The packaging is handsome but also quite cumbersome. The 8 discs are stored in 7 separate keepcases (both discs of the miniseries fit in the same case). Honestly, there's no need for this; they could have saved a lot of space by putting the 8 discs into 4 double cases instead. The keepcases are all held in a little shrine, which is then covered by a hard plastic shell. The whole thing goes into a black bubble-wrap cocoon and then is settled into an oversized cardboard box. It looks very impressive on the shelf, but it's a real pain to take an individual disc out when you want to watch one. I believe the box and bubble-wrap are meant to be discarded, but the box has some nice artwork on it and I can't imagine throwing it away.

The 8-disc set is limited, but at the time of this writing is still available from several internet retailers. Media Asia is planning a different 6-disc package for later this year that will contain the three movies and supplements but no miniseries re-cut. The packaging states that the discs are coded for Region 3 playback only, but in fact the discs are all-region NTSC formatted and will function in any American DVD player.

Be wary of the many mainland China DVD releases from Zoke Culture, which are known to be lesser quality and only contain a Mandarin dub soundtrack, with no option for the original Cantonese audio.

Video:
The individual DVD releases for each movie were pretty good, but the video transfers have been cleaned up a little for the new box set. All three movies are presented in approximately 2.35:1 widescreen with anamorphic enhancement; I say "approximately" because there are slight but measurable variances from one movie to the next, which become more noticeable in the re-cut version.

The first movie is very sharp with excellent detail and only minimal edge enhancement artifacts. Some grainy shots against the sky look a little noisy and digital, and there are some other minor compression flaws, but on the whole it's a nice-looking image. Colors and black level are very well represented, though the contrast level seems a little hot. Pure white objects such as the shirt that Sam wears in the opening scene bloom and exhibit some white crush. This seems to be a stylistic choice, however, as it looked exactly the same on the original DVD release. In direct comparison to the old DVD, the new disc has less edge enhancement and slightly richer colors and blacks. More importantly, the dirt and other print artifacts that were sporadically visible before have been completely cleaned up. It's not perfect, but it's still very nice indeed.

The second movie is the least visually appealing. It has a darker and softer photographic style, and as transferred to disc looks a little dupey and overly processed. It still looks fine overall, but is a small step down from the other two movies. The last movie has the slickest photography and the least digital compression flaws in its DVD transfer. The image appears superficially sharp at first glance, but lacks fine detail upon closer examination. Still, I have few serious complaints, and fans should be pleased with the transfers for all three movies.

Sound:
All three movies offer the same audio options. The original Cantonese language soundtracks are available in Dolby Digital-EX 5.1 or DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 mixes (the old discs had Dolby and DTS as well, but in the standard 5.1 variety). The DTS options are full bit-rate 1509 kb/s tracks and sound amazing. The first movie, especially, is a terrific show-off piece. It has a full-bore action movie soundtrack with pounding deep bass, dramatic shocking crashes, and awesome gunfights. Even the music is extremely directional and pieces of the score will float across the entire rear soundstage. It's a fantastically dimensional, enveloping mix.

The Dolby Digital is fine too, but hot damn the fidelity of that DTS track is terrific.

Parts II and III are very good as well, even if they don't pack the same punch. Since both sequels were produced back-to-back, the sound mixes feel a little rushed and not as refined as the original, but are still plenty good and can knock you out when they want to.

Mandarin dub tracks are also provided in Dolby Digital 5.1. Subtitle options include English as well as both Traditional and Simplified Chinese. The English translation is very good with no major flubs.

Extras:
The one downside of this deluxe package is that the bonus features are a clear matter of quantity over quality. Although there are a great many items to list, few of them are particularly substantive, and of those even fewer offer any English translation.

To start, I should mention that almost all of the supplements from the original 2-disc sets have been directly ported over. In fact, discs 4 and 6 of this set are 100% identical to the supplement discs for their respective movies (save for the artwork printed on them). Only the first movie has new bonus items devoted to it. Two important features found on the earlier sets are now missing. I will get to that as I tackle each disc in order:

Disc 1

The first disc contains, obviously enough, the first movie. An audio commentary by the cast and crew is available in Cantonese, sadly without any English translation, making it useless for most non-Chinese viewers.

Missing: The original DVD offered the ability to watch the first movie in either its theatrical cut or with an alternate ending. For the new set, that alternate footage is only available as a supplement on the second disc. This isn't a huge loss, as the alternate ending stank anyway and contradicts the events of the sequels. There's no good reason to watch the whole movie through just to get to it.

Disc 2

The second disc contains a mix of both old content recycled from the original DVD and brand new content, conveniently identified on separate menu pages. Of the recycled content, we have:

• The Story - A plot summary in both English and Chinese.
• Confidential File - Approximately 9 minutes of Electronic Press Kit behind-the-scenes footage and outtakes. No English subtitles are offered, but none are really needed to get the gist of what's going on, which mostly consists of the crew joking around on set.
• Music Video - In either Cantonese or Mandarin options.
• Making Of - A 16-minute featurette, unfortunately with no English subtitles. The whole piece is also available broken into 4 segments for the "Shot Version" (sic).
• Trailers - Available are 2 theatrical trailers and 1 TV spot, plus a trailer for the second movie.
• Cast & Credits - Filmographies in both English and Chinese text.
• Photo Gallery - Stills include lobby cards, posters, billboards, banners, and a host of souvenir items such as collectible keychains, games, and umbrellas.

• Unseen Footage - 23 minutes of outtakes and deleted scenes, some with no audio. No English subtitles are available.
• Interviews - 15 minutes worth, again with no English subtitles.
• Storyboard Comparison - This lasts 23 minutes, with a multi-angle option allowing you to toggle between the movie scene, the storyboards, and a side-by-side comparison. No subtitles really needed for this.
• Alternate Ending - The footage from the 30-second alternate ending is presented on its own, rather than as part of the movie. Unfortunately, no subtitles are offered (the old DVD had them), but the scene is pretty straightforward even without translation.
• Retouched vs. Original Comparisons - 7 still-frame examples of the clean-up work done for the new video transfer.
• Box Set Advertising Magazine - This appears to be a 10 minute long EPK promo for the DVD box set. Only Chinese subtitles are offered.

• Japan Press Conference - 15 minutes of untranslated interviews.
• Japan Premiere - 18 minutes of footage from the gala event. No subtitles.
• Japan Interviews - Still no English subtitles. This segment runs 37 minutes.
• Japan Theatrical Trailer - The video quality is quite poor.
• Japan TV Spots - 2 television commercials and 1 video release spot.
• Korea - Here were have 5 untranslated minutes of Korean EPK material.
• Worldwide Poster Collection - A number of stills of international poster art.

The second movie also has an audio commentary by the cast and crew, again without English translation (though this time Traditional and Simplified Chinese subtitles are offered for the commentary).

Disc 4

Disc 4 is completely identical to the supplement disc available on the old DVD. Annoyingly, the disc starts up with a commercial for camera phones. Fortunately, the commercial is skippable. The selection of bonus features will seem familiar if you've watched those for the first movie:

• The Story - Another plot summary in both English and Chinese.
• Deleted Scenes - 4 scenes are available, none with subtitles.
• Confidential File - Approximately 6 minutes of EPK behind-the-scenes footage and outtakes. No English subtitles are offered, but again none are really needed.
• Making Of - Finally, a supplement with English subtitles. This 22-minute featurette is more about the film's story than the production, but is fairly informative and worthwhile.
• Trailers - 3 theatrical trailers and 2 TV spots are provided, plus a trailer for the third movie.
• Music Video - This is just laughably bad.
• Cast & Credits - Filmographies in both English and Chinese text.
• Photo Gallery - Stills for lobby cards and posters.

The fifth disc has no supplements at all, not even a commentary. I guess the cast and crew said all they had to say over the first two movies. The original DVD didn't have a commentary either.

Missing: The old DVD offered the choice of watching the last movie in either its 107-minute Theatrical Cut or a 118-minute Director's Cut. The new disc does not allow that choice. It contains only the longer Director's Cut. I suppose more is better and we shouldn't complain.

Disc 6

Once again, the supplement disc is a direct port of that available on the original DVD release. Unfortunately, it also begins with a forced commercial, this time for Saab, and worse this one is not skippable. I recommend hitting STOP and then MENU to bypass it. The bonus material for the third movie is a little skimpier as well:

• The Story - Another plot summary.
• Making Of - We're back to no English subtitles on the making-of featurette, for some reason. This one lasts 12 minutes.
• Trailers - 3 theatrical trailers and 1 TV spots are available, plus a couple of random trailer for the unrelated movies.
• Music Video - Another stinker.
• Cast & Credits - Filmographies in both English and Chinese text.
• Photo Gallery - Once more, stills for lobby cards and posters.

Discs 7 & 8

Here we come to the real meat of box set's bonus features, the 5-hour consolidated miniseries edit of all three films. Very similar to what had once been done to the Godfather films for TV syndication, all three movies were completely re-edited so that their scenes run in chronological order. Since the movies were not originally designed to be watched that way, this does lead to some jumpy transitions where it is obvious that not enough connective scenes were filmed for every storyline. However, truth be told, many of the events from the second movie make clearer sense when you watch them in this order.

I would not choose to make this the default method for watching the trilogy (several of the flashbacks from the third movie contain on-screen text spoilers for later events, such as "7 Days Before…", assuming you've already seen those parts in the first two movies). For those who are already familiar with the storyline, though, it's a fascinating reworking of the material and is worth watching at least once.

The miniseries footage is all taken from the same anamorphic video transfers as the movies themselves, and offers the same choices in Dolby Digital or DTS audio with English or Chinese subtitles (both Traditional and Simplified). Frustratingly, you are forced to go through the entire menu system and set-up options when watching the second half of the program on the last disc.

Final Thoughts:
Most of the bonus features may not amount to anything exciting (hardly any of them even offer English translation), but the Infernal Affairs Trilogy box set contains three outstanding movies with great video and audio transfers, a fascinating miniseries re-edit of the entire storyline, and very fancy packaging. This limited edition set is destined to become a collector's item. Its price tag may be off-putting to casual fans (who are advised to seek out the separate releases for each film), but the package is well deserving of the highest DVDTalk Collector Series rating.