Infernal Affairs
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| Infernal Affairs | |
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 Original United States theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Andrew Lau Alan Mak |
| Produced by | Andrew Lau Presented by John Chong Nansun Shi |
| Written by | Felix Chong Alan Mak |
| Starring | Tony Leung Andy Lau Anthony Wong Eric Tsang |
| Distributed by | Media Asia Distribution Ltd. (HK) Miramax Films (USA)(theatrical) The Weinstein Company (USA) (DVD) Dragon Dynasty (USA) (DVD) |
| Release date(s) | December 12, 2002 (HK) January 1, 2004 (Australia) 27 February 2004 (UK) September 24, 2004 (USA) |
| Running time | 101 min. |
| Language | Cantonese |
| Followed by | Infernal Affairs II |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Infernal Affairs (Traditional Chinese: 無間道 , Simplified Chinese: 无间道; Jyutping: mou gaan dou; Mandarin Pinyin: Wú Jiān Dào) is a 2002 Hong Kong crime-thriller film directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak. It tells the story of a police officer who infiltrates the crime gang, and a police mole secretly working for the same gang. The Chinese title means "the non-stop path", a reference to Avici, the lowest level of hell in Buddhism. The English title combines the US law enforcement term 'internal affairs' with a reference to Dante's Inferno. Due to its commercial and critical success, Infernal Affairs was followed by a prequel, Infernal Affairs II, and a sequel, Infernal Affairs III, both released in 2003.
Pre-release publicity for Infernal Affairs focused on its star-studded cast (Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, Kelly Chen and Sammi Cheng), but it later received critical acclaim for its original plot and its concise and swift storytelling style. The film did exceptionally well in Hong Kong, where it was considered "a box office miracle" and heralded as a revival of Hong Kong cinema which at the time was considered to be direly lacking in creativity.
Miramax Films acquired the United States distribution rights of this film and gave it a limited US theatrical release in 2004.
The Infernal Affairs series was then remade by Martin Scorsese in 2006 as The Departed, starring Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg. It went on to receive four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, a Best Director win for Scorcese and Best Adapted Screenplay for William Monahan at the 79th Academy Awards becoming the first and only remake of a foreign film to win Best Picture award.
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[edit] Plot
Infernal Affairs is about a cop named Chan Wing-Yan (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), who goes deep undercover into the Triad, and Triad member Lau Kin-Ming (Andy Lau Tak-Wah), who infiltrates the police department. Each mole was planted by the rival organization to gain an advantage in intelligence over the other side. The more the moles become involved in their undercover lives, the more issues they have to cope with.
The Prologue opens with the introduction of Hon Sam the primary antagonist of the film who is sending a number of gangsters and a young member named Lau Kin Ming (played by Edison Chen) as police moles. At the same time another person named Chan Wing Yan (portrayed by Shawn Yue and Tony Leung) who is joining the police force. Although he manages to impress the local SP Wong Chi Shing and the police academy leader Yip. Yip has Yan expelled from the academy. In reality Yan becomes an undercover reporting directly to only Wong and Yip. Yan's undercover job becomes stressful as his job gets harder from the years 1991 all the way to 2002 while Ming is slowly raising to become a top cop.
The film begins after Yan and Ming converse at a hi-fi store where Yan works, neither of them knowing who the other is. Shortly after Yan gives Ming the hi fi stores best equipment the store owner scolds him but Yan leaves abruptly as he claims he is attending a funeral. It is then revealed that Yip has recently died and the cause of his death is unknown in the film. Yan salutes as Yip's coffin passes by on the highway. Later a deal between Triad boss Hon Sam (Eric Tsang Chi-Wai) and a Thai cocaine dealer is interrupted by Superintendent Wong (Anthony Wong Chau-Sang) and his team due to Yan's tip-off using Morse Code. However, Ming alerted Sam of the bust with enough time for Sam to order his minions Tsui Wai Keung (Chapman To Man-Chat) and Del Piero (Dion Lam Dik-On) to dispose of the cocaine so the police would not have any real evidence on their hands. Now Wong and Sam realize that they each have moles within their respective organizations, putting them in a race against time to root out the other mole.
Later, Sam converses with Ming at a Cinema with Yan watching them. As Sam and Ming leaves, Yan tries to follow Ming but unfortunately his phone rings and he is forced to back off, thus losing his chance to bring Ming into the police department.
At the same time, Yan and Ming are both struggling with their double identity. Yan was starting to lose faith in himself as a cop after being a gangster for ten years; while Ming, on the other hand, becomes more and more used to the life of a righteous police officer and wants to erase his criminal background.
Later Yan meets SP Wong a second time on the same rooftop unaware that Ming has his subordinate, CIB Inspector B (Gordon Lam Ka-Tung) and his team tracking him down. Sam sends Keung, Del Piero and a gang of henchmen to confront him. Inspector B informs Ming and sends an OCTB squad to attempt to save Wong. Yan eventually escapes the building by taking the crane but Wong is caught by Del Piero and thrown off the roof. As Yan is about to escape, he witnesses Wong fall to his death, and is stunned. As the police close in, Keung, unaware that Yan had a meeting with Wong, evacuates him while a shootout between the police and Triads breaks out, resulting in the death of 3 Triads, one of whom is Del Piero. In the aftermaht of the gunfight, the OCTB squad arrives with Ming, Inspector B and Wong's second in command Inspector Cheung Ng (Berg Ng Ting-Yip) on the scene to remove Wong's body. As Keung drives away with Yan, he crashes the car, finding that he himself is wounded from the gun battle, and dies in Yan's arms.
Eventually, Ming retrieves Wong's old phone and makes contact with Yan, and together they foil a triad drug-deal with Inspector Cheung Ng who at first does not want to cooperative with the operation because of Wong's death but eventually changes his mind. The van with which Cheung and his team are using to track Sam is called off, so that Sam can drive to his warehouse, where the deal will be taking place, undisturbed. Yan, however, Morse codes the location of the warehouse to Ming, where the deal is then intercepted. As Sam tries to escape, he is eventually killed by Ming. Everything seems to work according to the plan: Yan could now return to his true identity as a police officer and Ming has successfully erased his criminal connections by eradicating Sam and his gangs. However, back at the police station, Yan discovers Ming was the mole, and leaves immediately. Ming realises what has happened, and erases Yan's identity from the police computer records. Yan spends an evening with his therapist Lee (Kelly Chen), who he was falling in love with, and sends a compact disc to Ming's wife Mary (Sammi Cheng Sau-Man) with a recording that Sam kept between himself and Ming. The two agree to meet on the rooftop of the building where Wong was murdered earlier. Yan manages to disarm Ming and holds a gun to his head. Inspector B arrives on the scene shortly afterwards and threatens Yan.
The film ends with Yan entering a lift backwards with Ming hostage, when he is suddenly shot in the head and killed by Inspector B as he moved his head from behind Ming. Inspector B reveals that he was also a mole for the triads. He asks Ming for future protection and benefits since he is the only one who knows his true identity. As he and Ming enter the lift going down to the lobby, Ming shoots him dead thus ensuring his identity remains a secret.
The original ending climaxes with Ming identifying himself to the police as an officer, and paying homage to Yan at his funeral, where he is buried next to Superintendent Wong. A flashback reaffirms the point that Ming wished he had taken a different route in his life.
An alternate ending of Infernal Affairs was created for mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore. The alternate ending has Ming exit the lift to be informed by Inspector Cheung that the police force have found evidence that he was a mole. He hands them his badge and is arrested without protest. This ending was meant to please mainland officials by affirming that crime does not pay. Versions of the DVD of the film may have one or both endings.
[edit] Cast
- Tony Leung Chiu-Wai as Chan Wing-Yan
- Andy Lau as Inspector Lau Kin-Ming
- Anthony Wong as Superintendent Wong Chi-Shing
- Eric Tsang as Hon Sam
- Chapman To as Tsui Wai-Keung
- Gordon Lam as Inspector B
- Kelly Chen as Dr. Lee Sum-Yee
- Sammi Cheng as Mary
- Berg Ng as Inspector Cheung
- Dion Lam as Del Piero
- Edison Chen as Young Lau Kin-Ming
- Shawn Yue as Young Chan Wing-Yan
- Elva Hsiao as May
[edit] Awards and nominations
Infernal Affairs did very well at the 2002 Hong Kong Film Awards, beating the blockbuster Hero for the Best Film award.
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22nd Annual Hong Kong Film Awards
9th Annual Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards
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40th Annual Golden Horse Awards
8th Annual Golden Bauhinia Awards
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[edit] Remake films and products
In 2003, Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment acquired the rights for a Hollywood remake, titled The Departed, which was directed by Martin Scorsese, and stars Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson, and set in Boston, Massachusetts. The Departed was released on October 6, 2006.
Infernal Affairs was incorrectly called "a Japanese film" during the 79th Academy Awards, at which The Departed won four Oscars. Director Martin Scorsese corrected this in his acceptance speech for Best Director. An apology note on behalf of Warner Brothers was sent to Media Asia the following day.[citation needed]
The 2003 TVB spoof celebrating the Chinese New Year called Mo Ba To(吐氣羊眉賀新春之無霸道) and the 2004 comedy film Love is a many stupid thing(精裝追女仔2004) by Wong Jing were rewritings 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 received warning letters from the Group Power Workshop Limited(群體工作室), the Taiwan distributor of the film.[1]
Media Asia released a limited edition of 8 DVD set of the Infernal Affairs trilogy in an Ultimate Collectable Boxset(無間道終極珍藏DVD系列(8DVD套裝)) on December 20, 2004. Features included an online game and 2 Chinese fictional novels of the film series by Lee Muk-Tung (李牧童)(無間道I+II小說 ISBN：9626722592 and 無間道III終極無間小說 ISBN：9626722711).
The Hi-Fi shop scene would later be recreated with additions of excerpts of the film to encourage business to join the Quality Tourism Services Scheme in Hong Kong.[2][3]
[edit] References
- ^ 陳俍任：電影「無間道」搞怪版始作俑者「CD-PRO2版」作者，接獲在台發行商的警告信，《聯合報》。2004年6月6日
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It9Tt8WCDj4&feature=related
- ^ http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/interactive/video/index.jhtml
[edit] See also
- Infernal Affairs II
- Infernal Affairs III
- Cinema of Hong Kong
- List of Hong Kong films
- List of movies set in Hong Kong
- The Departed
[edit] External links
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