Infernal Affairs

Chan Wing-yan, a police officer, goes undercover into an organized crime triad; only his direct superior, Superintendent Wong, is aware of his mission and true identity. Around the same time, Lau Kin-ming, a triad member, infiltrates the Hong Kong Police Force on the orders of a powerful gang boss, Hon Sam. Each mole has been planted by the rival organisation to gain an advantage over the other side. Over the course of ten years, Chan experiences great stress from his undercover work while Lau quickly rises through the ranks in the police department.

Using Morse code, Chan is able to relay data back to the police. However, Lau alerts Sam, giving him enough time to order his minions to dispose of the evidence. After the incident, both Wong and Sam are tasked with finding the moles in their respective organization.

Wong intends to pull Chan out of undercover work for fear of his safety. However, Wong is caught by Sam's men and is killed when he is thrown off a building, having refused to reveal Chan despite a beating from the gangsters.

Through this incident, Lau retrieves Wong's cell phone and contacts Chan; both of them agree to foil a drug deal by Sam. The plan succeeds and many of Sam's men are arrested, while Lau betrays Sam and murders him. Everything seems to have returned to normal. However, back at police headquarters, Chan discovers that Lau was the mole and leaves immediately.

Chan and Lau meet on the same rooftop where Wong was killed earlier. Chan disarms Lau and holds a pistol to his head as a rebuke to Lau's plea for forgiveness and request to remain a cop. Inspector B arrives on the scene shortly and orders Chan to release Lau. Chan holds Lau as a hostage at gunpoint and backs into the lift, but upon moving his head from behind Chan is suddenly shot in the head by B, who then reveals to Lau that he is also a mole planted by Hon. As they take the lift down to the lobby, Lau kills B out of his desire to eradicate traces of his past, become a "good guy" cop, and end the mole hunt. Stepping out of the lift, Lau shows his identity card to the police to identify himself as one of them.

Months after Chan's death, his psychiatrist Lee discovers records revealing Chan's true identity as an undercover police officer; B becomes a scapegoat for Lau as the real mole in the police force and the case is closed. Lau salutes Chan at his funeral. A flashback reaffirms the point at which Lau wished he had taken a different route in life.

(As Mainland China and Malaysia have restrictions that villains should be punished in the end, another ending is broadcast that Lau is announced that his identity has been uncovered and is arrested as the police arrive, which would make the plots incoherent with the sequels.)

• Andy Lau as Senior Inspector Lau Kin-ming (劉健明), Hon's mole in the police force.
  • Edison Chen as young Lau Kin-ming
• Tony Leung as Chan Wing-yan (陳永仁), an undercover cop in Hon's triad.
  • Shawn Yue as young Chan Wing-yan
• Anthony Wong as Superintendent Wong Chi-shing (黃志誠), Chan's superior.
• Eric Tsang as Hon Sam (韓琛), the triad boss and main antagonist.
• Chapman To as "Silly" Keung (傻強), Hon's henchman.
• Gordon Lam as Inspector B (大B; Big B), Lau's subordinate who is also a mole in the police force.
• Sammi Cheng as Mary, Lau's fiancée.
• Kelly Chen as Lee Sum-yee (李心兒), Chan's psychiatrist.
• Berg Ng as Senior Inspector Cheung (張Sir), Wong's subordinate.
• Wan Chi-keung as Officer Leung (梁Sir), the chief superintendent of the internal affairs department.
• Dion Lam as Del Piero, Hon's henchman.
• Elva Hsiao as May, Chan's ex-girlfriend.

Infernal Affairs garnered mainly positive reviews from film critics and audiences. Feedback for the film has been overwhelmingly positive, with an approval rating of 94% on review website Rotten Tomatoes. The website's critical consensus remarks the film as, "Smart and engrossing, this is one of Hong Kong's better cop thrillers"[3] While an overwhelming majority of viewers praised the film, a few film critics complained of the generic and forgettable plot-line.[4] With regard to film's overall design, movie critics point that the moral dilemmas and emotional elements of the film were the main attributions that transformed the “somewhat unoriginal plot” into a success .[5]

The film received a score of 75 on the critical aggregator website Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[6]

Within Infernal Affairs, cinematographers Andrew Lau and Lai Yiu-fai rely heavily on cinematic techniques in order to convey flashbacks, scene changes, and dialogues respectively. Flashbacks are found throughout the film to reference the origin of relationships and the side the characters stand on.[10] Flashbacks create some delicate details at the same time and these details can create implicit meaning directors wants to indicate. For example, the flashback before Hon Sam died indicate the master‘s prophecy to him that “What millions died that Caesar might be great”. And flashback when Chan wing-yan see the portfolio which he write a word on it for his friends on place of Liu, indicate Liu is the mole.[11]Scene changes are often made through the use of jump cuts, freeze-frame shots, and fade outs. Whereas dialogues within the film are often captured by close-ups. The importance of jump cuts provides the effect of jumping forwards in time, and manipulating the duration of a single-shot, therefore moving the audience forward into time and establishing the next scene.[12] In addition, the use of freeze-frame shots provides the illusion that the action has ceased, establishing an important moment of the film. This provides characters the time for internal dialogue and leave an iconic lasting image.[13] Fade outs provides the audience the understanding and indicates that a period of time has passed during the film.[14] The use of close-ups establishes the character's face through the use of zooming in to heightens the actor's ability and empowers emotions in a film scene.[15] Besides, can make viewers agree with the narration of film. When wong said to Hon:“Have you ever seen anyone shake hands with a dead body in funeral parlour? ” The expression of Hon is cold and bitter while smile on Wong’s face does not disappear. Clearly reveal personality of two people.[16]

The original film score for Infernal Affairs was written and performed by Chan Kwong-wing.

The theme song, Infernal Affairs (無間道), was composed by Ronald Ng, lyrics provided by Albert Leung, and performed in Cantonese and Mandarin by Andy Lau and Tony Leung.

Although not included in the soundtrack, Tsai Chin's (蔡琴) song "Forgotten Times" (《被遺忘的時光》) features prominently in this film as a recurring element of its storyline, and also in its sequels. As well as serving to elucidate the theme of the films, the song plays an important plot function in chronologically connecting various elements of the story. The (a capella) song can be first heard when Chen and Lau meet in a store, as they are analyzing hi-fi equipment.

Lau and Chan bond while listening to a recording of Tsai Chin singing “Forgotten Times”, and the song was played several times throughout the entire Trilogy. The song "invokes a memorable yet irretrievable past that immerses both characters in a nostalgic and slightly melancholic atmosphere,"[19] It helps to set up key aural motifs in later association with both Marys (the loves of Lau’s life), Chan’s “tapping”, and references to “forgotten” times. Chan’s tapping is the Morse code used to communicate with his superior Wong, and an action that is mentioned in the song’s lyrics. The forgotten times refers to the “film’s repeated use of flashbacks to the police academy and the triad initiation ceremony” as a forgotten memory that haunt both protagonists. In addition to that, the first sentence of the song asks the key question of “who”是谁? – echoing the main theme of the trilogy with questions of identity.

With star power, visual allure and an engaging script, Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s Infernal Affairs /《無間道》(2002) did very well critically and financially, spawned two sequels and a television series, and attracted the attention of Hollywood.[32] In 2003, Brad Pitt's production company Plan B Entertainment acquired the rights for a Hollywood remake, named The Departed, which was directed by Martin Scorsese, and starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg, set in Boston, Massachusetts, roughly based on the life of famed Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger. The Departed was released on 6 October 2006 and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Andrew Lau, the co-director of Infernal Affairs, who was interviewed by Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, said: "Of course I think the version I made is better, but the Hollywood version is pretty good too. [Scorsese] made the Hollywood version more attuned to American culture." Andy Lau,[33] one of the main actors in Infernal Affairs, when asked how the movie compares to the original, said: "The Departed was too long and it felt as if Hollywood had combined all three Infernal Affairs movies together."[34] Lau pointed out that the remake featured some of the "golden quotes" of the original but did have much more swearing. He ultimately rated The Departed 8/10 and said that the Hollywood remake is worth a view, though according to Lau's spokeswoman Alice Tam, he felt that the combination of the two female characters into one in The Departed was not as good as the original storyline.[35]

Lau, Tsang, and Cheung parodied the cinema scene to promote the Hong Kong Film Awards. Lau and Tsang, in their respective characters, go through the scene where they meet to gather info on the undercover cop amongst Hon Sam's gang. Lau Kin-ming asks Hon "Why do we always meet in a cinema?", to which Hon answers "It's quiet. No one comes to movies". Cheung comes out from the shadows behind them and says "I don't know...quite a few people watch movies" and we see a slew of Hong Kong celebrities watching various clips of Hong Kong films on the screen. Originally Tony Leung was going to appear but scheduling conflicts led to the recasting.

The 2003 TVB spoof celebrating the Chinese New Year called Mo Ba To (吐氣羊眉賀新春之無霸道), the 2004 comedy film Love Is a Many Stupid Thing by Wong Jing, and the 2004 TVB television drama Shades of Truth were re-writings based on the plot of the film.

In Taiwan SHODA (劉裕銘) and a secondary school student Blanka (布蘭卡) cut and rearranged the original film and inserted new sound tracks to produce their videos Infernal Affairs CD pro2 and Infernal Affairs iPod on the web. The videos had many views and both producers removed their videos after receiving cease and desist letters from the Group Power Workshop Limited (群體工作室), the Taiwan distributor of the film.[36]

Media Asia released a limited edition of eight-DVD set of the Infernal Affairs trilogy in an Ultimate Collectible Boxset (無間道終極珍藏DVD系列(8DVD套裝)) on 20 December 2004. Features included an online game and two Chinese fictional novels of the film series by Lee Muk-Tung (李牧童), titled 無間道I+II小說 ISBN 962-672-259-2 and 無間道III終極無間小說 ISBN 962-672-271-1.

The hi-fi shop scene was later recreated with additions of excerpts of the film to encourage businesses to join the Quality Tourism Services Scheme in Hong Kong.[37]

In 2009, a Korean remake City of Damnation, which was directed by Kim Dong-won was released on 22 January 2009.[38] In 2009, a Telugu remake Homam, which directed and acted by JD Chakravarthy along with Jagapathi Babu was released and became a notable movie.[39][40] In 2012, Double Face (ダブルフェイス), a Japanese television remake starring Hidetoshi Nishijima was released by TBS and WOWOW.[41] The production aired in two parts: "Police Impersonation" on WOWOW and "Undercover" on TBS.

A TV series remake debuted in 2018 produced by Media Asia and former TVB producer Tommy Leung. The series, which is titled Infernal Affairs like the film, stars Gallen Lo, Damian Lau, Paul Chun, Lo Hoi-pang, Eric Tsang, Derek Kok, Dominic Lam, Toby Leung and Yuen Biao.[42] The TV series uses the same concept as the film, but with an entirely new story and characters, and the setting expanded beyond Hong Kong to include Thailand and Shezhen. It stretched through three seasons with each season consisting of 12 episodes.[43]

A Hindi remake is in progress and is produced by Mumbai-based production Azure Entertainment and Warner Bros India[44]

The success of the film inspired many genres, including an open-world video game from United Front Games titled Sleeping Dogs (or True Crime: Hong Kong before canceled by Activision Blizzard in 2011),[45] with the protagonist of the story infiltrating the criminal underworld as an undercover police.

As the sociopolitical context of post‐millennial Hong Kong cinema is also the sociopolitical context of post‐1997 Hong Kong, it would be remiss not to acknowledge the echo of sociopolitical events. The year 1997 marked not only an important date in seeing the last bastions of colonialism being dismantled, but it also saw the emergence of a new relationship between the leadership of Hong Kong and China. After 150 years of British rule since 1841, Hong Kong was finally returned to and reunited with mainland China under a One Country, Two Systems arrangement.[46] Post‐millennial gangster films allow filmmakers to re‐contextualize Hong Kong and the gangster genre under Chinese rule. As we can see particularly in Infernal Affairs, it shows how the individual follows the rule in the hierarchy and maintain their relationship between groups in a systematic way. Within this context, filmmakers have located the post‐millennial gangster film as part of this wider political‐criminal social network. As a result, the selected films revise generic tropes by repudiating the idea of the romantic gangster and tragic anti‐hero by showing how they are drafted as part of a larger political‐criminal relationship.[47]

The movie as part of cultural production, it stands to reason that Hong Kong cinema reflects certain elements of Chinese culture. Infernal Affairs (2002) not only shows the power struggle of gangs is but also shows how society organizes itself in cultural production. Although the selected films do not explicitly espouse Confucian ethics, they nonetheless figure in the background in terms of familial ties, respecting traditions, and awareness of one’s place in a social hierarchy.[48]

The Chinese philosopher Confucius (孔夫子) thought that through ritual observance, the stability of the relative powers would generate a harmonious society where everyone has a specific role and place in society with certain relationship duties to fulfill. These relationships were (1) ruler and subject; (2) father and son; (3) elder brother and younger brother; (4) husband and wife; and (5) friend and friend. All feature the authority of one person over another except the relationship between friends. Along this chain, each person has to obey and respect “superiors” and in turn owes loving responsibility to his inferiors. [49]

• Infernal Affairs film series
• Cinema of Hong Kong
• List of Hong Kong films
• Andy Lau filmography
• List of films featuring surveillance
• List of films set in Hong Kong

• Infernal Affairs on IMDb
• Infernal Affairs at Box Office Mojo
• Infernal Affairs at Rotten Tomatoes
• Infernal Affairs at Metacritic