History Film / TheInfernalAffairsTrilogy

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: In the first film, Sam is eating dinner in the police conference room, and makes a joke about the food not being poisoned. Wong replies, "There's always desert," which Sam laughs at.

* RevisedEnding: The mainland China version of the first film ended with a different ending in which [[spoiler: Ming gets caught]], because of government MoralGuardians.

The three ''Infernal Affairs'' films are incredibly twisty [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs cops vs. Triads]] films set in UsefulNotes/HongKong between 1991 and 2003. The first film, set in 2002, is based around the stories of two [[MirrorCharacter mirrored]] infiltrators. Chan Wing Yan (Creator/TonyLeung) is an undercover cop in the gang of the chubby, AffablyEvil gangster Hon Sam (Eric Tsang). Yan's handler is [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] senior cop Wong Chi-shing (Creator/AnthonyWong), who doesn't realise that his most trusted underling, Lau Kin Ming (Creator/AndyLau), is actually a mole planted in the police force by Sam years before. As Wong's attempts to bring Sam down reach their endgame, Yan and Ming both find their covers in danger of being blown and are both ordered by their pretended bosses to catch the "moles" who are actually themselves.

* AffablyEvil: Sam in his good mood. Even more so in the prequel, as he was Wong's best friend.

* ContemptibleCover: The [[https://www.amazon.com/Infernal-Affairs-Wu-jian-dao/dp/B00005JN7C cover]] for the American release of the first film. It features an attractive woman in a blue dress holding a large gun. The movie has maybe three female characters in it, but none of them are bombshells, even ''see'' any weapons over the course of the story, or have much more than five minutes of total screen time.

The three ''Infernal Affairs'' films are incredibly twisty [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs cops vs. Triads]] films set in UsefulNotes/HongKong between 1991 and 2003. The first film, set in 2002, is based around the stories of two [[MirrorCharacter mirrored]] infiltrators. Chan Wing Yan is an undercover cop in the gang of the chubby, AffablyEvil gangster Hon Sam. Yan's handler is [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] senior cop Wong, who doesn't realise that his most trusted underling, Lau Kin Ming, is actually a mole planted in the police force by Sam years before. As Wong's attempts to bring Sam down reach their endgame, Yan and Ming both find their covers in danger of being blown and are both ordered by their pretended bosses to catch the "moles" who are actually themselves.

The third film is a sequel that follows the stories of the surviving characters from the first film, and also tells a flashback story set just before it. It introduces two new significant characters to replace the dead people: Yeung, a smooth and sinister, possibly corrupt, cop from the Security branch; and Shen, a mysterious gangster from the Chinese mainland.

Elements of all three films were streamlined into the [[ForeignRemake remake]] as ''Film/TheDeparted'', which transferred the action to Boston and made the Triad equivalents [[TheIrishMob Irish-American gangsters]] (with a bit of Irish Mob mythology about [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitey_Bulger Whitey Bulger]] tossed in), and won the 2006 Best Picture Oscar. In Japan, an episode aired in [=TBS=] in 2012 as a remake under the title ''Double Face - Sennyuu Sosa Hen''. It was adapted in South Korea as ''City of Damnation'' and in India as ''Homam'' in the Telugu language.

The three ''Infernal Affairs'' films are incredibly twisty [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs cops vs. Triads]] films set in UsefulNotes/HongKong between 1991 and 2003. The first film, set in 2002, is based around the stories of two [[NotSoDifferent mirrored]] infiltrators. Chan Wing Yan is an undercover cop in the gang of the chubby, AffablyEvil gangster Hon Sam. Yan's handler is [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] senior cop Wong, who doesn't realise that his most trusted underling, Lau Kin Ming, is actually a mole planted in the police force by Sam years before. As Wong's attempts to bring Sam down reach their endgame, Yan and Ming both find their covers in danger of being blown and are both ordered by their pretended bosses to catch the "moles" who are actually themselves.

* [[SwitchToEnglish Switch to Mandarin]]: Asked by Shen during his meeting with [[spoiler: Yan and Yeung]] when they speak in Cantonese. [[RealityEnsues Reality ensues]] as Mandarin is the official language of mainland China and Shen comes from there.

The second film is a {{Prequel}} that tells the story of how Sam rose to his position in the first film, and the unexpected roles that Yan, Ming, and Wong played in that. The third film is a sequel that follows the stories of the surviving characters from the first film, and also tells a flashback story set just before it. It introduces two new significant characters to replace the dead people: Yeung, a smooth and sinister, possibly corrupt, cop from the Security branch; and Shen, a mysterious gangster from the Chinese mainland.

* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler: Sam ordered his Thai partner to dispose all of Ngai's remaining family member, including his kids.]]

%%* ReverseMole