Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's Infernal Affairs - The Trilogy

Appendix 1: Plot Summaries

Infernal Affairs The first film begins with the initiation of Lau Kin-ming (Edison Chen) into the triads by his immediate boss Sam (Eric Tsang). Sam has assigned the new triad recruits to a deep cover infiltration of the Hong Kong police force, and Lau next appears as a police cadet. Superintendent Wong (Anthony Wong Chau-sang) and Academy Principal Yip (Fung Hui-kam) recruit Chan Wing-yan (Shawn Yue), another cadet in the academy, to go undercover as a mole within the triads. Arrested, Chan transforms from Shawn Yue into Tony Leung Chiu-wai, who plays the older incarnation of the character. Promoted in the force, Lau changes from Edison Chen to Andy Lau, who plays the older Lau Kin-ming. Chan and Lau meet in a stereo store, where Chan pretends to be the proprietor when Lau comes in to purchase some equipment. They sit and listen to Tsai Chin’s “Forgotten Times” in order to test the equipment, and Lau is sold on the system. Lau leaves, the real owner arrives, and Chan rushes out to attend the funeral of his police academy mentor SP Yip. SP Wong now becomes the only officer in the force who knows Chan’s true identity. Chan has worked for Sam for three years (and has been ● Appendix 1 Plot Summaries ● 170 APPENDIX 1 undercover for ten); however, he still does not enjoy the unquestioned trust of his underworld boss. Wong orders Chan to see a psychiatrist to help him deal with his frequent violent outbursts in order to stay out of jail. Parallel to Sam’s preparations for a drug deal with his Thai contacts, SP Wong plots a bust to foil Sam’s plans. However, the work of each mole cancels the other out, and Sam and Wong both fail. At home, Lau begins to organize his new apartment with his bride, Mary (Sammi Cheng), when Sam calls to give him the task of ferreting out the mole in the gangs. Mary, a writer, alludes to using Lau as her inspiration for a story about a man with multiple personalities — “a good guy who has done bad things.” Picking up on the idea of psychiatric disorders, Infernal Affairs cuts to Chan visiting his psychiatrist, Dr. Lee Sum-yee (Kelly Chen). Impressed by his settling down to marry his girlfriend Mary, Lau’s superiors give him a promotion and move him to Internal Affairs with the mission of finding Sam’s mole within the force. In order to find the police mole for Sam, Lau has devised a scheme in which Sam’s underlings fill out forms that he will match against police files. Chan’s plan to find the mole in the force involves following Sam to the meeting in which these forms will be passed along to the other mole. Wong lets slip that he plans to have Sam followed until he leads him to the mole, and Lau takes up this same strategy to flush out the undercover cop. Lau has Wong followed, and he pinpoints a meeting between Wong and Chan, calls it in, and the gangsters make a plan to intercept the cops at their office building rendezvous. Chan gets a call that the mole has been located, and the cops move in on the same location. Wong does not slip by the gangsters and is killed, and Chan needs to be rescued by another gangster Keung (Chapman To). Keung has been shot, and he eventually dies in Chan’s arms. Rummaging through Wong’s effects, Lau discovers the cell phone he used to communicate with the mole, and Lau uses the Morse code signal to get Chan to make contact with him. Still ignorant of Lau’s true identity, Chan agrees to meet his new handler, and Lau involves him in a plot that leads to Sam’s death. Back at the police station, Lau’s fellow officers applaud him for killing Sam. Chan discovers the file envelope that held the triad profiles for Sam, and he realizes Lau is the mole. When Lau returns to ● APPENDIX 1 171 find Chan has left, he also understands that Chan knows about his true identity, and, in retaliation, Lau returns to the computer in order to wipe out all evidence of Chan’s undercover status. Chan seeks sanctuary from Dr. Lee, and reminds her to prove his undercover identity if something should happen to...