3:58 AM
Wikipedia
Infernal Affairs (Mou Gaan Dou; Pinyin Pronunciation:Wújiàndào) is a 2002 Hong Kongcrime-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 aprequel, 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 ofHong Kong cinema which at the time was considered to be direly lacking in creativity.
The film features all the members of the popular Hong Kong 'Cantopop' group EO2, playing Triad boss Hom Sam's men. One member of this group has subsequently become a lead actor (Osman Hung).
Miramax Films acquired the United States distribution rights of this film and gave it a limited US theatrical release in 2004.
The Infernal Affairs series was then remade by Martin Scorsese in 2006 as The Departed, which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Plot
 | This section's plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (September 2010) |
Infernal Affairs focuses on a police officer named Chan Wing-Yan (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), who goes deep undercover into the Triad society, and Triad member Lau Kin-Ming (Andy Lau Tak-Wah), 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 Hon Sam (Eric Tsang Chi-Wai), a Triad boss and the primary antagonist of the film. Sam is sending a number of young, green gangsters to the police academy as moles—amongst them is one called Lau Kin-Ming (whose younger version is portrayed by Edison Chen Koon-Hei). At the same time another person named Chan Wing-Yan (whose younger version is portrayed by Shawn Yue Man-Lok) is shown joining the police force. Although he manages to impress the Superintendent Wong Chi-Shing (Anthony Wong Chau-Sang) and the police academy principal Yip, Yan is expelled from the academy. In reality Yan becomes an undercover reporting directly to only Wong and Yip. Yan's undercover job becomes stressful while Ming quickly climbs the ladder in the police department.
The film begins after Yan and Ming converse at a hi-fi store where Yan works, neither of them knowing who the other is. Soon after, Yan attends a funeral. It is revealed that Yip has recently died and that Superintendent Wong remains as the only person who could identify Yan as a cop. Later a deal between Hon Sam and a Thai cocaine dealer is interrupted by Superintendent Wong and his team due to Yan's tip-off using Morse Code. However, Ming alerted Sam of the bust with enough time for Sam to order his minions Tsui Wai-Keung (Chapman To Man-Chat) and Del Piero (Dion Lam Dik-On) to dispose of the cocaine so the police would not have any real evidence on the drug deal. Now, both Wong and Sam realize that they each have a mole within their respective organizations, putting them in a race against time to root out the other mole.
Later, Sam converses with Ming at a cinema with Yan watching. Not knowing who Sam is actually meeting, Yan tries to follow Ming as they leave. At the crucial moment, Yan's phone rings and he is forced to back off, thus losing his chance to identify the enemy.
At the same time, Yan and Ming are both struggling with their double identities. Yan is starting to lose faith in himself as a cop after being a gangster for ten years; while Ming, on the other hand, becomes more and more used to the life of a righteous police officer and wants to erase his criminal background.
Yan meets SP Wong a second time on the same rooftop, with Wong's intention to pull Yan out of undercover work for fear of his safety. However, the two are unaware that Ming has his subordinate, CIB Inspector B (Gordon Lam Ka-Tung) and his team tracking him down. Sam, after getting intel from Ming, sends Keung, Del Piero and a gang of henchmen to confront them. Inspector B informs Ming and he sends anOCTB squad to attempt to save Wong. Yan eventually escapes the building by taking the crane but Wong ends up sacrificing his life to save Yan by distracting the henchmen. He is recognized by Del Piero, who severely beats Wong with his crew and then thrown off the roof. As Yan is about to escape, he witnesses Wong's fall to death, and is stunned. As the police close in, a shootout between the police and Triads breaks out, resulting in the death of 3 Triads, one of whom is Del Piero. In the aftermath of the gunfight, the OCTB squad arrives with Ming and Wong's second-in-command Inspector Cheung (Berg Ng Ting-Yip) on the scene, but they are too late to save Wong. Yan and Keung manage to escape from the gunfight. As Keung drives away with Yan, he crashes the car, and finding that he is wounded from the gun battle, Keung dies in Yan's arms.
Eventually, Ming retrieves Wong's old cellphone and makes contact with Yan. They reach a deal to foil another one of Sam's drug deals. Inspector Cheung does not want to cooperate with the operation at first because of Wong's death, but he is later convinced by Ming to go ahead with the operation. With Yan's help, Sam's drug deal is interrupted and Sam is killed by Ming. Many of Sam's other gangsters are arrested. Everything seems to work according to the plan: Yan could now return to his true identity as a police officer and Ming has successfully erased his criminal connections by eradicating Sam and his gangs. However, back at the police station, Yan discovers Ming was the mole, and leaves immediately. Ming realizes what has happened, and erases Yan's identity from the police computer records. Yan spends an evening with his therapist Lee (Kelly Chen), whom he was falling in love with, and sends a compact disc to Ming which is inadvertently intercepted by his wife Mary (Sammi Cheng Sau-Man) with a recording that Sam kept between himself and Ming. The two agree to meet on the rooftop of the building where Wong was murdered earlier. Yan disarms Ming without resistance. Yan holds a gun to Ming's head as rebuke and as reply to Ming's plea for forgiveness to remain a policeman. Inspector B arrives on the scene shortly afterwards and commands Yan to release his boss.
The film ends with Yan entering a lift backwards with Ming hostage, when he is suddenly shot in the head and killed by Inspector B as he moved his head from behind Ming. Inspector B reveals that he was also a mole for Sam. He asks Ming to watch out for him, since their boss is already dead. As he and Ming enter the lift going down to the lobby, Ming shoots Inspector B dead, likely out of his desire to eradicate traces of his past and become a "good guy" police officer and to end the hunt for a mole.
The original ending climaxes with Ming identifying himself to the police as an officer, and paying homage to Yan at his funeral, where he is buried next to Superintendent Wong. Inspector Cheung and Dr Lee are present as well. A flashback reaffirms the point that Ming wished he had taken a different route in his life.
An alternate ending of Infernal Affairs was created for mainland China. The alternate ending has Ming exit the lift to be informed by Inspector Cheung that the police force have found evidence that he was a mole. He hands them his badge and is arrested without protest. Versions of the DVD of the film may have one or both endings, but the sequel Infernal Affairs 3 continues the storyline of the original HK ending, not the alternate ending.
[edit]Cast
- Andy Lau as Senior Inspector Lau Kin-Ming (劉健明)
- Tony Leung Chiu-Wai as Chan Wing-Yan (陳永仁)
- Anthony Wong as Superintendent Wong Chi-Shing (黃志誠)
- Eric Tsang as Hon Sam (韓琛)
- Chapman To as Tsui Wai-Keung (徐偉強/傻強)
- Gordon Lam as Inspector B (林國平／大Ｂ)
- Kelly Chen as Dr. Lee Sum-Yee (李心兒)
- Sammi Cheng as Mary
- Berg Ng as Inspector Cheung (張Sir)
- Dion Lam as Del Piero (迪比亞路)
- Edison Chen as Young Lau Kin-Ming (少年劉健明)
- Shawn Yue as Young Chan Wing-Yan (少年陳永仁)
- Elva Hsiao as May
[edit]Theme song
- Infernal Affairs (無間道)
(Cantonese and Mandarin version)
Composer: Ronald Ng
Lyricist: Albert Leung
Singer: Andy Lau, Tony Leung
[edit]Awards and nominations
Infernal Affairs did very well at the 2002 Hong Kong Film Awards, beating the blockbuster Hero for the Best Film award.
9th Annual Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards
| 40th Annual Golden Horse Awards
8th Annual Golden Bauhinia Awards
|
[edit]Trivia
| Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (September 2010) |
[edit]Remake films and products
In 2003, Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment acquired the rights for a Hollywood remake, titled The Departed, which was directed by Martin Scorsese, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg and set in Boston, Massachusetts. The Departedwas 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 Sam's gang. Ming asks Sam "why do we always meet in a movie theatre?" to which Sam 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.[2]
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.[3]
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 2 Chinese fictional novels of the film series by Lee Muk-Tung (李牧童)(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 would later be recreated with additions of excerpts of the film to encourage business to join the Quality Tourism Services Scheme in Hong Kong.[4][dead link]
The Korean film City of Damnation is a remake.
Posted in: Top Movies Wiki
0 comments:
Post a Comment