA 3 explores what happened leading up to many scenes in the first Infernal Affairs which is really pretty neat for anyone who watches movies and seen the first.
As a result its a jumble and mix of scenes giving you dates of when they occur (sometimes eliciting humor) and glimpsing every single character in the series as if they were the past but really filmed new for the movie.
And in this way follows Yan and Ming's characters as they progress to their fates.But it seems perhaps that by doing so, the movie is simply what was left out in the first film and anyone new to the series will obviously not understand the significance of what is going on other than the artsy cinematography of white-washed cool hues, steady camera work, and continual sponsorship of devices and products.
The last installment in the Infernal Affairs trilogy is surprisingly slow moving, but still has the high production values and intricate story of the first two, although as a whole it is slightly less engaging than the preceding films.
There have been a lot of comparisons between this trilogy and The Godfather films, and the similarities in story-telling structure and the overall arc of the sequels are definitely there, although I have to admit that I think the Godfathers exist on an entirely different level as these films.
The Infernal Affairs films are good, but they're not THAT good.There is a lot of work in bringing together the stories of the first two films and it definitely adds to them, but I found this one to be too slow moving, although the pace picked up by the third act and the final scene is definitely impressive.On the other hand, the trilogy ends on a serious downer - "Ksitigarbha Sutra - 'People of the like shall be cast into the Avinci Hell and will continue to suffer from Kalpas to Kalpas with no means of escape.'I may as well just admit that I don't know the meaning or source of this quote, but it sure seems like a depressing note to end the trilogy on.
Nevertheless, despite being just a little bit of a let-down (like countless trilogy finales), Internal Affairs 3 is a necessary closure, and Asian cinema fans are sure to eat it up..
To be honest it's a bit of a mess but here's a brief summary while I can still remember it (summary haters, and those that don't wish to know about the plot, take some bad guys out while I write the next paragraph).Lau Kin Ming has now been cleared of any wrongdoing in the death of the undercover cop, Chan Wing Yan. He can now concentrate on finding other moles in the Police force.
Performance wise; Tony Leung Chiu Wai was pretty good as Chan Wing Yan, as was Andy Lau as Lau Kin Ming.
Of the rest, Leon Lai did a decent job as the enigmatic SP Yeung Kam Wing and Daoming Chen was pretty good as Shen Chen.The first two films were really good and so I found it hard to believe this one could be so bad.
This time around, we have the returning Tony Leung, Andy Lau, and the new comer Leon Lai to light up the screen for Infernal Affairs III.
I like the first one better, at least it has some good story telling there, not necessarily original: undercover cop, mole, I don't think it's all that original, but you don't necessarily to be original to be good.
this final installment in the series is for me,i think the best of the trilogy.it it a bit confusing,as it does jump back in forth in time.but i think on repeated viewing it will become much clearer.forgetting that though,for sheer tension,it can't be beat.i was on the edge of my seat the whole time.this one focus4es less on the action and more on the character ans the story,as it should,since it ties everything(mostly) up in the end.there even a humorous bit that works very well.its' a great end to the trilogy.i will probably watch the all three movies again and see what i missed the first time around.for me,Mou gaan dou III: Jung gik mou gaan,AKA Infernal Affairs III is an 8/10.
excerpt, more at my location - The first movie in the Infernal Affairs trilogy was so good, it helped win Martin Scorsese his long-awaited Oscar for another film.
Andrew Lau and Alan Mak visit the well one last time - has it, by now, run dry?At the conclusion of the film, which takes the viewer right up to the opening of a memorable early scene from the original movie, the viewer is in no doubt that a thrilling, memorable landmark trilogy has come to a close..
Someone used a food analogy previously - I would say this is the dessert and its best savoured slowly to end what has been a great meal.I thought IFII was greatly influenced by the first and second Godfather film and in a way IFIII has common elements to the second and third - flicking through time to see how the story has emerged and tying up the loose ends with style.Without spoiling the plot this film shows how Yans rise through the Triads isn't as smooth as it appears to have been in the previous two films and also shows a darker side of Sam, Wong and (if possible) Ming.
At the end of IA One, the death of good guy Chan Wing-yan (`Yan') and the prospering of bad guy Lau Kin-ming (`Ming') caused a few raised eyebrows in the Hong Kong audience.
MINOR SPOILERSOne has to see the first "Infernal Affairs" before seeing this movie otherwise it would just be too confusing.This sequel to "IA" is about Ming, the undercover triad member who becomes a cop to infiltrate the police force.
Throughout the movie, Ming's state of mind is disintegrating into fear and paranoia because he feels guilty for causing the death of Yan, who is the undercover cop sent to infiltrate the mob (triad).
Ming tries so hard to make up for what he has done, his bad past (spying on the police) and for Yan, whom he still feels a special bond.Ming is losing his mind, that poor fool, and hard as he tries to redeem himself, well, it's not gonna happen.There are a lot of flashbacks in this movie, which I warn the viewer, is a little confusing at first.
Tony Leung as Yan is sympathetic, amusing and he has some rare funny scenes with the psychologist.The rest of the actors in this movie give outstanding performances.
I did like the cat and mouse game between Lau Kin-ming (the mole from the previous one) and Superintendent Yeung Kam-wing whole plays Lau's rival as his equal.
The first installment gave us edge-of-the-seat thrills with its chess-game intriguesThe second, a prequel, was just as interesting with its fast-paced Godfather 2-type background to the 1991 triad wars which saw the rise of the vicious Hau (Francis Ng), the coup de grace by Sam (Eric Tsang) and the planting of the moles in the police and within Sam's circle.Number 3 deals mainly with the fading fortunes of Lau Kin Ming (Andy Lau) in 2004 when after the murder of undercover cop Chan Wing Yan (Tony Leung), he is under police investigation and relegated to the sidelines.
The rising star of the police force now is Yeung Kam Wing (Leon Lai) and Kin Ming suspects something amiss.
Determined to turn over a new leaf, Kin Ming plans to nail his 'rival' while keeping his own 'identity' from being exposed.This 'forward' plot does not have much drama (or melodrama) but we have a number of flashbacks which recall how Wing Yan tries his best to win Sam's trust, including setting up a smuggling network with Shen and breaking the law time and again...If we had lots of twists and shocks in the first two installments, the 'action' in this 'conclusion' is rather 'laid back' - it is mainly about the links of psychiatrist Dr Lee (Kelly Chen) with Wing Yan and later Kin Ming.Directors Alan Mak and Andrew Lau seem to be scrapping the bottom of the barrel and coming out with bits and pieces of their former glory.
The show was so confusing, I had to switch the subtitles to Chinese instead of English to understand.Set 10 months after Chan Wing Yan's death, Lau Kin Ming is relegated to mundane administrative work until the Internal Affairs department had finished investigating SP Yeung's involvement Sergent Chun's death.
It turns out Chun was Sam's mole and someone had sent a box of tapes to Yeung of the various people supplying intelligence to Sam.What follows is a series of very confusing events: Yeung seeming to trade intelligence with Sam, Shen's involvement in business with Sam in China, Yeung's friendship with Yan...and all of it accompanied by very cool music to add to the suspense.Ming decides to investigate Yeung.
One cannot watch independently as one has to know fully well what happened in the first film unlike installment movies like Superman,Spiderman or Mission Impossible.
Indeed,one should have a clear understanding of the story of Infernal Affairs unlike Infernal Affairs II,a film that could possible stand on its own.The acting was still excellent in the film.Andy Lau and Tony Leung provides honesty to their portrayal of Ming and Yan respectively.Eric Tsang and Francis Wong delivered as they reprise their role as Sam and Inspector Wong respectively.But special mention should be given to Leon Lai,who portrayed the enigmatic police officer,Yeung.
Although the first movie was flawless,this third installment of Infernal Affairs was somewhat slow especially in telling the story of Ming after Yan was killed.
We follow Chan Wing-yan in his undercover role working for Sam in the run up to a major deal and we also observe Inspector Lau as he works to make sure nobody can connect him with Sam, his erstwhile employer, so he can become an honest police officer.
Doctor Lee takes a much greater role in this film as Chan Wing-yan is ordered to see her after assaulting a Triad member in a restaurant and Lau sees her to learn more about Chan Wing-yan's activities.While I think this was probably the weakest of the three films it was still pretty good and anybody who enjoyed the first two films really should watch this as it neatly wraps up the story.
Having missed the second film Tony Leung and Andy Lau are back as Chan Wing-yan and Lau and once again they put in fine performances; other notable stars are Leon Lai as Yeung and Kelly Chen as Doctor Lee the psychiatrist.
Although this is a sequel to Part 1, much of the story takes place before inspectors Chan dies, so you'll see him still alive for most of the movie, as does Sam and SP Wong.
In the end you see him tapping "Hell" in Morse code (which for some reason he was keen to study in previous parts), probably recognizing that there's hell to pay for all he's done.Good of this movie was the part of SP Yueng played by Leon Lai. He was just great in this role.Part 3 is made with same craftsmanship of the first two that put this series on the map.
This second sequel, however, in fact requires some thought as the story unfolded.*** Spoilers Ahead ***I will try to reveal as little as possible, since my own enjoyment was partially ruined by having read a review which gave the plot away.On the surface level, the story weaves together the past and present, showing the fall of the main character.
While the use of Leon Lai may be so, his character is IMO an outsider necessary to unravel the mess that plagues the police department, namely the many moles inserted by Han. The introduction of a mainland Chinese element ties in nicely with the second sequel, again highlighting the fact that the affairs of Hong Kong is no longer merely its own.
And, in having watched all three films in the series, I must commend the writers/directors on how Han's character has been fully developed, and I would say his is the most fleshed out of all, barring perhaps Chan Wing Yan.I would even go so far as to argue that the plot is a cut above any other Hong Kong director/writer has produced so far, both in terms of the plot consistency and its style.
The plot of this story, if you can even call it that, was based around the desire to feature Inspector Lau Kin Ming's (Andy Lau)and Dr. Lee Sum Yee (Kelly Chen) as much as possible.
Watching Ming's character fall from grace was all good and well, but the movie left giant plot holes.
Why would Chan Wing Yan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) be willing to keep working for Hon Sam (Eric Tsang) if he was purposely set up by him?
The fact that Ming (Andy Lau) becomes schizophrenic only adds to the confusing, showing the viewer visual hallucinations when it is already quite clear that the audience already knows he has gone crazy.
3) If we assume Inspector/SP Yeung Kam Wing (Leon Lai) is a mole then why does he try to set up Sam?
And why does he not kill Chan Wing Yan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) when he knows he is a undercover cop.
But if SP Yeung (Leon Lai) was clean we need to ask why didn't Chan Wing Yan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) turn to them to clear his name in IF1?
2) In IF1 we assume that the little girl at his funeral is Chan Wing Yan's (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) daughter.