Cold War 2 could give you cold feet, because it ain’t anything close to Infernal Affairs

When Cold War (寒战) came out in 2012, it took Asia by storm: no one had expected it to be compared with Infernal Affairs, which is no doubt one of the most successful Hong Kong movies ever. Winning nine awards at the 32nd Hong Kong Film Awards, including best film, it set a high standard for its successor, Cold War 2 (寒战2), which has been publicized quite intensively everywhere.

Having broken the box office record in Hong Kong by taking in HK$5.41 million on its debut day, its popularity is also reflected in Singapore: on the opening weekend, almost all cinemas were full, packed with the young and the old. Not bad for a Hong Kong film.

But of course, the stars-stubbed cast play a part: it features forever-young Aaron Kwok, veteran actor Tony Leung and fans’ favourite Chow Yun-fat. But with high expectations, the heavyweights need more than just their names to make it a success, but unfortunately, it didn’t live up to it.

The superstars, nevertheless, put up a performance that show why they’re so respected despite age catching up: Aaron Kwok plays the charming Sean Lau, Hong Kong Police Commissioner (i.e. head of the police) who looks twenty-five despite the actor being fifty years old, Tong Leung plays a retired police officer who is obviously still torn between justice and ________ (not going to give spoilers!) and Chow Yun-fat plays a legislator who delivers much of the punch. Without them, this film would have gone nowhere.

The premise of the film is, in all honesty, brilliant: like its predecessor, the movie is like a chess game, with Aaron Kwok against Tony Leung again, and an undecided Chow Yun-fat who would eventually join one of them. What works is the greater conspiracy that’ll make the audience go, “Oh, that’s so unpredictable!”. To use an analogy, it’s like a chess game that you soon realize one of them isn’t playing to win—but to achieve something even more than mere victory.

But what disappoints me is the way the chess is played: the pieces are set out nicely in the first thirty minutes, and then the conspiracy is unfolded in the next thirty minutes, leading to think, “This is one heck of a movie”, and finally, the game ended—without telling us how the pieces were moved.

Infernal Affairs manages to keep the audience glued to the seats due to the cat-and-mouse + chess game between Andy Lau and Tony Leung that is shown thoroughly—who can forget how each of them flaws each other’s plan? But in Cold War 2, we merely get to see the results, leading me to ask for more even when the movie ends.

The movie is going to be a trilogy, and if so, I hope it’ll just be yet another Infernal Affairs trilogy: the first is A*, the second is D and the third is once again A*. You know, like the Matrix trilogy as well.

Cold War 2 is in cinemas now. Check out the showtimes here.

This article was first published on goodyfeed.com