Infernal Affairs - The Complete Trilogy

Not my usual cup of tea, this is the original and best of the `Infernal Affairs' series of films and is also far better, in my opinion, than the slower and overblown Scorsese Hollywood remake, `The Departed'.Those who find it difficult to cope with subtitles have no excuse to watch this film as there is an English audio option, although you will admittedly lose the nuances of the original language's expression. And do you really want to hear Anthony Wong speak with an American accent?If you don't know the story by now, it's an ingenious Hong Kong crime thriller with a twist - the police have a mile undercover in a criminal gang; the gang leader has a mole undercover in the police. Both moles are trying to find out who is the other. The title of the movie is a play on both the police's Department of Internal Affairs and the infernal affairs of hell. It is important that you pay attention when the mugshots are taken early on in the film for here the two young men morph into the older men played by the luscious Andy Lau and the charming Tony Leung.This movie repays repeated viewing. The acting is utterly convincing, the direction is superb and the soundtrack is good too. And on top of these, there is the clever screenplay that makes the movie even more special, taking it above and beyond the usual run-of-the-mill crime thrillers. As the co-writer says in one of the extras, the script had to be "within reason but beyond expectation". However, the story is not watertight leading to a small number of queries such as why did Tony Leung's character leave after discovering that Andy Lau is the mole rather than play along with the charade and trap him. (By leaving, Lau knows that Leung knows.)The extras include a fifteen-minute behind-the-scenes featurette; a six-minute glimpse at filming in action; out-takes; and an alternative ending for the moral high ground of the Chinese Mainland! There is also a commentary but this is unfortunately in Cantonese with English subtitles.

Infernal Affairs revitalised the ailing crime thriller in Hong Kong, and the American remake looks to do the same for the American crime thriller. This is down to, not set-pieces, gratuitous sex or violence, or ridiculous overblown budgets, but very well drawn characters that earn our sympathy, even the 'bad guy' characters and also an incredibly well-written, twisting and consistently exciting story.Some of Hong Kong's finest stars and character actors are present in this film and convincingly display why they are so highly regarded. Tony Leung, Andy Lau and Anthony Wong in particular display why they are so in demand in such continually highly-praised pieces.The story itself is ingenius and continually piles on the suspense and every now and then an absolute corkscrew of a twist. The fear you feel from each of the characters and their paranoia of constantly being discovered truly concinces you that they are treading life on a knife edge. What is also surprising is the relative lack of violence in the film. Suspense and thrills are generated through knife-edge tension and not hails of bullets. What this film aspired to be was an intelligent an thoughtful thriller, and it succeeds stunningly. Moreover, at just 100 minutes, it is also a lean thriller with no spare meat.I cannot reccomend this film highly enough. And much as I despise remakes, the proposed Martin Scorsese one does intrigue me. With a director like Scorsese at the helm and actors of the calibre of Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon involved...maybe the new sanitised American version will be just as good. But then again, the film is also going to star Mark Wahlberg...

A movie like this can only be described one way, perfect. A story smarter than The usual Suspects, and visual style in the league of such films as Heat and Goodfellas. This is a film that has made new actors stars and current stars legends.This film marked a major change in Hong Kong Cinema Which for the last few years had been churning out lame comedies and action movies that were poor at best. When infernal affairs came out it was at the end of a very bad year for Hong Kong Cinema, it broke box office records beating off films like Harry potter and Spiderman. As you can guess it was the kick start their industry needed, the two sequels proved just as popular.The movie is about two characters - Ming the triad mole who has become an inspector in the police, played brilliantly by Andy Lau. And Yan an undercover police officer in the mob, played by Tony Leung in a near career high. - And the parallels and moral obstacles in their lives.The supporting cast includes stars such as Anthony Wong and Eric Tsang along with rising talents Shawn Yue, Edison Chen and Chapman To.This is not only an important Hong Kong film but internationally also, it has influenced many recent films namely American remake The Departed by Martin Scorsese, I highly recommend this to all movie lovers.

Gripping at times but I can't help but feel that Scorsese did it better with 'The Departed'. Unfortunately I saw this film after I had seen 'The Departed', but I feel that many people favour this film because it's seen as 'the original' etc. but that isn't really fair. I am a huge fan of Asian Cinema and I must say that I thought I would have enjoyed this more than I did, on the other hand I only really became involved in the narrative around 45 minutes in. From then on it was pretty satisfying but I can't rate a film too highly if the exposition and development just isn't up to the standard of the rest of the film. Although, that being said it is definitely worth a watch if you're into Asian Cinema, but there are better examples out there. But don't let this put you off as I know many people that loved it, so give it a go!