It was great to see Francis Ng's tour de force performance in Infernal Affairs II. Really great to see an actor's coming-of-age. The intricacies of his character was handled with great sensitivity.
I thought the casting of Mainland actor, Jun Hu, as Luk as was rather odd at first. While he played his part well alongside Anthony Wong, his lines had to be dubbed into Cantonese. Then when I looked the company credits I realised IA 2 was a co-production between HK and the Mainland. Having Hu (and Dao-Ming Chen in IA 3) in one of the leading roles was perhaps a commercial decision (for the Mainland market) or a requirement of the co-production deal with the Mainland co-producer.
While the younger version of Yan and Lau did not quite live up to the very high standard set by Tong Leung and Andy Lau in IA 1, IA 2 was more than salvaged (or excelled IA 1 some might say) by the best ensemble performance that Hong Kong had to offer by Eric Tsang, Anthony Wong, Francis Ng and Carina Lau.
I thought the casting of Mainland actor, Jun Hu, as Luk as was rather odd at first. While he played his part well alongside Anthony Wong, his lines had to be dubbed into Cantonese. Then when I looked the company credits I realised IA 2 was a co-production between HK and the Mainland. Having Hu (and Dao-Ming Chen in IA 3) in one of the leading roles was perhaps a commercial decision (for the Mainland market) or a requirement of the co-production deal with the Mainland co-producer.
While the younger version of Yan and Lau did not quite live up to the very high standard set by Tong Leung and Andy Lau in IA 1, IA 2 was more than salvaged (or excelled IA 1 some might say) by the best ensemble performance that Hong Kong had to offer by Eric Tsang, Anthony Wong, Francis Ng and Carina Lau.