ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ

A cash-in prequel rushed into production after the sleeper success of the original, Infernal Affairs 2 has two major problems: the absence of stars Andy Lau and Tony Leung. Set in the years leading up to the first movie, it casts Hong Kong pop singers Shawn Yue and Edison Chen - who starred in the original's flashback scenes - as the youthful alter-egos of undercover cop Yan and underworld mole Ming. Confused? Well, that's only the start of this disappointingly pointless thriller's convoluted plotting.

"HEADACHE-INDUCING"

Be sure to neck a couple of Aspirin before approaching this array of shifting allegiances, cul-de-sac subplots, and torturous double bluffs, because it's a headache-inducing ride. Taking place against the backdrop of Hong Kong's handover - in which one nation suddenly found itself ruled by two competing systems, communism and capitalism (see what they did there?) - this ups the schizophrenic ante of the original as young Yan and Ming are groomed for their roles as Triad infiltrator and bent copper.

While the most obvious template for the original Infernal Affairs was the identity-swapping delirium of John Woo's Face/Off, the prequel has much grander ambitions. Overdosing on the operatic score and explosive bloodletting, co-directors Andrew Lau and Alan Mak appear to be less interested in out-Wooing Woo than in drawing explicit parallels with The Godfather trilogy. It's just a shame that noodles make a poor substitute for spaghetti.

With actors Yue and Chen proving no match for the kinetic thesping of Leung and Lau, this frequently feels like a fiendishly complicated game of Guess Who?, where the audience is forced to try and remember which A-list star is being played by which B-list wannabe. Trapping us in a logic-defying maze of plot and character shifts, it really is an infernal affair.

In Cantonese with English subtitles.