Sinophone Cinema
Hong Kong has a very unique and distinct style of cinema. Their compelling stories are told in innovative ways inspiring newfound aesthetics worldwide. Andrew Lau’s 2002 film Infernal Affairs, tells the story of two police academy cadets, Yan and Lau, whose fates take two drastically different turns. While Yan is recruited to go undercover into the triads, Lao was recruited by the triads to go undercover in the police academy and rise the ranks. The film mainly discusses the theme of sacrifice for the greater good. Yan sacrifices his identity, being a normal man, and his love life for ten years to help the police as an undercover cop in the triads. It is an extremely dangerous job as his life is constantly in jeopardy. However, he brilliantly and efficiently executes his tasks of communication and infiltration. His job isn’t glorified, it is more so depicted as his duty and just something he must put up with. This collectivist theme is interesting to see and greatly differs from the West. The normalization of self-sacrifice for the greater good is often times seen in Chinese and Hong Kong media. The Hong Kong film industry also isn’t as censored as mainland China so the antagonist stands a chance of winning as seen with this film when Lau kills Yan in the end and gets away with everything. The film has violent scenes but rarely explicitly shows the violence. For example, they only show Superintendent Wong falling off the room and not the actual beating of him and also only show the bullet already in Lau’s partner’s chest and not the action of the bullet going through. Even the final scene where Lau kills his accomplice in the elevator, the death and shooting are not shown. The filmmakers do this to ensure that the film is not focusing on the action but rather the tension and burden that Yan must endure for his police department. The cinematography and pacing of the film were quick and hectic as we were able to see the intense pressure that our protagonist was constantly put under. With quick shots, freeze frames, and flashing transitions, you feel as if you are part of the police force witnessing everything occurring first hand. The audience is given an omniscient perspective to see both views from Lau and Yan. This enables the two different lifestyles to be juxtaposed and gives the audience the power to choose who their protagonist is. Hong Kong cinema continues inspiring and shaping the global film industry with films such as Infernal Affairs and I can’t wait to see how they continue shaping the world of media in the years to come.