Cinema DNA

Infernal Affairs

2002 · Directed by Alan Mak Siu-Fai, Andrew Lau / Alan Mak, Andrew Lau Wai-Keung · Hong Kong

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Infernal Affairs poster

Infernal Affairs

Hong Kong · 2002

Influenced 1 film

1 film

Films it shaped

The Departed 2006 · Martin Scorsese @everyframeapainting (YouTube) HBO Max

Critic argued · Hong Kong → United States

Martin Scorsese's The Departed is a licensed remake of Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's 2002 Hong Kong masterpiece Infernal Affairs. Scorsese and screenwriter William Monahan transplanted Lau's structural DNA directly: the mole in the police force, the undercover cop in the mob, the paranoia of doubled identities, the identical fate awaiting both. Rather than conceal this, Scorsese made it explicit, a Hong Kong film given Irish-American geography and American scale. Both versions are essential to understanding modern Hollywood narrative architecture.

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