7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Flashing back in time, Infernal Affairs II traces the tangled parallel histories that bind the trilogy's two pairs of adversaries: the young, dueling moles and the ascendant crime boss and police inspector whose respective rises reveal a shocking hidden connection.
Starring: Edison Chen, Shawn Yue, Anthony Chau-Sang Wong, Eric Tsang, Francis NgForeign | 100% |
Drama | 67% |
Crime | 29% |
Thriller | 1% |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Cantonese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Alan Mak and Andrew Lau's "Infernal Affairs II" (2003) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the release include archival audio commentary; deleted scenes and bloopers; archival audio commentary; and more. In Cantonese, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Infernal Affairs II arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.
The following text appears inside the booklet that is provided with this Blu-ray release:
"These 4K digital restorations (for the three films) were undertaken by Media Asia from the 35mm original camera negatives at L'Immagine Ritrovata's facilities in Bologna, Italy, and Hong Kong. The original 5.1 surround soundtracks were remastered from the digital audio master files.
Transfer supervision: L'Immagine Ritrovata, Asia, Hong Kong.
Color grading: One Cool Production."
The technical presentation of the second film has the exact same issues that I highlighted in our review of the first film. This means that the second film looks softer than it should as well. I spent more time today testing it on my TV and then projecting it and now I am very comfortable stating that the softening and flattening of the visuals were initiated during the color grading. So, once the native dynamic range of the visuals was destabilzied, sharpness, clarity, and delineation were immediately impacted as well. For example, a lot of the areas where the whites are toned down or even replaced by creamy yellows reveal that familiar digital gray flatness. You can see obvious examples in screencaptures #2 and 23. But even in darker footage, where light could be restricted in unique ways, the effect(s) of the destabilizing of the native dynamic range of the visuals are easy to observe (see screencapture #1). There is still plenty of detail and depth, but the new 4K makeover does things that clearly alter the original theatrical appearance of the film. Also, on this release, some of the darker areas could have benefited from encoding optimizations as well, though I have to make it clear that the gray that ultimately softens the visuals has a digital origin and produces anomalies on the 4K master. (To understand how improper grading can dramatically destabilize the native dynamic range of a film/visuals and introduce unnatural softness, take a look at the 2K restoration of Wake Up and Kill, which had two very different presentations on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom and Germany. This release retained the color grade that was prepared in the lab where the film was restored. This release was sourced from the exact same restored master but was regraded to recover the native dynamic range of the visuals). Image stability is excellent. The entire film looks spotless as well. My score is 3.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.
While viewing the film, I did not encounter any anomalies to report in our review. The dialog was very clear, sharp, and easy to follow. There were no stability issues. Dynamic intensity was excellent, but this shouldn't be surprising considering that Infernal Affairs II was completed in 2003. The English translation is outstanding.
Even though this three-disc set has the best technical presentation of Infernal Affairs II, it is not a perfect technical presentation. Like the first film in the Infernal Affairs trilogy, the second film has been regraded and there are some very familiar issues on the 4K makeover. Now, each of the three films has a lot of unique stylizing and as a result many of the changes could be easy to ignore, but this is not an ideal situation and trained eyes will spot the issues that were introduced during the color grading process. To be honest, just like Police Story and Police Story II, the three Infernal Affairs films should have been treated better. RECOMMENDED.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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