Pages

Saturday, 16 March 2013

Infernal Affairs

Infernal Affairs is a 2002 Hong Kong crime-thriller film directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak. It tells the story of a police officer who infiltrates a triad, and a police officer secretly working for the same gang. The Chinese title means "The Unceasing Path", a reference to Avici, the lowest level of hell in Buddhism, where one endures suffering incessantly. The English title is a word play combining the law enforcement term "internal affairs" with the adjective "infernal". Due to its commercial and critical success, Infernal Affairs was followed by a prequel, Infernal Affairs II, and a sequel, Infernal Affairs III, both released in 2003.
Pre-release publicity for Infernal Affairs focused on its star-studded cast (Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, Kelly Chen and Sammi Cheng), but it later received critical acclaim for its original plot and its concise and swift storytelling style. The film did exceptionally well in Hong Kong, where it was considered "a box office miracle" and heralded as a revival of Hong Kong cinema which at the time was considered to be direly lacking in creativity. Miramax Films acquired the United States distribution rights of this film and gave it a limited U.S. theatrical release in 2004.
Infernal Affairs was remade[1] by Martin Scorsese in 2006 as The Departed, which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

                                                                Theatrical poster

Traditional
Simplified
Directed by Andrew Lau
Alan Mak
Produced by Andrew Lau
Written by Alan Mak
Felix Chong
Starring Andy Lau
Tony Leung
Anthony Wong
Eric Tsang
Music by Chan Kwong-wing
Cinematography Andrew Lau
Lai Yiu-fai
Editing by Danny Pang
Curran Pang
Studio Media Asia Films
Basic Pictures
Distributed by Media Asia Distribution
Miramax (U.S.)
Release date(s)
  • 12 December 2002
Running time 101 minutes
Country Hong Kong
Language Cantonese
Budget HK$40,000,000
Gross revenue HK$55,057,176

No comments:

Post a Comment