Infernal Affairs is "a gripping psychological thriller" which turns the good cop/bad cop cliché on its head. It was a winning formula for co-directors Andrew Lau and Alan Mak as the film broke box office records in its native Hong Kong and achieved cult status among western audiences. Naturally Hollywood wants its piece of the pie, and Brad Pitt recently snapped up the rights and approached director Martin Scorsese to direct him in a US remake.
Kung Pow!
The main 'making of' featurette is the usual mix of interviews designed to outline the plot and overall concept of the film - which we're assured, is groundbreaking. There are also snippets of behind-the-scenes footage, but Confidential Files is your best bet for getting an inside look at how some of those breathtaking stunts were achieved.
Among these, you'll see actors being shot, chased, dangled on wires, and dropped from great heights onto stationary cars. But nothing can surpass the bravery of a ravenous Andy Lau, who insists on eating prop Kung Po chicken freshly scraped off the floor.
Of the nine-minute outtakes reel it has to be said: watching actors fluff their lines in Cantonese isn't funny unless you're Cantonese. Thankfully there are a good few pratfalls tossed in for everyone else. Watching someone slip over and land on his butt? Now that's funny in any language.
Double Impact
The alternative ending included here is only available on the UK and Hong Kong DVD editions, so you can count yourselves lucky. Having said that, there's nothing strikingly different about it. Rather than adding footage, directors Andy Lau and Alan Mak simply dispense with the resolution - annoyingly, that means you get a double helping of melodramatic flashbacks accompanied by a James Horner-esque soundtrack dirge.
Lau and Mak remind us again just how groundbreaking the movie is in their audio commentary (subtitled in English). They talk at length about blurring the line between the bad guys and the good guys, and - when they're not boosting each other's egos - give a keenly observed scene-by-scene breakdown of the film's psychological subtext.
Managing to be light-hearted as well as incisive, this is a wide-ranging and nicely balanced selection of extras. A word to the wise, though: avoid the English dub and go with the subtitles - even Bruce Lee couldn't chop through that much wood.
EXTRA FEATURES
