[FIELDWORK] INFERNAL AFFAIRS, GUANGDONG INVESTMENT TOWER

Infernal Affairs, DIR. ANDREW LAU AND ALAN MAK(2002)     

Guangdong Investment Tower, Central and Western District, Hong Kong

It is a story about Lau and Yan, who are both a mole, but on two opposing sides– the police and the gangster. The movie at the beginning gave the two characters a close up shot, representing that their faith is completely different. It is an exciting story between the searching and fighting against the two, and their “boss” behind Hon Sam and Wong Sir.

There is a significant place which appears frequently in the movie. The “Guangdong Investment Tower” is the place where Yan and Wong Sir met every time when Yan told him messages.

When Wong Sir got killed. It is a big plot twist that Wong is the only person that knows Yan is not a real gangster but a policeman. 

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When the cars and group of gangsters came into the building. The camera used a low-to-high angle which gives the group larger force and bigger. Then the camera used a pan shot, moving with the characters. From still to move, it built up the fast pace and went to the climax of the story. Compared to reality, it has more open. In the movie, they seldom put wide shots, mainly focusing on the character and the pace follows the actor’s facial expressions.  

When they are beside the lift, the camera moves fast from left to right and zooms in and out, somehow shaky to make the situation more realistic. In which the audience becomes part of it and can be excited as a “voyeur”, which gives them a better experience. 

The figure of the flaneur is reborn and magnified as the voyeur. The voyeur behind the screen or camera lens, like the flaneur, adopts the gaze of knowing.(AlSayyad, 2006) Yan and Wong’s relationship is similar in which Yan watches for Wong. The voyeur can’t occupy the space he observes, but remains physically remote.Yan doesn’t have control on his actions even though he doesn’t want to be a mole anymore. Same as Lau, he wanted to become a real policeman at the end, however he can’t escape his faith.

The scene in the elevator, the camera uses a special approach in which at first Wong walks past the gangster, pretending to be talking on his phone. However, when his hand suddenly appeared and stopped the door, the movie went to the climax and it was really exciting. I think it is because up to that point there are a lot of moving shots. The pace is getting faster, the audience will think “it is finally over” but the sudden shock gave the story a highlight, same as the fall of Wong’s body later. In the movie, the character all wears black and the camera focuses on close up. In real life, there are more colours like the red capbant, it makes a huge difference and without being part of the story, it is just a normal office and road. The story plot make a huge impact.

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 — So Xiao Rong Cynthia 3035835375