Infernal Affairs Iii Access

Rating: ★★★½ (Solid/Very Good)

Picking up almost immediately after the shattering ending of the first film, we follow Inspector Lau Kin-ming (Andy Lau). Haunted by guilt and paranoia, he is now lauded as a hero for dismantling the triads, but he is living a lie. The story interweaves two timelines: the present day (roughly 2003) where Lau tries to bury his past as a mole, and a flashback to 1991, showing the uneasy partnership between Lau and the late gang boss Sam (Eric Tsang), as well as his first, chilling encounters with the unstable Superintendent Yeung (Leon Lai). Infernal Affairs III

The Infernal Affairs trilogy occupies a rare space in cinema. The first film is a masterpiece of cat-and-mouse tension. The second is a Shakespearean prequel tragedy. The third... is a psychotropic puzzle box. Infernal Affairs III does not give fans the simple, cathartic victory lap they might have expected. Instead, writers Alan Mak and Felix Chong, who also directs, deliver a dense, non-linear character study that prioritizes psychological disintegration over plot propulsion. The Infernal Affairs trilogy occupies a rare space in cinema