Infernal Affairs -- Film Review

1.
Whitey Bulger (real-life's Frank Costello) was located in an apartment in California and arrested last week. News of this incident inspired a desire to rewatch The Departed and its original Infernal Affairs. Seeing the remake first tainted the original for me but I found both films exceptional commentaries on alienated relationships behind abstracted institutional identities -- the police-to-gangster dichotomy played in the plot as informants in both camps contest to discover the other and remove him.

2.
The plot is chaos constructed as social commentary. It's always an interesting analysis of their varied combative intrigues, the causal consequences beyond their control and the complexity of their layered deceptions. The beauty is its simplistic presentation: never tough to follow and unreliant on elliptical storytelling, unlike less accessible pieces of comparable density.

3.
Shakespearean is the always-applied-adjective. We witness a story hinged on the Hamlet Effect: the degree of divergence between inter or outer deception and truth is undiscerned, a form of guerrilla ontology where one is always unsure of whether a character is honest in one scene and not in another. Contributing too is the tragic conclusion: the cop is capped, the criminal confesses as both are absent of free will like Greek tragedy -- their actions conform to the requirements or expectations of their caste, their social role. The title in Cantonese refers to the lowest level of Buddhist hell where one is sent if they slaughter their parents -- familial loyalty is the catalyst for identity and self. Both protagonists destroy their identities and thus disgrace their metaphorical elders, alluding to the suffering in their roles as their subjective interactions in said hell manifest in the hierarchies of opposing organizations. Hence the irony in the beginning when Triad boss Hon Sam thanks his Buddha for its protective watch over him. As his son decides to sever his links to the gang for the force, his death results.

4.
The complex plot represents a pursuit of an internal identity, a self -- both protagonists occupy their place in the opposite while in denial of its influence in their lives. Their denial is an habitual alternative to total acceptance of their present circumstances. The original role is lost and cannot be recreated considering their karmic negation -- any attempt to return to their origin is an exercise in self-conceit. Their sole escape is fantasy and their lives lived unto death are in a state of symbolic eternal torment.

5.
The lead actors (Andy Lau as Lau and Tony Leung as Chan) are impressive. They played believable, conflicted, layered characters, likable and not in equal amount but always sympathetic, circumstances and reactions considered -- Chan's attempts to be ethical and Lau's decision to escape his past and his secrets.

6.
The character of Inspector Wong (Anthony Wong Chau-Sang) was excellent and his death devastating. His contact with Chan created the emotional core of the film (and not his relationship with his therapist). His demise was another instance of metaphorical patricide -- the damnation of his undercover change.

7.
The Triad leader Hon Sam was way overdone. He functioned like a cartoon villain: unimpressive, uneffective, unintimidating and unbelievable in that role. In that the remake is preferred.

8.
Its simplistic choreography contrasted the complexities of story and character relations. Stylistic ornament is distracting and unnecessary in a sombre character drama like this. The most stylist moments are in the introduction, presenting and counterpointing the protagonists' entrance into their false roles.

9.
The film's score I thought irritating. It was intrusive and melodramatic, neutralizing the intensity inherent in the plot and character. I'd imagine a minimalist or non-score a better option -- if I had a single criticism it was that. It nearly ruined a film redeemed in character, thematics and story.

10.
Its primary thematic symbol is Avici, the lowest level of Buddhist hell also referencing Anatta, Karma and Rebirth -- our self-perception is always false and to be neglected and rejected. Action influences rebirth and rebirth is a form of consequential meta-causality represented by the protagonists' varied roles.
A). All media considers cops and criminals as direct opposites, the former tasked to protect people and preserve social order, the latter a threat. The reality of this is determined in action or intent -- whether or not they work according to their assigned task and status. The film examines their reliance on one another for their existence or function, their arbitrary social roles. From the Buddhist stance, this is all irrelevant compared to the suffering they cause. The leads live in every role by being both or neither, united by activity and intent, negated by negative consequence -- in or out.
B). The theme of self is omnipresent and total in the Jungian sense -- it analyzes the personas, factual or artificial, as a tactical manifestation, while their personalities or motivations are obscured behind their outward considerations. The shadow dictates their actions as the most prominent part, fusing the other two layers together while personal individuation is unrealized when the personality/persona remain unreconciled and the shadow is dominant. The self's layers shift and turn on one another as they adapt and develop into new people negating elements of the old. Neither character can escape trace impressions from their past, their karma affecting their rebirth. Each character is trapped in an illusion, a construct, past or present, and a synthesis of both in another allusion to hell.
C). Its ethical centre is the three moral prongs of the Eightfold Path -- Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood. None of the main players engage in that criterion: right speech is replaced by deception, right action by the suffering and violence inherent in their occupations, eliminating the last prong by default. The shift to morality from its inverse is in action: both men seek an escape from their obligation to their original employers to live their life now. Chan wants to abandon both the police and his undercover assignment while Lau wants to continue living his fictional life -- both to confront their relative ethical concerns. To achieve this, they'd need distance of this world wholly, but both are bound to their cover. Their environment insures their inability to maintain moral lives.
D). Deception surfaces in their tactical requirements to ensure survival and an advanced cause. Honesty is their understanding of their role, their adaptation to it, their acceptance of circumstance and their relation to their original employer. The belief in their deception (honesty as deception, deception as honesty) decides the validity of the perceived identity. Reality tends to contradict their temporary harmony to remind them of their hidden identity and their prior obligations. They are trapped in a cycle of self-deception and honesty returned to torment as the former is their only relief from suffering.

11. Overall: 4/5. It thrives from a great plot, excellent leads, terrific themes of much depth but suffers from an irritating score. Overall, the film is an entertaining and thoughtful reminder of the uncertainty of impressions, ideas, identity or conceptual causality.