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| Special Features: |
2-Disc Set
Widescreen anamorphic format
Theatrical and alternate ending film versions
Chapter Selection
Commentary by various cast and crew
Story Synopsis
Confidential File (behind the scene shorts spliced together into a short feature)
Music Video
Making of....
Movie Trailers
Cast & Credits Bios
Photo Gallery
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| Video Format: |
Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
[SS-DL]
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| Languages: |
Cantonese (Dolby Digital 5.1)surround
Mandarin (Dolby Digital 5.1)surround
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| Subtitles: |
English , Traditional and Simplified Chinese
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| Captions: |
No
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| Casing: |
2-Disc Keep Case
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 Infernal Affairs stars a lot of heavyweight Hong Kong talent in a well constructed and visually stunning movie that has captivated audiences and critics alike. Andy Lau plays Ming, a high ranking police officer who is not what he seems - because he is in fact a Triad (Chinese Mafia) member who was ordered to infiltrate the police department starting with the academy when he was 18 yrs old. Working as a high level police officer, he is able to keep his boss and his gang one step ahead of the cops.
Tony Leung plays Yan, a Triad member belonging to Sam’s gang - who also is not what he seems. Tony Leung is an undercover cop who was kicked out of the police academy at age 18 and was inducted into the Triad years ago to be the Hong Kong police department’s eyes and ears within the Triad.
Anthony Wong plays Officer Wong, who is Ming’s boss within the police department and also happens to be Yan’s superior and only contact in the police department - in fact, he is the only person in the Hong Kong police department who knows Yan’s true identity.
 Eric Tsang plays Sam, the Triad boss who sent Ming to the police academy to become a mole in the police department. He also happens to be Yan’s boss within the Triad.
When both the Triad and the Police Department find out that moles have infiltrated their organizations, Officer Wong orders Yan to try and find out who Sam has sent to the police department while Sam orders Ming to find out which of his underlings is the undercover cop. In addition, Ming is promoted to Internal Affairs with special orders to dig out the mole in the police department - of course, with no one realizing that they have just put the mole in charge of the investigation. Thus begins a complicated chase with both Yan and Ming trying to discover who is the mole.
This is not an action movie, in fact there is surprisingly little action. This is a movie that keeps you in your seat through tension, drama, and well scripted surprises. The movie moves well from scene to scene and the fact that award winning cinematographer Christopher Doyle was called in as a Visual Consultant is not lost on the movie, as it is visually stunning. All the actors are big name Hong Kong veterans and the acting is superb. Andrew Lau, who made his name making popular trash cinema like the Young and Dangerous film series, shows that there is more to him than just box office fluff. Alan Mak, who shares directing credits, also co-wrote the very strong screenplay with Felix Chong.
I won’t spoil the surprise ending, but be advised : this is one movie you don’t want to miss, Hong Kong film fan or no. It will appeal to all audiences. It is already considered a favorite to win all the major Hong Kong film awards, including Best Picture. The gamble of pooling together such high caliber - and expensive - Hong Kong talent seems to have paid off for the film makers : an excellent, critically acclaimed film that killed at the box office as well.
The Hong Kong movie industry still has a long ways to go to catch up to Hollywood when it comes to releasing movies on DVD. Any Hong Kong film fan can tell you that most Hong Kong DVD’s are strictly vanilla DVD’s. With that in mind, this DVD gets high marks for actually making the effort to finally add some extra features that are somewhat worthwhile and also making extra effort to make the film transfer to DVD a nice clean transfer.
Picture Quality: 9/10
 One of the nicest pictures I have seen in a Hong Kong DVD. Crisp, clear, and smooth.
Sound Quality: 7/10
One of my biggest gripes about Hong Kong films has always been the sound, which suffers under the grueling speed with which Hong Kong films are normally made. While this one is definitely better than normal, the sound is not the best, and sometimes it seemed like the background music was almost drowning out the actors’ voices - c’mon guys, key word BACKGROUND means keep it in the background.
Menu: 8/10
Simple and easy to navigate. Nothing too flashy or special, but clean and nice.
Extra Features: 6/10
While the extra features are nothing too exciting compared to most Hollywood releases, I was pleased to see someone actually put the effort into putting some decent features onto the second disc. The still photos section is rather light and boring, with many of the photos starting to look the same after awhile. The music video was interesting, being sung by both main characters. I wasn’t too impressed with the Confidential File, which was simply a collage of cut behind-the-scenes shots blended together along with a soundtrack. The making of featurette was very interesting and they made sure to give all the actors plenty of screen time talking about the film.
The Final Word:
One of the best movies to come out of Hong Kong since 1999, this movie is a must see, packed with great story and drama. Old school Hong Kong film fans might be disappointed at the lack of action, but the excitement in this movie is the story and the actors themselves, not bullets and mayhem. A solid DVD that should be part of every Hong Kong film fan’s library.
Aaron Hoag
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