Anssi Vartiainen In this film, which would later be remade in the West as The Departed, two young men are forced to play a deadly game of cat and mouse with their identities and even very lives on stake. Because it turns out that one of them is an undercover cop infiltrating the triads, while the other is a mole in the police force reporting directly to a powerful crime boss.As in The Departed, the setting and the central idea is truly fantastic here. The duality of these two men is quite fascinating. Both very similar in character, in skill and in conviction. They simply happened to start from different sides. And yet their paths are eerily similar. Both shoulder the burden of secrets they cannot reveal even to their loved ones. Both have crisis of identity, for ten years is a long time to live under pretense without it sometimes seeming like reality.The film is also beautifully acted and shot with skill. Andy Lau as the mole and Tony Leung as the undercover cop are easily the best, but the supporting cast is also strong, though not quite all of them receive the screen time they perhaps would have deserved. Both love interests, for example, are barely in the film.The only other gripe I have about the film is the fact the the plot lost me a couple of times. I always got back on track relatively quickly, but it still meant that I spent a minute or two wondering what had just happened. I've had this problem with Asian films before and it's a matter of style. They simply tell their stories a bit differently. So not really a flaw, but something to keep in mind.Overall Infernal Affairs is a great crime film and I can see why they wanted to make The Departed after seeing it. Definitely worth a watch for all fans of the genre.

banyaaaan-t This is a story about two young guys. One is a police officer and he infiltrates a mafia. Other is a member of the mafia but works as a police officer. Both of them have done well and tried to get helpful information, hiding their identity for several years. However, because of an affair, police and the mafia notice there are spies in each organization... The heart beating doesn't stop. The story develops in good rhythm. Audiences can't take our eyes off. This film doesn't devote too much visual effect, that's good. The scenario is perfect and we can enjoy this high quality thriller. The Departed is also good but I like this better.

Rajeev Ranjan A classic story of cops, robbers, and the difficulty of telling them apart, Infernal Affairs deals with the tale of two moles-one a triad in the police force and the other an undercover officer in the gangs. As a figure of the imagination, the mole has taken hold on global screens. The character embodies the predicament of hidden and uncertain identities, concealed motives, moral ambiguity, conflicted loyalties, and the inability to take a stand or find roots in an increasingly complex world of new technologies and post-industrial, transnational economies. With the added factors of its change of sovereignty from British to Chinese rule, the Asian financial crisis, and SARs, Hong Kong's obsession with the hidden malevolence behind the quotidian exterior takes on a particular local significance as well, and, in a film industry plagued by triads and the infiltration of Hollywood product, the mole symbolizes the alien within the familiar-the competitor or the parasite within ranks. The Infernal Affairs provides the illusion of an epic sweep that covers the issues of government legitimacy, global capitalist expansion, individual alienation, and the implosion of a system that blurs legitimate political authority with an underground illegitimate economic reality. Infernal Affairs touches on themes hotly debated within contemporary critical theory, including globalization, traditional migrations and diaspora, the politics of time and space, nostalgia, memory and archive, consumerism and post-industrial capitalism, identity and subjectivity, new technology of communication, and the defining qualities of post modernity. The film conjures up a narrative time and space intersection by rings, like the circles of hell, of aesthetic, cultural, historical, political, and economic association. Infernal Affair does not shy away from placing cinematographic virtuosity in the foreground-including dramatic contrast of field size (moving between extreme close-ups of facial details to extreme long shots of the Hong Kong cityscape), heights (going from tops of skyscrapers to cluttered depths of the city's markets), and movement (from dynamic pans to nearly imperceptible re-framing of virtually static tableaux). Camera movement and editing work together to establish a rhythm that fluctuates violently throughout the film - from periods of quiet contemplation to moments of frenetic violence. This visual pace follows the twists and turns of the narrative that moves without a fixed spatial or temporal anchors. The films like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Hero play with the idea of the abyss and the loss of self, Infernal Affairs makes those themes explicit from the outset. The film is the way of no place/nowhere – the impossible path of Buddhist continuous hell.

Marc Israel Peeked by the American box office remake ("The Departed") I picked up Infernal Affairs to see the genesis of the art I am very familiar within an art form I enjoy watch (crime thrillers). While there are varying viewpoints on remakes, most come from seeing the original first. On its; own, Infernal Affaiars is great story packaged in a fast paced, action laced, Miami Viced and MTV spliced send up to to the Cops & Robbers genre. Interwtining the two sides from the beginning to the end is the twist that is twisted. On the anti side, I found the Directors' storytelling rushed and emotionally forced. The supporting characters state their lines to tell us about the main characters, both of whom are charming. Lets' face it, the charm in our polarized stars can not be equal in style. Within 10 minutes, it was clear that The Departed was plotted step by step and that watching the other 90 minutes was to see how the Chinese Cinema entertains their public and I felt as if this were TV paced, no room for real emotion or explanation, just enough time to collect sponsor money and credits. My summary above describes our two moles who want to reset the clock, but is also about just as much about listening to the original rock and roll albums as it is seeing movies that inspired new movies. The past era in which the art was generated in now gone, so propping it up in any other era is placing it out of context. Is time a hero? Not in this case.