Infernal Affairs 1
Year : 2002
Director: Andrew Lau Wai-Keung , Alan Mak Siu-Fai
Producer: Andrew Lau Wai-Keung
Cast:
- Tony Leung Chiu-Wai
- Andy Lau Tak-Wah
Kelly Chen
Anthony Wong Chau-Sang
Sammi Cheng Sau-Man
Carina Lau Ka-Ling
Story Plot (Breif):
Tony Leung Chiu-Wai stars as Yan, a police mole in the triads for the past ten
years. He's been deep, deep undercover for so long that he's started to question
his focus and sanity. Meanwhile, he has a mirror opposite on the other side.
Andy Lau is Ming, a rising cop who's secretly a triad mole. For the same ten
years, he's been feeding information to Sam (Eric Tsang), a ruthless triad
kingpin who Yan currently works for. Sam's archenemy is Organized Crime and
Triad Bureau Inspector Wong (Anthony Wong),
who's Yan's only link to the police force. On a
routine drug bust, both sides discover the presence of a mole within their
ranks, and both sides charge their respective undercover with finding the offending party. However, Ming's exact
loyalties are not entirely clear, which may mean problems for both Sam and
Inspector Wong. Meanwhile, Yan tries not to be killed by
either
side.
The weak female roles are a good example of how
Infernal Affairs 1 typifies its genre. Kelly Chen appears as Dr. Lee, Yan's
appointed psychiatrist and probably the greatest-looking health practitioner
ever. However, despite Chen's presence, Dr. Lee doesn't do much more than
provide Yan with a love interest, and Taiwanese singer Elva Hsiao's ballyhooed
cameo is obligatory character backstory. If either woman had been lost, it
likely wouldn't have hurt the film at all.
What it all comes down to is "why." Yan wants to
ditch the undercover life because he's tired of living in darkness. Ming wants
to get out for seemingly selfish reasons, but is that entirely true? The moral
murkiness that's offered up makes Ming seem only self-involved, and not really a
mixture of good or evil. Andy Lau does a fine job with the character, and even
brings a sinister quality to the proceedings. Then again, it would have been
nice to have some confirmation of what exactly was going on with Ming. The
character work in Infernal Affairs 1
has been lauded by a variety of
critics. It happens to be excellent genre work, but
no new ground is truly covered, and in Ming's case
potential was wasted.
Awards: 40th
Annual Golden Horse
Awards
- Best Picture
- Best Director: Andrew Lau Wai-Keung , Alan Mak Siu-Fai
- Best Actor Tony Leung Chiu-Wai
- Best Supporting Actor Anthony Wong Chau-Sang
- Best Screenplay Alan Mak Siu-Fai
- Best Editing (Danny Pang, Pang Ching-Hei)
- Best Original Song (performed by Andy Lau Tak-Wah , Tony Leung Chiu-Wai
- Audience Award
- Nomination - Best Actor -- Andy Lau Tak-Wah
- Nomination - Best Original Screenplay -- Alan Mak Siu-Fai
- Nomination - Best Editing -- (Danny Pang, Pang Ching-Hei)
- Nomination - Best Cinematography -- Andrew Lau Wai-Keung Lai Yiu-Fai
- Art Direction (Choo Sung Pong, Wong Ching-Ching)
- Nomination - Best Action Design -- Dion Lam Dik-On
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Infernal Affairs 2
Infernal Affairs 3