Infernal Affairs

Not to be confused with the 1990 American film Internal Affairs.

For the album by the Danish dance group Infernal, see Infernal Affairs (album).

Infernal Affairs 無間道
Theatrical poster
Traditional	無間道
Simplified	无间道
Directed by	Andrew Lau Alan Mak
Produced by	Andrew Lau
Written by	Felix Chong Alan Mak
Starring	Tony Leung Andy Lau Anthony Wong Eric Tsang
Music by	Chan Kwong-wing
Cinematography	Andrew Lau Lai Yiu-fai Christopher Doyle
Editing by	Danny Pang Curran Pang
Studio	Media Asia Films Basic Pictures
Distributed by	Media Asia Distribution
Release date(s)	12 December 2002 (2002-12-12)
Running time	101 minutes
Country	Hong Kong
Language	Cantonese
Budget	HK$40,000,000
Gross revenue	HK$55,057,176

Infernal Affairs
Traditional Chinese	無間道
Simplified Chinese	无间道
Literal meaning	"Endless Path"
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Wú Jiān Dào Cantonese (Yue) - Jyutping Mou4 Gaan3 Dou6

Infernal Affairs 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 triads, and a police officer 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 is a word play combining the law enforcement term "internal affairs" with the adjective infernal. 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, as well as a 2006 American remake, The Departed.

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.

The film features all the members of the Hong Kong Cantopop group EO2, playing triad boss Hon Sam's men. One member of this group subsequently became a lead actor (Osman Hung).

Miramax Films acquired the United States distribution rights of this film and gave it a limited U.S. theatrical release in 2004.

The Infernal Affairs series was then remade^[1] by Martin Scorsese in 2006 as The Departed, which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Plot

Infernal Affairs focuses on a police officer named Chan Wing-yan (Tony Leung), who goes undercover into a triad, and triad member Lau Kin-ming (Andy Lau), 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 triad boss Hon Sam (Eric Tsang), who sends a number of young gangsters to the police academy as moles, among whom include a young Lau (Edison Chen). Concurrently, a young Chan (Shawn Yue) joins the police force but is expelled from the academy even though he manages to impress Superintendent Wong Chi-shing and Principal Yip. In reality, Chan has become an undercover agent reporting directly only to Wong and Yip. Over time, Chan experiences great stress from work while Lau quickly rises through the ranks in the police department.

The film begins with a meeting between Chan and Lau in a hi-fi store without either of them knowing the other's identity. Soon after, Chan attends the funeral of Yip, who had died recently, leaving Wong as the only person who can identify Chan as a cop. Wong and his team interrupt a deal between Hon Sam and a Thai cocaine dealer after receiving a tip-off from Chan using Morse code, but Lau alerted Hon, giving Hon enough time to order his minions to dispose of the cocaine, eliminating solid evidence of the drug deal. After the incident, Wong and Hon are both aware that they each have a mole in within their respective organizations, placing them in a race against time to root out the other mole. Later, Chan sees Hon conversing with Lau at a cinema but does not see Lau's face clearly. He attempts to follow Lau secretly as they leave, but loses his target when his phone rings suddenly at the crucial moment. By this time, both Chan and Lau are struggling with their double identities - Chan starts losing faith in himself as a cop after being a gangster for ten years; Lau becomes more accustomed to the life of a police officer and he wants to erase his criminal background.

When Chan meets Wong again on the same rooftop, Wong intends to pull Chan out of undercover work for fear of his safety. They are unaware that Lau has his subordinate, CIB Inspector B, and his team tracking him. Meanwhile, Hon sends Tsui Wai-keung, Del Piero, and a gang of henchmen to confront them after receiving intel from Lau. Inspector B informs Lau and sends an OCTB squad to save Wong. Chan flees from the building using a crane while Wong sacrifices himself to save Chan by distracting the thugs. Wong is recognized by the gangsters, who beat him up severely before throwing him off the roof. As the police close in, a shootout breaks out, resulting in three gangsters being killed, one of whom is Piero. In the aftermath of the gunfight, the OCTB squad arrives with Lau and Wong's second-in-command, Inspector Cheung, on the scene.

Lau retrieves Wong's cellphone and contacts Chan, with both of them reaching an agreement to foil a drug deal by Hon. The plan succeeds and many of Hon's men are arrested, while Lau betrays Hon and kills him. Everything seems to have returned to normal - Chan can revert to his true identity as a cop, while Lau has erased his criminal connections by eliminating Hon's triad. However, back at the police station, Chan discovers that Lau was the mole and he leaves immediately. Lau, realizing what has happened, erases Chan's records as a cop from the police database. Chan spends an evening with his therapist Lee (Kelly Chen), whom he was falling in love with. He sends to Lau a compact disc with a recording that Hon kept between himself and Lau, but the disc is inadvertently intercepted by Lau's girlfriend Mary (Sammi Cheng).

Chan and Lau meet on the same rooftop where Wong was killed earlier. Chan disarms Lau without resistance and holds a gun to Lau's head, as a rebuke to Lau's plea for forgiveness and request to remain as a cop. Inspector B arrives on the scene shortly and orders Chan to release Lau. Chan enters an elevator backwards while holding Lau as a hostage at gunpoint, but is suddenly shot in the head by Inspector B when he moved his head from behind Lau. Inspector B then reveals that he is also actually a mole planted by Hon. As they take the elevator down to the lobby, Lau kills B, most likely out of his desire to eradicate traces of his past and become a "good guy" cop and end the hunt for a mole.

The original ending climaxes with Lau identifying himself to the police as one of them. Dr. Lee Sum-yee discovers Yip's records at the academy which reveals Chan as the undercover officer; B is given the blame of the mole and the case is closed. Lau salutes Chan at his funeral, with Cheung and Lee present as well. A flashback reaffirms the point that Lau wished he had taken a different route in life. In Mainland China, an alternate ending for the film was created. In this ending, Lau exits the elevator and is informed by Cheung that the police have found evidence that he was a mole. Lau hands them his badge and is arrested without protest. The sequel, Infernal Affairs III, uses the original ending instead of the alternate one.

Cast

• 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
• Chapman To as Tsui Wai-keung / "Crazy Keung" (徐偉強 / 傻強), Hon's henchman
• Gordon Lam as Lam Kwok-ping / "Inspector B" (林國平 / 大B), Lau's subordinate who is actually also a mole in the police force
• Kelly Chen as Dr. Lee Sum-yee (李心兒), Chan's therapist
• Sammi Cheng as Mary, Lau's girlfriend
• Berg Ng as Senior Inspector Cheung (張Sir)
• Wan Chi-keung as Officer Leung (梁Sir), the police chief
• Dion Lam as Del Piero (迪比亞路), Hon's henchman
• Elva Hsiao as May, Chan's ex-girlfriend
• Hui Kam-fung as Yip, principal of the police academy
• Chan Charoenwichai as Paul, the Thai drug dealer

Theme song

• Infernal Affairs (無間道)

(Cantonese and Mandarin version)

Composer: Ronald Ng

Lyricist: Albert Leung

Singer: Andy Lau, Tony Leung

Reception

Infernal Affairs performed well at the 2002 Hong Kong Film Awards, beating Zhang Yimou's Hero for the Best Film award. It was ranked #30 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.^[2]

Awards and nominations

22nd Annual Hong Kong Film Awards Best Picture Best Director – Andrew Lau and Alan Mak Best Screenplay – Alan Mak and Felix Chong Best Actor – Tony Leung Best Supporting Actor – Anthony Wong Best Editing – Danny Pang and Pang Ching Hei Best Original Film Song – "Infernal Affairs", sung by Andy Lau and Tony Leung Nomination – Best Actor (Andy Lau) Nomination – Best Supporting Actor (Eric Tsang) Nomination – Best Supporting Actor (Chapman To) Nomination – Best Cinematography (Andrew Lau, Lai Yiu-Fai) Nomination – Best Costume Design (Lee Pik-Kwan) Nomination – Best Action Design (Dion Lam Dik-On) Nomination – Best Original Score (Chan Kwong Wing) Nomination – Best Sound Effects (Kinson Tsang King-Cheung) Nomination – Best Visual Effects 9th Annual Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards Recommended Film Best Actor (Anthony Wong)

40th Annual Golden Horse Awards Winner – Best Picture Winner – Best Director (Andrew Lau, Alan Mak) Winner – Best Actor (Tony Leung) Winner – Best Supporting Actor (Anthony Wong) Winner – Best Sound Effects (Kinson Tsang King-Cheung) Winner – Audience Award Nomination – Best Actor (Andy Lau) Nomination – Best Original Screenplay (Alan Mak, Felix Chong) Nomination – Best Editing (Danny Pang, Pang Ching-Hei) Nomination – Best Cinematography (Andrew Lau, Lai Yiu-Fai) Nomination – Best Art Direction (Choo Sung Pong, Wong Ching-Ching) Nomination – Best Action Design (Dion Lam Dik-On) 8th Annual Golden Bauhinia Awards Winner – Best Picture Winner – Best Director (Andrew Lau, Alan Mak) Winner – Best Actor (Tony Leung) Winner – Best Supporting Actor (Anthony Wong) Winner – Best Screenplay (Alan Mak, Felix Chong)

Remake films and products

American poster

In 2003, Plan B Entertainment acquired the rights for a Hollywood remake, titled The Departed, which was directed by Martin Scorsese, and starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg, set in Boston, Massachusetts. The Departed was released on 6 October 2006 and went to critical acclaim and won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Andy Lau, Eric Tsang and Jacky Cheung parodied the movie theatre 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 movie theatre?" to which Hon answers "It's quiet. No one comes to movies". Jacky 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.

Infernal Affairs was incorrectly called "a Japanese film" during the 79th Academy Awards, at which The Departed won four Oscars. No known apologies has been made on behalf of Warner Brothers or Academy Awards to Media Asia.^[3]

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 receiving cease and desist letters from the Group Power Workshop Limited (群體工作室), the Taiwan distributor of the film.^[4]

Media Asia released a limited edition of 8 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 9626722592 and 無間道III終極無間小說 ISBN 9626722711.

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.^{[5][dead link]}

The Korean film City of Damnation is a remake.

See also

• Infernal Affairs II
• Infernal Affairs III
• The Departed
• Cinema of Hong Kong
• List of Hong Kong films
• List of movies set in Hong Kong

References

1. ^ "Infernal Affairs vs. the remake, The Departed". Film.com. Retrieved 2011-07-23.
2. ^ "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema". Empire. http://www.empireonline.com/features/100-greatest-world-cinema-films/default.asp?film=30. 
3. ^ http://www.fortheretarded.com/?p=392
4. ^ 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》。2004-06-06
5. ^ "DiscoverHongKong - Interactive Gallery - Video Clips - Index". Discoverhongkong.com. Archived from the original on July 28, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080728200840/http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/interactive/video/index.jhtml. Retrieved 2009-07-05. 

External links

• Infernal Affairs at the Internet Movie Database
• Infernal Affairs at AllRovi
• Infernal Affairs at Box Office Mojo
• Infernal Affairs at Metacritic
• Infernal Affairs at Rotten Tomatoes
• United States trailer of this film