2002 | Hong Kong | Fiction

Mou gaan dou (Infernal Affairs)

  • Cantonese 101 mins
  • Director | Andrew Lau Wai-keung, Alan Mak
  • Writer | Alan Mak, Felix Chong Man-keung
  • Producer | Andrew Lau Wai-keung

STATUS: Released

This film is currently not available.   

Two of Hong Kong cinema’s most iconic leading men, Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Andy Lau Tak-wah, face off in the breathtaking thriller that revitalized the city-state’s twenty-first-century film industry, launched a blockbuster franchise, and inspired Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. The setup is diabolical in its simplicity: two undercover moles—a police officer (Leung) assigned to infiltrate a ruthless triad by posing as a gangster, and a gangster (Lau) who becomes a police officer in order to serve as a spy for the underworld—find themselves locked in a deadly game of cat and mouse, each racing against time to unmask the other. As the shifting loyalties, murky moral compromises, and deadly betrayals mount, Infernal Affairs raises haunting questions about what it means to live a double life, lost in a labyrinth of conflicting identities and allegiances.

Deception Loyalty Identity Betrayal Undercover
Film Organizations
The Criterion Collection
DISTRIBUTION