Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Infernal Affairs II is a great movie but it never lived up to the standards of the first one which happens to be a masterpiece. It may not be a classic but still it has a great story in it. The film focuses on the youth of both Inspector Lau and Yan as moles of the police force and criminal organization run by Sam respectively. Aside from that, it also relates the story of the rise of Sam as the triad boss and his relationship with Inspector Wong,who belongs to the police organization and is determined to bring down his crime organization. The movie was interesting in the sense that we see two young people develop differently and how they turn out to be not the person they aspire to be. Aside from that, it also presents their personal and spiritual struggles that they encounter and the burden of the responsibility they carry in their everyday lives. The movie is highly recommended for everyone who loves the first movie. The acting is great inspite of the absence of the two main stars of the first film. The direction by Andrew Lau is still wonderful.

Although this is the second film in the trilogy it is not necessary to have seen the first instalment to enjoy this, as it is a prequel. Set in the years leading up to the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China we are shown how each of the protagonists from the first film got to where they were in that film. Of course this means we know that everything will work out for them; it doesn't mean this film is without its tense moments though as there are plenty of new characters; not all of whom survive. While the two main characters from the earlier film feature prominently it is their bosses who are the protagonists this time. We see how Triad member Sam rises to the top while most of his contemporaries and seniors end up dead and policeman Inspector Wong Chi Shing manages to advance despite being implicated in a murder several years previously.While this film missed the two main stars of the first film it was still well acted and the characters were just as believable. I had been worried that it would suffer from the problem that all prequels face; namely that anybody who has seen the first film will know who will survive, amazingly this managed to convince me that at least one character who I knew should have survived died; I assumed I'd been confused about who was who till we later learnt what had happened. There is plenty of action and anybody who enjoyed the first film is likely to like this too; I'd certainly recommend it to fans of action films in general and Hong Kong films in particular.

If you get that funny feeling when watching this film that you've seen too many HK action thrillers and that you've seen this one before, it's probably true. However, you may have seen Infernal Affairs (I).Unlike many sequels which are incomprehensible unless you see all the episodes and in sequence, IF (II) does not make that assumption. Fully half or more of the film repeats IF (I) - it felt like someone took the outtakes of the earlier film and strung it together to make another film, but clearly it wasn't. IF (II) is too well made and makes sense and has continuity. It's just that if you see I or II, you needn't see the other. It's like a film school exercise - take a story and shoot it two different ways or edit it two different ways.Actually, this is much better than a sequel. It's an equal.

First I want to point out the bad point; The plot is convoluted and requires the viewing of the original and possibly its sequel, IA3 in oder to watch this one to full effect. This is definitely not a good place to start for someone who wants to watch the trilogy, the original would be better for them. I watched the original before this and that really engrossed me into the story of this one.The good points; the acting, cinematography, soundtrack.Acting; All round great performances giving each character an extra layer of depth. Shawn Yue and Edison Chen are fantastic with their understated performances. If they over played their parts it would have ruined the whole movie. The other newcomer Francis Ng also shines as the triad boss and the regulars such as Eric Tsang are brilliant like usual.Cinematography- The night time locations are used more often than the original and makes the movie all the more atmospheric.Soundtrack- I have to say it was the haunting soundtrack that made me give the movie a 9 and not an 8. The music really helps build the tension and dare I say it, nearly made me cry (I'm really macho).This isn't as good as the original but it is uniquely different which is a good thing.