Director:
Andrew Lau
Starring:
Andy Lau
Tony Leung
Anthony Wong
Eric Tsang
Kelly Chen
Release: 17 Sep. 04
IMDb
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Infernal Affairs
BY: DAVID PERRY
An impressively told policier condensing proto-Hollywood
Asian pulp, Infernal Affairs offers some of the year’s tensest moments in
movie going, from its opening drug bust into its two wonderful skyscraper
sequences. Here’s a film that has encapsulated the pre-crossover John Woo
with nods to post-Asian infiltration Hollywood. The greatest example of the
Hollywood mindset behind Infernal Affairs is that it’s closed-ended opening
salvo has already had two sequels in China. The American remake -- like a
Japanese Kill Bill -- is already in pre-production.
The premise is wonderful in a B-movie sort-of way. Lau (Lau; his career
finally reaching a crossover appeal years after his work with Wong Kar-wai)
is a gangster who was placed in police academy as a youth so that the local
crime lord could have a mole inside the police precinct. When the police
chiefs discover that there is a spy in their midst, they humorously assign
Lau to internal affairs to weed out himself. Meanwhile, Yan (Leung; still
just as amazing as his most recent work with Wong Kar-wai) is a former
friend of Lau as a cadet who was taken from the academy to infiltrate the
gangsters. In this world of double-crossing the moles are trying to find out
each other’s identity so as to help their real superiors.
Wonderfully edited by Danny Pang of the Pang brothers, the film has a
bluntness with its impending violence and crisscrossing allegiances that
creates tension throughout. Even though a few moments are ruined by maudlin
music, the overall experience is graceful in its pulp fiction, and its
flashiness comes as a product of its own merit. Though I’m not fully certain
where the film might have gone its succeeding chapters I’m thoroughly
interested to find out, and no less disturbed by the idea of watching the
Hollywood facsimile of a facsimile.
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