They don’t come much slicker than this - Tony Leung and Andy Lau shine in this classy thriller…
If the critics are right about the downtrend in Hong Kong movie industry then one film has done a great deal to combat it, Infernal Affairs. At a point when few home grown films are really making any kind of impact there, it proved massively popular. The reason: it’s one of the smartest, most sophisticated and definitely slickest thrillers to grace our screens - anywhere - in a while.
The premise of undercover cop may have been the basis for many a Hollywood thriller, but nowhere has it struck such a chord than in the Hong Kong action movie. Nowhere has the agonising moral duplicity been more deeply mused upon, the divided and confused loyalties, the blurring of that line between right and wrong.
It’s no coincidence that these themes mirror those from the classic Chinese texts that became the basis for the martial arts novel so popular in China and Hong Kong throughout the last century. The best known of these, Shui Hu Zhuan - better known as Outlaws of the Marsh or The Water Margin told of good, honest men who sided with killers and thieves for that had a greater understanding of honour than the immoral bureaucrats and officials.
That director John Woo so easily made the transition from martial chivalry to the so-called ‘heroic bloodshed’ genre - gun-fuelled action epics set in a contemporary, harsh Hong Kong - shows how much they have in common. Nearly twenty years ago his A Better Tomorrow helped change the language of the action movie, and it placed its participants uneasily on either side of the law ultimately faced with the choice of doing ‘the right thing’.
In The Killer he cleverly updated all those old chivalry themes casting Chow Yan-fat as the assassin - who takes the morally ambiguous line of only killing those who deserve it - against Danny Lee’s police inspector. Not only do they become allies, but share a great mutual respect for each other despite being on opposite sides of the law. This would become an enduring theme for Woo’s work in all that’s come since, including that perfect embodiment of the Hong Kong action movie, Hard Boiled, that cast Yun-fat as edgy cop with Tony Leung as undercover cop.
But if Woo took on those themes at face value, other directors would rally against its simplicity in a modern age. Two years before The Killer director Ringo Lam cast Yun-fat and Danny Lee in City On Fire (which Andrew Lau acted as cinematographer on), their roles almost completely reversed. Yun-fat is the undercover cop who strikes up a real bond with Lee, a gang member who Yun-fat must eventually betray. His torn loyalties were all but left behind in the snappy dialogue of the American remake, Reservoir Dogs, though nearly every great scene was included. (And for the record, Ringo Lam’s next film, Prison On Fire, featured a shocking scene involving an ear.)
In recent years that moral uncertainty has become even more questionable. In Gordon Chan’s Beast Cops Anthony Wong is a cop whose subjective ethics descend ever further until events finally cause him to choose which side of the line he stands on. More often than not the lead has fallen on the other side of the law, unredeemable. Like in Patrick Yau’s overlooked The Longest Nite, a dark and ultimately moral tale of a corrupt cop, played by Tony Leung, whose position in the back pocket on one of the rival triad gangs places him in the middle of a complicated and very murderous plot.
Perhaps few celebrated this ambiguity more than director Andrew Lau in his extremely successful Young and Dangerous series, about a small triad gang who battle against cutthroat betrayal to become the top dogs of the local underworld. The villain is lead and therefore the hero of the piece.
If Lau’s films in the interim, The Storm Riders, A Man Called Hero, The Duel, The Avenging Fist and Wesley’s Mysterious File have redressed that moral balance, his latest beautifully exploits it to the hilt.
Yan (Tony Leung, Hero, In the Mood for Love) is the undercover cop, a man who’s put his life on hold for nearly ten years to keep his cover, ever closer to losing his grip. Only Inspector Wong (Anthony Wong, Twins effect, Taxi Hunter) knows Yan’s real identity.
Ming (Andrew Lau, The Duel, Saviour of the Soul, A Moment of Romance) is a successful cop who’s exceptional career has seen him rise up the ranks. The twist is that Ming is Yan’s mirror image in every way. A gang member of triad boss Sam (Eric Tsang, Golden Chicken, Three), Ming’s true identity has remained hidden since Police Academy.
When Ming gets seconded to Wong’s investigation, they become aware of each other’s existence, and a cat and mouse game ensues as they try to uncover each other’s identity…
Collaborator Alan Mak, who wrote the screenplay and co-directed with Lau (which is neither uncommon for Lau or Honk Kong movies) has blessed this film with an intelligent script. One that centres more on edge-of-the-seat suspense than the action we’ve become accustomed to from Hong Kong. It’s a solid meditation on the dilemma facing the undercover cop but packed with enough twists to satisfy even the most ardent cinemagoer.
The characters are also believable, which is greatly helped by a terrific ensemble cast from the leads down. Sure, Tony Leung may be one of the most infinitely watchable actors of his generation. Of course you root for him. Yet Andy Lau is equally sympathetic despite for all intensive purposes playing the villain, and it’s easy to forget that you are watching the biggest star in all of Asia.
Anthony Wong is as reliable as ever, and Eric Tsang is equally as potent as a villain worthy of facing Bond. There’s also a fine performance by Chapman To as the exceptionally paranoid gang member Keung. It’s the ladies who, once again, take second place as far as actually being necessary to the plot yet still give a solid performance, Sammi Cheung as Ming’s fiancé Mary, Kelly Chen as Yan’s psychoanalyst Dr Lee.
In fact the whole production is something of an ensemble piece. Acting visual consultant is Christopher Doyle, best known as cinematographer for Wong Kar-wai (Days Of Being Wild, Ashes of Time, In The Mood For Love) and more recently Philip Noyce (Rabbit Proof Fence, The Quiet American). (Andrew Lau himself began as Kar-wai’s cinematographer on As Tears Go By.) The film was edited by the Pang brothers, famous as directors in their own right for Bangkok Dangerous and The Eye. It shows the wealth of talent available in Hong Kong, at its still best unsurpassed anywhere in the world.
Unsurprisingly, Infernal Affairs has already spawned both a prequel and a sequel, both involving both the original cast, directors and production crew. Now there’s even talk of a Hollywood remake starring Brad Pitt, but you have ask why? Infernal Affairs has already proved it has international appeal. Since Crouching Tiger there’s no longer any reason to presume an audience wouldn’t see a film with subtitles. With all the controversy surrounding Miramax’s continued policy of buying but not releasing Asian films (the phrase ‘burying’ is often used) perhaps the real point is they’d rather we didn’t?
Simply put, Infernal Affairs is the sort of action thriller that even appeals to people who don’t usually like action thrillers - don’t miss it!
DVD details
Distributor: Megastar (Hong Kong)
A perfect transfer losses none of the original big screen impact, audio or visual. This two disc set includes a cast and crew commentary (in Cantonese), and plenty of solid, if not outstanding, extras.
