Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Yashua Kimbrough (jimniexperience) The movie that inspired "The Departed" - which basically copied this movie from scene to scene to murder to murder --------------------------------------------- Tale follows two cadet school trainees , one becoming an investigative cop and one being an undercover . Assigned to arrest the Triad Kingpin - with moles on both sides things get complicated between both parties .It's a race against time to see who can reveal who's identity , with the stakes getting higher each passing day ...

classicsoncall Two things I didn't know about the film until I came to it's reviews section on IMDb. First, this was remade in 2006 as "The Departed" by director Martin Scorsese. And second, the two principal characters, Yan and Lau, are portrayed by two sets of actors. While watching, I kept rewinding footage back to the police training academy scene for the younger versions of the two men, and couldn't reconcile their appearance with the older (by a decade), undercover versions. Another reviewer made the point, would their looks have changed so considerably in the span of ten years or so? Not to my thinking, and that confusion at the beginning of the picture was a nuisance.Once that bit of business gets out of the way though, this is a fairly effective gangster drama, with conflicted undercover mole Lau Kin Ming (Andy Lau) providing his mob boss Sam (Eric Tsang) the attempts by the police to bring Sam's organization down. Lau's counterpart is undercover detective Chen Wing Yan (Tony Chiu-Wai Leung), embedded in Sam's gang and walking a tense tightrope after a major drug deal gets foiled. Both Yan and Lau are entrusted by their superiors to expose each other, but at the point where they both wind up figuring things out, a series of twists occur that spell doom for one of the principals.It's been a while now since I've seen "The Departed", but on the basis of my memory and rereading my review of that film, I think it holds up a bit better with the double crosses and unexpected turns in the story. I don't think that has to do with any bias toward an American film versus this Hong Kong product, because as I stated earlier, I thought the casting of two sets of characters in "Infernal Affairs" was an unforced error. It's still a good story though, with a couple of nuances I want to revisit at some point later on.

Deigues "Infernal Affairs" is the Hong-Kong based crime movie that eventually led to the birth of the "The Departed" by Martin Scorsese. The film certainly has its own merits, but also its own faults. The story is centered on two moles: one of them infiltrates the mob and the other infiltrates the police force. When both parties become aware of the infiltration, a game of cat and mouse (or should I say mouse and mouse?) ensues, as each try to uncover the other one first.For the most part, "Infernal Affairs" relies on its strong and intriguing premise to keep the viewer hooked and succeeds. It's a competent crime film, but if you begin to scrape the surface it quickly gives in. While the two main characters are reasonably interesting, their love interests are extremely underdeveloped and lack any of the emotional depth of the characters in "The Departed". The direction is also far from brilliant. "Infernal Affairs" tries too hard to be stylish, cramming obnoxious fade-outs and pointless slow motion shots in many scenes. Still, I could have let all of this go, were it not for the most annoying fault of the entire film: an atrocious soundtrack, which isn't only incredibly cheesy, but intrusive as well. I admit I had seen Scorsese's remake prior to "Infernal Affairs" and, no matter how hard I tried not to compare the two, the superior work is obvious.If you are looking for a decent crime film, "Infernal Affairs" will meet most of your expectations. However, if you are hoping for something more, I strongly recommend Scorsese's version.

Uriah43 The police in Hong Kong have a mole inside their department who is working for a mobster by the name of "Hon Sam" (Eric Tsang). Conversely, the police have a mole inside Hon Sam's operation working for them. Both "SP Wong Chi Shing" (Anthony Chau-Sang Wong) and Hon Sam desperately want to find out the identity of the mole working inside their operations. Needless to say the mole inside the police department, "Inspector Lau Kin Ming" (Andy Lau) risks a lengthy prison sentence while the mole inside the drug cartel, "Chen Win Yan" (Tony Chiu Wai Leung) has his life at stake. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was a fairly entertaining crime-drama with solid performances all around. Surprisingly, the action was rather subdued and replaced by a lingering suspense throughout most of the movie which was good in some aspects but caused the film to seem slightly one-dimensional in the long run. Be that as it may, I think viewers will certainly find it to be quite watchable and overall I rate it as slightly above average.