If the first film was a sleek thriller and the second a grand Shakespearean tragedy, Infernal Affairs III (2003)
The film opens ten months after the death of Lau Kin-ming (Andy Lau). For the uninitiated: Lau is the mole inside the police force, a triad plant who successfully erased his identity and killed his handler to become the "hero" who stopped the super-spy Chan Wing-yan (Tony Leung). But in cinema, as in life, peace is the scariest drug. Infernal Affairs III
Visually, the film moves away from the gritty blues and greens of the original, opting for a colder, more sterile aesthetic that reflects the clinical nature of the Internal Affairs department. The editing is fast-paced, often cutting between timelines within the same scene to show the "echoes" of Chan’s actions affecting Lau’s present reality. If the first film was a sleek thriller
