Infernal Affair first began appearing at regional film festivals in 2002.

The rights were immediately bought up by Brad Pitt & Jennifer Anniston's production company and Miramax. The movie was barely released to regular theaters in the U.S. and then was on region free DVDs by early 2003. In 2004 at several film festivals Infernal Affairs 1, 2 and 3 were shown. Region free DVDs were available, but theatrical release never happened.

Then Miramax was gone and Brad Pitt apparently turned to the rights and project over to Martin Scorsese who has done a superb job in re-making the movie(s) as The Departed. See my review here:

http://www.epinions.com/content_263451676292

Infernal Affairs

Shortly before ownership of HONG KONG was returned to the Chinese in 1997, a barrage of violent gangster films exploded out of the province and made their way to the United States mostly on DVD. The energy and excitement and creativity in these low to medium budget movies made U.S. action films with 20 times the budget look slow and nerdish in comparison. It was feared censorship and tighter controls would alter the Hong Kong film industry.

So when there was buzz about a higher class kind of cops and robbers film being released out of Hong Kong in 2002 some of us wondered if perhaps it was the work of Wong Kar-wai (who made 2000’s art-house critical fave In the Mood for Love.

Some of the biggest and best Hong Kong actors were involved in much anticipated film. Tony Leung- from several Wong Kar-wai films including In the Mood for Love (2000) and Zhang Yimou's Hero (2002). Andy Lau one of Hong Kong’s biggest male stars, two of Hong Kong’s hottest up and coming young stars Shwn Yue and Edison Chen, not to mention Hong Kong pop star, queen of disco dance music, Kelly Chen, and the highest paid female actress in Hong Kong, Sammi Cheng. You also have some of Hong Kong’s most interesting character actors playing juicy supporting roles like Eric Tsang, the baby-faced star in several of Peter Chan's films, (and here he plays Sam, the triad boss). Anthony Wong, an experienced character actor (stand-up comic, singer and classical musician) is famous for his wild offbeat roles that include the unforgettable gangster who hides his weapons inside the hospital in John Woo’s 1992 Hardboiled, the hair-dresser bodyguard for hire in Johnnie To’s The Mission (1999), the serial killer who grinds up his victims to make meat buns in Herman Yau’s The Untold Story from 1993 and in Johnnie To’s 1993 The Heroic Trio he was demon with the decapitating-device. Wong won the Hong Kong Critics Award for best actor as Superintendent Wong in Infernal Affairs (the Martin Sheen part in The Departed.

The story itself is one that relies on several coincidental and interesting plots twists drawing upon the concept that both the good guys and bad guys have the exact same method of operation; i.e. planting a mole, a spy in each others organizations. The plot mechanics do not really give the capable Hong Kong actors much opportunity or screen time to give us the kind of complex internal emotional struggles that we saw actor Leung able to do in John Woo's Hardboiled. Lau's character is similar to what Hong Kong audiences saw from him in Johnnie To’s 1999 thriller; Running out of Time. There is a lot of story, a few twists, many characters and while the cliche' is mostly avoided, we don't really get inside anyone's head.

For most of the film the two leads are kept apart, building suspense that if and when they connect promises to be an explosive union. We even get teased when the characters talk to each other over their mobile phones. The build-up is reminiscent of Michael Mann’s Heat which kept audiences on edge waiting for the show down between the character played by Al Pacino and the one played by Robert DeNiro.

In fact the look of Infernal Affairs was perhaps inspired by Mann’s early movie Thief. The high-tech cool style is much different than what Scorsese does with the material in The Departed where the action takes place in older Boston neighborhoods.

Plot

(MINOR SPOILERS)

Hong Kong Special Police Forces Superintendent Wong (Anthony Wong Chau-Sang) has been after Triad crime boss Sam (Eric Tsang) for more than a decade. At almost the same time, both good cop and bad gangster boss have had the same idea and put it into action. They plant an operative (a spy, a mole) in each others organizations. Wong uses newly commissioned Chan Wing Yan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) as his spy, and arranges to have him ‘kicked out’ of the academy, arrested and put into place to infiltrate the Triad boss’ organization. Meanwhile Sam has arranged for a number of his younger newer gang-banging recruits who do not have police records to enlist in the Police Academy. The best of the lot is Lau Kin Ming (Andy Lau), who successfully works his way up in the force to the point where he works directly under Wong himself.

As the scenario develops both Wong and Sam suspect there is a spy in their operations and they are determined to figure out the identity of the spy. Yan the good cop working for Sam wants out of the arrangement since he has given up his real identity and a normal life to pretend he is a gangster. He only gets brief respite from his stressful charade when he has secret meetings with WONG and in his therapy sessions with Dr Lee (Kelly Chen). Lau, on the other hand, is increasingly conflicted about the role he is playing and longs to become the person he is pretending to be rather than living the lie and having to keep so many secrets from his girlfriend Mary (Sammi Cheng). (Note the characters have seperated girlfriends in the original version of this story.)

Who will make the mistake that reveals their true identity first?

Infernal Affairs is a tense and suspenseful film. The script by Alan Mak and Felix Chong and direction by Andy Lau and Alan Mak is not designed to be the typical Hong Kong formula and we are not burdened with any long drawn out sub-plot involving a romance, or comic relief involving a retarded or gay character or a mistakenly identified gay character or a young sister who wants to prove herself tough enough to make it, or a child or a dog or a supporting mother-in-law character. The pace, performances and sleek style of the movie all work beautifully.

The biggest drawback is the confusing Pro-logue which will not make much sense until the end of the movie and the need to pay closer attention to the subtitles than you usually do in these kinds of movies. You really do actually have to pay attention and figure out a few things for yourself to get the most out of the film.

This is also not a movie that delivers a lot of over-the-top choreographed gun battles, chases or gory slug fests. Instead you have got a tense suspenseful game of cat and mouse told with style, and grace.

DVD Stuff

Affairs is presented in a widescreen 2.35:1, and has been anamorphically-enhanced . Edge-enhancement is noticeable and there are some halo effects visible throughout particularly in the opening shots. Good color levels but sharpness and black levels are a bit weak. The video seems a bit grainy at time when it should be super crisp and clean to accurately replicate the super high tech style the director is going for.

The audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is in its original Cantonese soundtrack language, as well as an English dub (also in DD 5.1). The dub has clearer and brighter dialog levels, but it will detract from the movie because non-Asian actors have dubbed many if not all of the voices.

Extra, Extras:

Not a lot offered, but there are some: The Making of Infernal Affairs, is a 15 minute look at the film's characters delivered by the cast and filmmakers. Most of the cast offers brief thoughts on the production. It’s too short to offer much depth though.

Confidential File: Behind-The-Scenes Look At Infernal Affairs, gives us some on-set video footage without any general thrust or purpose. The 4 minute alternate ending I assume is the one required by Chinese film censors in which the bad is punished and the good guys win completely.

Bottom Line

Infernal Affairs is one of the best cops and robbers movies Hong Kong has ever turned out. It spawned two excellent sequels and material from all three became part of the superb American re-make The Departed. Affairs is definitely very much worth seeing.

4 ½ stars rounded up to 5!!!

Bonus

Shortly after seeing INFERNAL AFFAIRS at the Seattle International Film Festival in the 2002 press screening (a few weeks prior to the scheduled show-times shown in the mini -review) I wrote up the following review and turned it into a couple of editors 45 minutes later after I exited the screening. Several small papers and websites carried the review,sometimes with my by-line. Thank goodness for editors. This is the raw un-edited version.

INFERNAL AFFAIRS
Dir: Andrew Lau & Alan Mak
Hong Kong 2002 100 minutes
Monday 6/9 9:30 pm Cinerama & SAT 6/14 4:00 pm Egyptian

Infernal Affairs is not the kind of over-the-top Hong Kong action film one might expect from a too brief description of plot and a cast that includes Andy Lau, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Anthony Wong and Eric Tsang. In fact, Infernal Affairs is surprising in almost every way you would want a film to surprise you. The scenario of a group of police and a group of criminals playing cat and mouse with each other while trying to discover which of their own people are informers secretly working for the other team is a worthwhile variation on a high concept idea. The almost familiar scenarios could have been turned into cliché’d scenes but instead are turned successfully into something much better than you would ever expect. It is not the kind of film interested in setting up the next gun battle, action scene or car chase, but rather builds suspense and refuses to self-destruct with an over-done action set piece. It is a film that often takes the road less traveled, displaying intelligence rather than pyrotechnics (though there is some action in the film too). It is not without a few flaws-- a sudden but brief bit of romance that feels a bit cheesy in a film that avoids most genre formula trappings, but they are far outweighed by everything that is done right in the film.

The film boasts impressive cinematography from Anrew lau and Lai yiu-Pai. It’s worth noting Christopher Doyle (regular collaborator with Wong Kar-wai and DP of several impressive films) was a consultant on the project. The orchestral scored music by Chan Kwong-wing is among the finest I’ve ever heard in a Hong Kong film. English language re-make rights have been sold, so don’t expect to see this one given the stateside release it deserves. Instead we’ll see a slightly bigger and much louder Americanized version with some big stars and a couple of big action set pieces perhaps by next summer . Infernal Affairs has won several awards and is one of the biggest box-offices successes in Hong Kong. Director Andrew Lau of YOUNG AND DANGEROUS fame is not even related to the similarly named star of the film. Yes, there’s a Hong Kong prequel and sequel in the works too.

--Christopher J. Jarmick


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD