it is almost ten years since chan wing-yan (tony leung) was turfed out of the police force as a cadet, tasked with embedding himself deep into the triads. at the same time, lau kin-ming (andy lau) was one of a group of junior triad members who was entered into the police cadets. now, yan is a very close associate of a triad boss, sam (eric tsang), whilst lau is working closely with wong (anthony wong), who is trying to break sam's operations. when yan and lau participate in an attempted sting, both sam and wong realise there are moles in both camps...

after drifting away from his 'young and dangerous' days, into the world of cgi heavy wu xia, andrew lau teamed up with alan mak and returned to the world of cops and crims, but with a much more mature and stylised approach. this, the result of this collaboration, is probably the finest film he has been attached to as director.

'infernal affairs' is a beautifully styled, extremely well executed tale of two moles, brilliantly brought to life by tony leung and any lau. leung has previous, with his role in 'hard boiled' being almost identical, thematically speaking. meanwhile, who wouldn't believe that the inherently perfect any lau is actually working for the devil? it would certainly explain the lack of ageing. oh, and eric tsang and anthony wong provide outstanding support.

great stuff.