New Trailer for 4K Restoration of Hong Kong ‘Infernal Affairs Trilogy’
by Alex Billington
August 29, 2022
Source: YouTube
“I suspect Sam has a mole in the department.” Janus Films has revealed a new 4K restoration trailer for an iconic Hong King crime trilogy titled Infernal Affairs, best known as the film series that was remade into Martin Scorsese’s Oscar winning film The Departed. Many cinephiles are already familiar with these films, but if you haven’t watched them yet, Criterion Collection is re-releasing them as a Blu-ray box set later this year after they re-open in theaters first. A blockbuster in Asia, Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s groundbreaking policier saga traded the high-octane ballistics of earlier Hong Kong films for a cooler, crisper style and a head-spinning plot full of twists that forever changed the genre. A must see set of films!! New 4K restoration from the original camera negatives was carried out by L’Immagine Ritrovata Asia. Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The original stereo soundtrack was remastered from the digital audio master files. Starring Andy Lau and Tony Leung, with Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, Leon Lai, Francis Ng, and Chen Daoming, among many others. This is the perfect crime trilogy to catch in theaters when they play.
4K restoration trailer (+ poster) for Andrew Lau & Alan Mak’s Infernal Affairs Trilogy, on YouTube:
Two of Hong Kong cinema’s most iconic leading men, Tony Leung & Andy Lau, face off in the breathtaking thriller that revitalized the city-state’s 21st century film industry, launched a blockbuster franchise, and inspired Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. The set-up is diabolical in its simplicity: two undercover moles — a police officer (Leung) assigned to infiltrate a ruthless triad by posing as a gangster, and a gangster who becomes a police officer in order to serve as a spy for the underworld — find themselves locked in a deadly game of cat and mouse, each racing against time to unmask the other. As the shifting loyalties, murky moral compromises, and deadly betrayals mount, Infernal Affairs raises haunting questions about what it means to live a double life, lost in a labyrinth of conflicting identities and allegiances. -Janus Films
Infernal Affairs (2002), Infernal Affairs II (2003) and Infernal Affairs IIII (2003) are all co-directed by Hong Kong filmmakers Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, directors of many, many other HK action movies previously, including making Initial D and Confession of Pain together before they both went their own way to direct movies solo. The screenplays are co-written by Alan Mak & Felix Chong for all three films as well. The films took years to first show up in the US, only opening in 2004 after first premiering in Hong Kong in 2002 / 2003. The new 4K restorations of the Infernal Affairs trilogy will debut in select theaters (Lincoln Center in NYC) on September 16th, 2022. They’ll be out on Criterion Collection Blu-ray later this year.
