Infernal Poetry

The poetry of Infernal Affairs lies in the fact that it tells a paradox with the universality of discourse and the depth of fate through the shell of a spy film or undercover film: the original purpose of man and the result of his actions often cannot follow one's heart. The ravines crossed. I haven't watched many Hong Kong-style undercover films, and it can be imagined that the core of this type of film is competition and display. The so-called competition is often for a confidential document/material/nuclear weapon, etc., which can completely change the fate of the organization, and occasionally for a woman who is at the center of the game between good and evil, or between the two organizations. The so-called display is to show the strength and tenacity of the righteous side, the lack of justice, the viciousness of the people and the evil side, the violation of human relations, and the self-interest. It depends on the director's position and the needs of the ideology at that time. For example, the display of the 007 series should not only show the high-end technology of the Western camp during the Cold War, but also often promote a beautiful picture represented by consumerism through Bond's game world: famous cars, famous watches, famous guns, beautiful women.

Infernal Affairs also has competition and display, but the competition is not a specific item, but "identity", and what is displayed is not the either-or-either between the good and the evil, but the ambiguous connection in their inner logic. The underworld and the police station, in many places one-to-one, have their own rules and powers (possibility) to kill. Although in the first Infernal Affairs, the visual contrast of light/darkness between the two is emphasized. The police station is in a brightly lit modern office building, while the underworld can only hide in dark and dilapidated buildings in order to hand over drugs, but more At that time, the film depicts the similarities between the underworld and the police station in details: the night snack stalls on Hong Kong’s street corners welcome these people who always belong to the dark night, and the British/Chinese government can make a beak on Hong Kong affairs at any time, “Come out and mix, sooner or later. It’s a painful realization of what to pay back”, and even a similar practice of ambush undercover. Corresponding to this is the common point of the two young people Chen and Liu. They are obviously not satisfied with the ordinary life, but are eager to make achievements and make a career. Will eventually become a general. Ten years of undercover years have changed their original intentions. They all yearn to return to an ordinary life, have an ordinary job, and build a warm family. For Liu, that means killing everyone who knows his undercover identity, helping the police to wipe out the underworld, and reinventing himself as a good man in an identity that was full of deceit and bloody ambush. For Chen, this means that he has to help the police catch Han and use legal means to avenge Han's murder of his family, so he completely whitewashes his identity as the son of the biggest triad leader in Tsim Sha Tsui and an important member of the triad. They both want to be good people, but there is only one place for good people; they are fighting for a legitimate identity, and that identity is based on the no-know/world-know paradox (for Liu, there must be no one Knowing that he is an undercover cop sent by the underworld, for Chen, everyone must know that he is an undercover cop). Two people who are so similar and have the same purpose must kill each other, and the two who understand each other best and understand the reasons for the other's choice must refuse to listen to the other's request. This deep loneliness, absurdity and alienation constitute Wujiandao's interpretation of the word "inferiority", and it also extends a very rich metaphorical space: as long as we are in a different discourse system at the beginning, as long as we are not yet in the beginning We take steps before we understand the true meaning, and we can only continue on this lonely road, experiencing different events like split personalities, but always facing the same predicament and ending in the same fate.

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