"I am a cop."
Release Year: 2002
Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Crime drama/action thriller
Director: Andrew Lau, Alan Mak
Screenwriter: Felix Chong, Alan Mak
Cinematography: Andrew Lau, Lai Yiu-fai, Christopher Doyle
Music: Chan Kwong-wing
Editing: Danny Pang, Curran Pang
Actors: Tony Leung, Andy Lau, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang
Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Crime drama/action thriller
Director: Andrew Lau, Alan Mak
Screenwriter: Felix Chong, Alan Mak
Cinematography: Andrew Lau, Lai Yiu-fai, Christopher Doyle
Music: Chan Kwong-wing
Editing: Danny Pang, Curran Pang
Actors: Tony Leung, Andy Lau, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang
Conciseness is a beautiful thing. If you can effectively express your idea in five sentences, do not add unnecessary sentences that contributes nothing much. The same principle also applies to movies: you want to engage, entertain, and get the point across in as short time as possible. Infernal Affairs, a thrilling cop drama that rejuvenated Hong Kong cinema at the time of its release, is a huge success at that aspect: even with its relatively short running time (101 minutes), there are enough actions and ideas that make it feels like a three-hour epic.
The premise: a cop is sent undercover to a triad organization, while a member from that triad is planted in the police department. A simple hook, yet so undeniably attractive and lead to numerous complex consequences. Tony Leung plays the cop-in-the-triad Chan Wing-yan, Andy Lau as the triad-mole-in-the-police Lau Kin-ming, while Anthony Wong and Eric Tsang are Superintendent Wong Chi-shing and triad boss Hong Sam, the two men who sent them on their missions. From there, it is a race for Chan and Lau to uncover each other while struggling to preserve their sense of identity.
The story unfolds like a chess game between two huge risk-takers, with a series of maneuvers and counter-maneuvers initially canceling each other. Then, first blood is drawn, and from there the chess pieces are rapidly decimated until it peaks in a climactic showdown and an outcome that should not be easily predicted by any viewer. The whole thing is paced and edited so well, making sure that there is never any lulls or drawn out moments during the time it steadily builds up tension, pressure, and stakes. Even the romantic sub-plot of the two main characters, which is possibly the only part of the movie I found unnecessary (mainly because the female characters are not written really well), could still work as a stop-gap to enhance the leads' character development and highlight the mental anguish they have been experiencing.
Overlying the thrilling cop vs. gangster action, there are open-ended philosophical questions regarding morality and identity. If you are A but spent so much time pretending to be B, does it mean you are practically turning into B? Similarly, if you are A but no one knows or acknowledges that you are A, are you still A? On top of them, there is also an integrated concept from Buddhism belief: living itself is a perpetual hell, thus death is actually a merciful end to that suffering. It may be a common conception that characters who survived at the end of the movie had better fate than those who did not, but Infernal Affairs subverts that and implicitly points out that the survivor of the whole mess still has to live and suffer.
Of course, all that psychological and thematic depth would be useless if the characters failed to make us care about them. Fortunately, it is yet another successful aspect of the movie, thanks to the performances from Lau and (especially) Leung. Both actors are great in portraying increasingly conflicted (both against the other men and against themselves) men, and makes for two hugely sympathetic leads. The supporting cast, while not as developed, also play their crucial parts in impacting the mental progress of the two main characters.
To summarize, Infernal Affairs raises adrenaline as effectively as it provokes thought and strong emotional impact; smoothly getting from point A to point B while also optimizing its time for detours that enhance the whole journey. It had spawned two sequels that I have not watched yet, as well as a Hollywood remake in 2007. The remake, Martin Scorsese's The Departed, is a fine movie in its own right; but it is far less effective than this movie, mainly because (to underline my previous point about conciseness) it runs for an hour longer and consequently reduces the original story's impact and fast-paced feel. Again, if something already works great with less, why add the unnecessary?
The premise: a cop is sent undercover to a triad organization, while a member from that triad is planted in the police department. A simple hook, yet so undeniably attractive and lead to numerous complex consequences. Tony Leung plays the cop-in-the-triad Chan Wing-yan, Andy Lau as the triad-mole-in-the-police Lau Kin-ming, while Anthony Wong and Eric Tsang are Superintendent Wong Chi-shing and triad boss Hong Sam, the two men who sent them on their missions. From there, it is a race for Chan and Lau to uncover each other while struggling to preserve their sense of identity.
The story unfolds like a chess game between two huge risk-takers, with a series of maneuvers and counter-maneuvers initially canceling each other. Then, first blood is drawn, and from there the chess pieces are rapidly decimated until it peaks in a climactic showdown and an outcome that should not be easily predicted by any viewer. The whole thing is paced and edited so well, making sure that there is never any lulls or drawn out moments during the time it steadily builds up tension, pressure, and stakes. Even the romantic sub-plot of the two main characters, which is possibly the only part of the movie I found unnecessary (mainly because the female characters are not written really well), could still work as a stop-gap to enhance the leads' character development and highlight the mental anguish they have been experiencing.
Overlying the thrilling cop vs. gangster action, there are open-ended philosophical questions regarding morality and identity. If you are A but spent so much time pretending to be B, does it mean you are practically turning into B? Similarly, if you are A but no one knows or acknowledges that you are A, are you still A? On top of them, there is also an integrated concept from Buddhism belief: living itself is a perpetual hell, thus death is actually a merciful end to that suffering. It may be a common conception that characters who survived at the end of the movie had better fate than those who did not, but Infernal Affairs subverts that and implicitly points out that the survivor of the whole mess still has to live and suffer.
Of course, all that psychological and thematic depth would be useless if the characters failed to make us care about them. Fortunately, it is yet another successful aspect of the movie, thanks to the performances from Lau and (especially) Leung. Both actors are great in portraying increasingly conflicted (both against the other men and against themselves) men, and makes for two hugely sympathetic leads. The supporting cast, while not as developed, also play their crucial parts in impacting the mental progress of the two main characters.
To summarize, Infernal Affairs raises adrenaline as effectively as it provokes thought and strong emotional impact; smoothly getting from point A to point B while also optimizing its time for detours that enhance the whole journey. It had spawned two sequels that I have not watched yet, as well as a Hollywood remake in 2007. The remake, Martin Scorsese's The Departed, is a fine movie in its own right; but it is far less effective than this movie, mainly because (to underline my previous point about conciseness) it runs for an hour longer and consequently reduces the original story's impact and fast-paced feel. Again, if something already works great with less, why add the unnecessary?
Now, I know. You know what?? I was totally confused while watching this film, knowing that i watched the Departed much earlier than Internal Affais. I thought it was 'this movie' who adapted (or..worse, plagiarized) the Departed. Thanks dude, for the share. Twoooo thumbs up for the review! very deep, very good. ;D
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