Infernal Affairs


Infernal Affairs is a 2002 Hong Kong crime thriller film directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak and written by Mak and Felix Chong. It tells the story of a police officer who infiltrates a Triad, and another officer secretly working for the same gang. It is the first in the Infernal Affairs series and is followed by Infernal Affairs II and Infernal Affairs III.
The Chinese title means "The Unceasing Path", a reference to Avici, the lowest level of Hell in Buddhism, where one endures suffering incessantly. The English title is a word play, combining the adjective 'infernal' with internal affairs – the police department concerned with investigating its own officers.
Pre-release publicity focused on its star-studded cast, but the film later received critical acclaim for its original plot and its concise and swift storytelling style.
The film had been selected as the Hong Kong entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 76th Academy Awards but was not nominated. Miramax Films acquired the United States distribution rights and gave it a limited US theatrical release in 2004. Martin Scorsese remade the film in 2006 as The Departed, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. An Indian remake of the film is also in the works.

Plot

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.

Cast

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" While an overwhelming majority of viewers praised the film, a few film critics complained of the generic and forgettable plot-line. 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
The film received a score of 75 on the critical aggregator website Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Awards

Infernal Affairs won seven out of the sixteen awards it was nominated for at the 22nd Hong Kong Film Awards, beating Zhang Yimou's Hero for the Best Film award. It also won Best Picture awards in the Golden Horse Awards and the Golden Bauhinia Awards among other awards too. It was ranked No. 30 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010. It is the highest ranked Hong Kong film on Internet Movie Database's Top 250 movies list.

Box office

Infernal Affairs has grossed HK$55,057,176 in Hong Kong and USD$169,659 in North America.
Globally, it has grossed $8,708,932. It is ranked 181 in worldwide yearly 2004 and 9,979 in all-time domestic.
Comparing to 'Infernal Affairs', 'The Departed', which is the remake of Infernal Affairs in the US, has grossed HK $1,039,728 in Hong Kong and USD $132,384,315 in North America. Globally, The Departed has grossed $291,465,034. It is ranked 14 in worldwide yearly 2006 and 422 in all-time domestic.

Awards and nominations

Cinematic techniques

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. 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.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. 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. Fade outs provides the audience the understanding and indicates that a period of time has passed during the film. 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. 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.

Motifs

Stereo Equipment

Stereo equipment has appeared several times throughout the Infernal Affairs Trilogy, from the first met of Lau and Chan in Infernal Affairs I, to Lau’s wife found out Lau is the undercover from gangs when she heard the audio recordings in the stereo equipment Lau just purchased in Infernal Affairs III. The Infernal Affairs trilogy pictures new technologies from computers, cell phones and home entertainments. The stereo store in the film serves as a micro version of the postwar Hong Kong economy where Hong Kong “acts as an entrepot – a point of repackaging and transshipment.” The stereo store contains technologies from American, Japanese, and European as well as labor from China. The stereo represents “cultural capital” that the Hong Kong middle-classes can able to afford.

Credit card

The purchase of the stereo equipment was done by credit card of Lau, indicating that he not only can afford a stereo, but also he has proven himself a fit candidate for credit. Chan, who dedicated his whole life as undercover with the police payroll as well as in the triad’s accounts, is not qualified to possess a credit card. “The card signifies an identity beyond Chan’s reach, and a need that cash cannot seem to satisfy.” This ironic contrast between Lau and Chan has demonstrated the hardship that the police undercover is facing in their daily life. In the later scene, “Chan is dwarfed by images of happy consumers wielding credit cards while he struggles simply to stay alive.”

Music

The original film score for Infernal Affairs was written and performed by Chan Kwong-wing.
The theme song, Infernal Affairs, 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 song "Forgotten Times" 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 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," It helps to set up key aural motifs in later association with both Marys, 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.

Symbolism

Change face

The inspiration for this movie is said to come from John Woo's movie Face/Off, in which a police officer receives plastic surgery in order to take revenge on his son's killer. However, for his movie, Lau wanted to have a more realistic situation; instead of a physical face change, Lau wanted to have the characters swap identities. The concept of "bian lian" or "change face", a technique traditionally used in Chinese Opera, may have been used here to depict the fluid and seamless morph of Chen and Lau's character's identities between the "good" and "bad" sides.

Double identity

Everything inside infernal affairs seems to have two aspects. For example, directors, cinematographers, secondary fall-guys and English language titles... Two main characters have two opposite identity.The character's difficulty in finding one's 'authentic identity' constitute the common storyline in Hong Kong undercover-cop tragedies. This kind of theme begins at 1980s in Hong Kong films. The clash of identities between Yan and Ming force the viewer to wonder: “what will one do if one is tired of one's present life and is set to give oneself a rebirth?” Such a difficult process due to the reinvention of the self – involves a unique set of issues including the necessity of erasing one's original identity or to straighten out one's past through preserved documents “documents, public records, or even an individual's memories, for they may prevent one from securing a newly acquired position and identity.” Implied is also the question about ownership of both memories and records, for they decisively bear upon one's entitlement to a new life.

Political implication

Apart from “How To Regain The Identity Of Police”, Infernal Affairs focuses on the issue of: “How to be a new person”. To become a good person, it is important to review the past. However the past can never be presented in a complete form, but it is gathered through memories and records.The transitional period of Hong Kong in 1997 also brings out the question of “How to be a new person”: from a British colonial ruling to an administrative region under Chinese government.
This same implication is seen from the perspectives of Chan and Lau. Through Chan, “to be a new person” is to gain back the identity of police, escape from the confusion of identity after all the years in the triad. For Lau, “to be a new person” is actually to “wash away” his history as a gangster. And to do that he killed his boss and another undercover within the police force. It brings the question to the audience whether Hong Kong is in the situation of Chan or Lau under the new political context. If Hong Kong is in the situation of Chan, it means it is finally walking out from the confusion of identity and become a true “Chinese person”. If Hong Kong is in the situation of Lau, is would be a story of “washing away” the old history by any means in order to adopt the new political environment.

Movie theatre

Movie theatre in Infernal Affairs is not a place to relax and watch movies as people usually think. In fact, it appears to be nearly empty which provides a great venue for a triad rendezvous because the room is dark and no one can see or hear anything except the movie shows on the screen. In the scene when Lau Kin-ming and Sam meet in the theatre, a Chinese art film plays on screen, and Sam wonders about its appeal since it features unattractive women. Infernal Affairs itself, on the other hand, offers star appeal, and it gives its viewers a decidedly different experience from the one Sam has in the movie theatre within the fiction.

rooftop dialectic

Mo-Gaan-Dos literally means “the deepest hell, without temporal or spatial difference.” Wong’s falling body indicate the easiest way to kill people is in a city, and these observation may refers to a dystopic critique of time-space compression that all major global metropolises are experiencing. On the rooftop of shimmering modern buildings which represent power of financial capitalism, characters argue, discuss and murders with each other. These are refers to humans‘ anxieties, hesitation and moral dilemmas. The scene of city landscape seems to refers to a bright future, but under the bright and warm sunshine, Chan complains to his supervisor Wong about the pain that he endures as an undercover cop. These visual design makers viewers ask: “ Will sunshine eventually drive out darkness of the undercover world? Or the indifferent solar fire keep on observing such a living hell apathetically?”

Reinvention of the self

The parable of infernal affairs makes a mockery of legally defined identity and legally established time. Both Yan and Ming like hi-fi stereo music which indicate they are normal middle class people. However, same as contemporary Hong Kong’s middle class whose split political inclinations are common. Yan committed to the order of justice and his sanctified cop identity, while Ming wants to collaborate with Yan in order to change his undercover identity. Ming never hesitates to kill anyone, this kind of evil act also is the desire of him to become a good man. Therefore, Ming choose to kill the other mole in lift and hold his police ID to tell people “ I am police.” AT this moment, justice and evil are indifferently conflated and this is the process of Ming’s self-reinvention.

Adaptations

With star power, visual allure and an engaging script, Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s Infernal Affairs /《無間道》 did very well critically and financially, spawned two sequels and a television series, and attracted the attention of Hollywood.
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. made the Hollywood version more attuned to American culture." Andy Lau, 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." 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.
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, 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 and a secondary school student Blanka 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, the Taiwan distributor of the film.
Media Asia released a limited edition of eight-DVD set of the Infernal Affairs trilogy in an Ultimate Collectible Boxset on 20 December 2004. Features included an online game and two Chinese fictional novels of the film series by Lee Muk-Tung, titled 無間道I+II小說 and 無間道III終極無間小說.
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.
In 2009, a Korean remake City of Damnation, which was directed by Kim Dong-won was released on 22 January 2009. In 2009, a Telugu remake Homam, which directed and acted by JD Chakravarthy along with Jagapathi Babu was released and became a notable movie. In 2012, Double Face, a Japanese television remake starring Hidetoshi Nishijima was released by TBS and WOWOW. 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. 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.
A Hindi remake is in progress and is produced by Mumbai-based production and Warner Bros India
The success of the film inspired many genres, including an open-world video game from United Front Games titled Sleeping Dogs, with the protagonist of the story infiltrating the criminal underworld as an undercover police.

The transition of post-1997

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.
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.

Certain elements of Chinese culture

The movie as part of cultural production, it stands to reason that Hong Kong cinema reflects certain elements of Chinese culture. Infernal Affairs 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.
The Chinese philosopher Confucius 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 ruler and subject; father and son; elder brother and younger brother; husband and wife; and 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.