Maybe it's my delusion, but after watching so many movies from various countries and regions, there is one subject that only Hong Kong Island filmmakers are particularly interested in, and they have been filming and filming again and again for decades - undercover.
Undercover is undoubtedly one of the most tragic character types in film and television works. They seem to belong to both good and evil factions at the same time. the protagonist.
When it comes to undercover movies, the most famous is of course the 2002 "rescue work" "Infernal Affairs", so that after this film, the word "Infernal Affairs" has become a proxy for undercover. But go back another decade and there's another memorable undercover agent, who happens to be Tony Leung as well - almost circumstantial evidence of how well-suited his face is for this black-and-white role. That movie was "The Detective" which was released in 1992. The undercover cop in the movie is called A Lang.
Ah Lang appeared in the library to clear the door for the gangster. Sitting in front of the accomplice who betrayed his brother with a thick book, he smiled and asked him if he had betrayed him as he turned the pages of the book. He seemed to have no ill intentions, until he opened a certain page, revealing the contents hidden in the hollowed out pages. Silenced Pistol - This scene is another memorable use of the hardcover tome in the movie, in addition to Andy hiding a hammer in the hollowed-out Bible in The Shawshank Redemption.
For the undercover agents in Hong Kong-made police and gangster films, the question that has been plaguing them has always been the same: "Who am I?"
In "Spicy Detective", as a policeman who has been undercover for many years, Ah Lang has won the trust of the gangsters, and Uncle Hai, the boss, regards him as his beloved disciple. Therefore, in the second half of the movie, when Ah Lang had to kill Uncle Hai in public in order to complete the mission, the shock and pain in the other party's eyes made him tearful while shooting. In this scene, justice is Really, the emotion is also real.
In an earlier well-known undercover film "Dragon Tiger Wind and Cloud", Chow Yun-fat's undercover policeman Gao Qiu also faced a similar dilemma. On the one hand, behind him are justice and law, and in front of him are robbers and robbers, right and wrong, as if the law of heaven is clear. But on the other hand, behind him is the ruthless and ruthless boss who threw him as cannon fodder and threw him to the front line for his promotion and meritorious service. In front of him is his brother, Hu, who saved his life and fought with the boss to protect him. The defense of the law is also a betrayal of brothers. In the more and more painful tangle, Gao Qiu finally flew to block the fatal shot for Ah Hu, fulfilling "loyalty" and "righteousness" with his life.
But in the new century, the dust has settled, and the undercover policeman Chen Yongren in "Infernal Affairs" no longer has such inner contradictions, even if he was undercover for three years and three years, three years and three years, even if he was undercover at the beginning of his relationship with the underworld Ma Zaiqiang knew each other when they were young. The two also cried together in the prison cell. When they were put in the Hong Kong films of the 1980s and 1990s, they shared life and death with each other. Yet hardly a second of the nearly six-hour "Infernal Affairs" trilogy is wasted on underworld bromance. Han Chen, the gangster who sent Liu Jianming to go undercover with the police, is very proud of this man, but he is just a tool person, and there is no shortage of such seemingly joking temptations as "you might as well arrest me now that you are promoted." Any level of camaraderie.
In the nearly ten years of his undercover career, Chen Yongren's firm belief remained unchanged until his death: "I am a policeman" - which complements his opponent Liu Jianming's "I didn't have a choice before, now I want to be a good person". In the movie universe of "Infernal Affairs", there is no more doubt and emotional entanglement about the system and rules, only identification and infinite approach.
The big hand of the times turned the page mercilessly, and the story went to the next chapter.
At the end of 2020, Andy Lau's new work "Bomb Disposal Expert 2" will be released. In this play, his protagonist Pan Chengfeng has three identities, and one of them happens to be a police undercover agent. This is such a sad, desperate and angry movie. On the screen, Pan Chengfeng, who has been betrayed by the whole world, still asks himself "who am I" like an undercover senior in the past few decades. , he simply forgot who he was. In the movie, the amnesia bomb disposal expert was told by his ex-girlfriend: "If you believe me, you are an undercover police officer; if you don't believe me, you are a terrorist."
I don't know if I should be happy for him. Eighteen years ago, Andy Lau didn't have a choice in "Infernal Affairs", and now, he finally has a choice.
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