After the surprise success of Cantonese cop drama Infernal Affairs, directors Andrew Lau and Alan Mak quickly signed on for a sequel. But while Infernal Affairs 2 bills itself as the Asian answer to The Godfather, it turns out that "noodles make a poor substitute for spaghetti". The story follows an undercover cop (Shawn Yue) and an underworld mole (Edison Chen) through a maze of murder and deception so dizzying you could forget your own name.

Cooking Your Noodle

"If I tell you the whole plot," says actor Anthony Wong, "there would be no point in seeing the film." And so it's left to the rest of the cast (directors are absent) to try and explain the convoluted story in a 20-minute Behind The Scenes featurette. Still you'll be left none the wiser by this montage of superficial interview footage boasting such cutting insights as: "In this black and white world, he is the definite line... between the white and the black." Ah-hah...

Confidential File is a shorter montage of behind-the-scenes footage (set to music), which is entertaining as far as it goes, but shies away from nuts-and-bolts detail about the film's vast array of stunts. Perhaps that's because directors Andrew Lau and Alan Mak would rather you didn't know how lax their operation is. Throw your hands up in horror as a speeding car crashes into the camera - this would never happen in Hollywood!

Not Much Cop

Three deleted scenes will add little to your understanding of the plot - or lack thereof - although a sequence revolving around Cadet School Principal Yip's (Hui Kam Fung) birthday party throws some light on his dynamic with past students Yan (Shawn Yue) and Inspector Luk (Jun Hu). Overall though, Infernal Affairs 2 doesn't pack much heat on DVD.

EXTRA FEATURES

Infernal Affairs 2 (Wu Jian Dao 2) DVD is out to buy on Monday 3rd January 2005.