The Kingdom of Shadows

Can we assume that there's some truth to what the film dork in Scream 2 said, that trilogies are good but sequels suck? If so, no matter what people say, Infernal Affairs III gets the short end of the stick.

The plot in itself is decent. The bad guy from the first film is slowly being hedged in by under-cover agents at the police station, and its coordinated with some sort of fun Hong Kong - Mainland intrigue. Like the second film, but not the first one, the plot is a bit convoluted, which works for this film, because unlike the second film, it uses the same actors as the original.

My problem with this film is that the film does not fit in to the overall message of the first film, and therefore comes across as something of a shameless ploy to make money off a brilliant film. The first film was an ironic tragedy, that was perfectly structured as a Buddhist parable. The second one was entertaining but nonsensical eye candy that did little damage to the first film because it had fairly little relationship to the first film. This film unfortunately added to the first film by taking a tragic ending with a beautiful message (that there is such a thing as a 'horror of living'), and changing to the cliched message that bad people eventually get their due, which is a horrendous debauchery of poetry (I feel silly saying that, but its true).

I do though honestly think that this film is worth watching, just not as a sequel, and the connection to the first film should be minimized in ones head. The convolutions of the plot are quite entertaining to watch, and it is an entertaining film in that Hong Kong type way. Not to mention that Andy Lau and Tony Leung are monstrously good actors.

Infernal Affairs was a great movie that will hopefully still be watched decades or centuries now, Infernal Affairs III is a decent Hong Kong flick to be watched for entertainment.