Story of movie 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.
| Infernal Affairs | |
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Theatrical release poster | |
| Traditional | ??? |
| Simplified | ??? |
| Directed by | Andrew Lau Alan Mak |
| Produced by | Andrew Lau |
| Written by | Alan Mak Felix Chong |
| Starring | Andy Lau Tony Leung Anthony Wong Eric Tsang |
| Music by | Chan Kwong-wing |
| Cinematography | Andrew Lau Lai Yiu-fai |
| Edited by | Danny Pang Curran Pang |
Production company | Media Asia Films Basic Pictures |
| Distributed by | Media Asia Distribution |
Release date |
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Running time | 101 minutes |
| Country | Hong Kong |
| Language | Cantonese |
| Budget | US$6.4 million |
| Box office | HK$55.1 million |
| Infernal Affairs | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | ??? | ||||||||||
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| Simplified Chinese | ??? | ||||||||||
| Literal meaning | "Unceasing Path" | ||||||||||
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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' (concerning hell) with internal affairs – the police department concerned with investigating its own officers.
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 successfully 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.
Screenplay
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Chan Wing-yan, a police officer, goes undercover into a 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 in intelligence 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 Hon, giving him enough time to order his minions to dispose of the evidence. After the incident, both Wong and Hon 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, he is caught by Hon's men and is killed when he is thrown off the building, having refused to reveal Chan despite the 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 Hon. The plan succeeds and many of Hon's men are arrested, while Lau betrays Hon and murders him. Everything seems to have returned to normal. However, back at the 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 as 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 Lau he is suddenly shot in the head by B. B 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, 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 that Lau wished he had taken a different route in life.
Pre-release publicity focused on its star-studded cast (Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, Kelly Chen and Sammi Cheng). However, entire cast exists as follows:
- Andy Lau as Senior Inspector Lau Kin-ming (???), Hon's mole in the police force.
- Edison Chen as young Lau Kin-ming
- Tony Leung as Chan Wing-yan (???), an undercover cop in Hon's triad.
- Shawn Yue as young Chan Wing-yan
- Anthony Wong as Superintendent Wong Chi-shing (???), Chan's superior.
- Eric Tsang as Hon Sam (??), the triad boss and main antagonist.
- Chapman To as "Silly" Keung (??), Hon's henchman.
- Gordon Lam as Inspector B (?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 (???), Chan's psychiatrist.
- Berg Ng as Senior Inspector Cheung (?Sir), Wong's subordinate.
- Wan Chi-keung as Officer Leung (?Sir), the police chief.
- 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" 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 .
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.
