Infernal Affairs (2002)

Infernal Affairs is one of the best films to have come out of Hong Kong in recent times, and its success has been so well noted that it has helped to revive the Chinese film industry, which until the making of this film, was considered to have been lacking in creativity. The production of Infernal Affairs proved the critics of the Hong Kong film industry wrong, and illustrated the fact that China does indeed have what it takes to produce successful films. The success of Infernal Affairs and the wave of interest it generated inspired the creation of a prequel and a sequel to the film. Before its official release, this film generated a lot of interest among the prospective audience because of the difference in concept to the other films that had recently come from Hong Kong. It can be said that the concept, upon which the film is based, is highly unique and extraordinarily few films have been created using the same concept. This film employs a vibrating abruptness that is usually found in the work of the writer and director Michael Mann. The theme of this film uses the techniques which Mann used in the film Heat and this theme can be seen almost to the last detail. It has the same cold bloodedness that was displayed in the latter film and this, indeed, makes it one of a kind. When the film was released, it did not disappoint those who had expected it to have the qualities that were unique, fun, and at the same time made the film a serious picture to watch. It looks at the relationship between the police and the criminal underworld in a new perspective that many would consider impossible. It set a new record which many Hong Kong films of the same genre from that time on have been trying to reach. This film is, therefore, worthy of the adoration that many of its fans have had, and continue to have, for it.

The film gives the viewer a glance into the criminal underworld, that is dominated by the Triad, where criminal mastermind Hon Sam believes that he can make his gang live outside the law. To achieve this feat, he sends a group of young men to join the police academy so that when they become police officers, they will be able to keep any attention from his activities from the police. The main aim is to keep ahead of the police, by getting to know what moves the police are planning against him before those plans can be executed. In this way, he will be able to run his operations safely without any fear of getting caught. Unknown to Hon, the police are planning almost the exact thing against him. They want to place a mole within his organization so that the mole can tell them the moves that Hon makes, hence ensuring that he is caught red-handed. Under the supervision of Superintendent Wong, Chan is chosen to become the mole in Hon’s triad organization, and to achieve this, there is a public demonstration where Chan gets kicked out of the Academy despite being the best student. This leads him to enter the criminal underworld as an undercover cop, with only two people in the police department knowing his true identity. The duty, which has been assigned to Chan, is a perilous one indeed because he is tasked to remain with the triads until such a time as they are brought down, no matter how long it takes. Within the same academy as Chan is one Lau, who is a Triad mole tasked with keeping Hon up to date about the police movement against him.

The entire movie is based on the parallel lives which Lau and Chan live as moles in each other’s organizations and how these lives come to profoundly affect them personally. There is a sense, around the main characters of the film, of being disconnected and alienated and this helps to increase the excitement that one feels when watching it. This feeling keeps one wondering what is going to happen next, ensuring that one fully concentrates on the film, so the latter scenes are not missed out. These two characters are, unknowingly, brought together at the beginning of the film, each not having a hint of how interconnected their lives truly are. Both of these men have to deal with not getting too close to the people around them for fear that they might be found out for who they actually are. This situation keeps them alien in their new environment as they are not able to form the bonds of friendship, with the people around them, as would happen had they been in a normal situation. The mental torture these two men undergo in their adopted environments is further examined in the film through the study of the women who have been in their lives, both in the past and present. One woman, Lau’s girlfriend is a novelist who is not able to decide whether a character she is writing about and has modeled on her boyfriend should be good or evil. She does not realize how close to the truth her fictional character is to the reality of her boyfriend’s life. On the other hand, there is an ex-girlfriend who chooses to hide the existence of her daughter from her father for fear that he might be a destructive influence. Finally, there is a therapist, who has conflicting emotions concerning her patient, on one hand desiring him while, on the other, she knows that he might not be the man for her on account of his being a gangster. Chan also has feelings for his therapists, and it is only in her presence that he feels secure enough to be able to sleep. When not in her presence, Chan has insomnia, due to the burden which he has had to carry in the ten years in which he has been a mole within the Triad organization. The use of these three women in the film is done to show the various complications which the two main characters have to go through in their daily lives. They further provide an insight on the individual characters of these two men, and what inspires these women to behave towards them as they do.

This film dares its audience to decide who the hero and the villain is because even those women, with whom these men are involved, do not know exactly what they are about. Despite the fact that they work hand in hand with their coworkers on a daily basis, none of these coworkers even has an inkling that these men are moles in their respective organizations. They accept these two characters as they are with no questions being asked, their enigmatic behavior being taken for granted. The film helps to show just how alluring the life of the underworld can be, and how one can be tempted to go in and never want to leave it again. What makes this film special is not its plot, but the way the two leads starring in it portray the characters. Lau is shown to be a man who would have made a different choice in life had the responsibility of being a mole for the Triads, among the police, not been thrust upon him when he was younger. Lau is seen as a tortured man whose life has been chosen for him, and there is no way for him to get out of this purgatory. The character of Chan, on the other hand, is made to be the mirror reflection of Lau, whose duties as a mole among the Triads have been placed on him at a young age. Chan is also shown to undergo mental torture as he struggles with the temptation of forgetting himself and getting absorbed into the underworld. The lives of these two moles are seen as a form of torture for both of them, and it is this shared torture that makes them so similar. Their motivation is to do the best they can in order to survive in situations which the fates have thrust upon them. Both of these men have done extremely well in the situations within which they have been placed. Lau quickly rises through the ranks of the police, while Chan also rises among the Triads to become one of the most trusted lieutenants of Hon, the Triad boss. Therefore, neither of these men can be described as being either good or evil, and instead, they can be said to be surviving.

Since the film is in Cantonese with English subtitles, there are certain aspects of the film which are lost in translation. This is because it is difficult to translate certain idioms, which are humorous in one language, to another language, as in most cases, the humor tends to be lost. Despite this fact, however, the movie can be said to be excellent, and perhaps may encourage those who would like to get the whole picture of the movie to want to learn Cantonese, the language in which it was made. This is indeed a bold film which deals with the lives of two men whose lives are going in a way which they did not expect. It focuses on their desire to break away from the chains that are holding them back, despite the fact that if they do so, then it might lead to their destruction. One can also say that the film is a tragedy because when the truth about the two men comes to light, it is too late for either to redeem himself. Although Chan accomplishes his mission within the Triad organization by helping in the destruction of Hon, he still ends up getting killed by one of the moles planted by Hon in the police. Moreover, despite the fact that both men strive to redeem themselves through the destruction of the Triad organization, none of them gets the redemption because Chan gets killed while Lau ends up getting arrested when it is found out that he was the mole among the police for all the years that Chan was undercover. It can, therefore, be said that this film manages to capture the different aspects of human life. It shows the audience the futility of some of the actions that people take in their lives, teaching that one does not always get what they want. It is a film of revelation, as the two characters get to assess their lives in different situations and come to find what it is they desire in their lives. The plot, as well as the skills displayed by the actors, has made the film one of the best to come out of Hong Kong.