History Film / TheInfernalAffairsTrilogy

* ContemptibleCover: The [[https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwidk9iE3c3hAhVOxYUKHcA_DDkQjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FInfernal-Affairs-Wu-jian-dao%2Fdp%2FB00005JN7C&psig=AOvVaw3KoT9wmhW43wz8xjqN5W1m&ust=1555267440550413 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.

* BilingualBonus: Dr. Lee's name is a pun on psychologist in Cantonese.

* FingertipDrugAnalysis: In the first film, Yan tests the imported drugs with a quick snort.

* NotSoDifferent: The scene with Lau and Yan sitting in front of the hi-fi stereo listening to the same song and both visibly feeling a sense of community - without knowing that they're actually each other's worst enemies, of course.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Ming is constantly struggling with his double identity as Sam's mole while he attempts to embrace his identity as a police.

* DeathIsDramatic: Whenever a major character is killed off, a flashback sequence of the killed character is played along with a melancholic background music.

* DrivenToSuicide: In third film, [[spoiler: after Ming inadvertently revealed himself as Sam's mole, he snapped and killed Yeung before gets wounded by Shen. Ming then attempts suicide by shooting himself through his lower jaw, too bad the bullet doesn't deliver the fatal blow.]]

* RooftopConfrontation: Yan and Ming after they learn of each other's identity.

* [[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.

* TheCuckooLanderWasRight: All through the three films, Keung has always been the one to point out undercover cops. A few times, he has also made throwaway comments pointing to Yan as a cop.

* ThoseTwoGuys: Del Piero and Keung are usually seen with each other in the scenes they appeared in the first movie.

* TheScapegoat: Billy. Ming pins everything on him at the beginning of the third film.

%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

The three ''Infernal Affairs'' films are incredibly twisty [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs cops vs. Triads]] films set in 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.

%%* TheChessmaster: loads, but especially Wong, Sam, Sam's wife Mary, Ming and the younger Ngai.

%%* CoolShades

%%* MexicanStandoff

%%* NotSoDifferent

%%* SinisterShades

* HeelFaceTurn: A lot of them by several characters throughout the trilogy. The most notable is in the first film: [[spoiler: After Wong's death, Lau decides that he doesn't want to serve Sam any longer. He confederates with Yan to stalemate Sam and kill him, hoping he will be able to leave his past as a gangster mole behind and fully become a cop.]]

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

* AndIMustScream: In the ending of the third film, [[spoiler: Ming is confined to a wheelchair, paralyzed and catatonic.]]

** When Wong was giving a watch to Yan, he noted a pinhole camera was located at the number 5, reflecting Yan's birthday and his status as an undercover. [[note]]'''二五仔''' (Jyutping: ji6 ng5 zai2) was the term in question, which means snitch in English. This slang is only used in Cantonese language.[[/note]]
** While filling out their personal information, Keung asked Yan regarding the the second letter of the word ''bodyguard'' in Chinese. Yan almost got the right letter only to made a mistake with the radical. Doubles as a funny moment.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Ming constantly struggling with his double identity as a mole for Sam as he attempts to embrace his identity as a police.

%%* DeathIsDramatic

* FaceHeelTurn: A lot of them by several characters throughout the trilogy. The most notable is in the first film: [[spoiler: After Wong's death, Lau decides that he doesn't want to serve Sam any longer. He confederates with Yan to stalemate Sam and kill him, hoping he will be able to leave his past as a gangster mole behind and fully become a cop.]]

* KillItWithFire: How one of the capo in second film got disposed of.

* OutWithABang: In the second film the capo "Gandhi" is suffocated with a plastic bag by a female assassin while having sex with her.

* BigBad: The first film has Hon Sam, the Triad boss ordering the infiltration.

* GreyAndGrayMorality: The main theme of the second film. On one hand you have a cop [[spoiler: masterminding a mob boss' murder]] and on the other you have the son of the mob boss attempting to go legit.

* HereWeGoAgain: the third film ends with a flashback to the period of the first film that finishes with Yan and Ming unknowingly meeting each other in a hi-fi store - the scene that began the main action of the first film after an establishing pre-credit sequence.

%%* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: [[spoiler: Most of the third film.]]

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 ''Film/{{City of Damnation}}'' and in India as ''Film/{{Homam}}'' in the Telugu language.

Oh, and the title and the epigrams at the beginnings and ends of the films suggest that HongKong is Buddhist {{Hell}} and all the characters' lives suck because they're being punished for the sins of their past lives. Or they metaphorically evoke the hells that Yan and Lau are living in as a result of their undercover rules.

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 ''Film/CityofDamnation'' and in India as ''Film/Homam'' in the Telugu language.

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''.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/infernal_affairs_poster.jpg]]

%%* HiredToHuntYourself: Both Yan and Ming in the first film.

%%* OutWithABang: The capo "Gandhi" in the second film.

* [[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.

* [[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.

** While filling out their personal information, Keung asked Yan regarding the the second letter of the word ''bodyguard'' in Chinese. Yan attempted to correct him, almost getting the right letter only to made a mistake with the radical. Doubles as a funny moment.

* ChekhovsGun: The [[spoiler:envelope]] handed by Sam to Ming, Yan recognized it judging by the handwriting he left on it when he tried to correct Keung.

* BrokenPedestal: Wong fell out with Sam after [[spoiler: Ngai's death and latter's treatment of Ngai's remaining family members]], establishing their rivalry in the first film. Sam even foreshadows this in the beginning of the second film, while he was dining with Wong in police station.

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Invoked by the story of Wong told to Sam in second film, where he tried to stop a gang fight as a junior cop with his partner. His partner was mortally wounded by a gangster and Wong wounded and arrested the assailant in return. Wong encountered the said gangster a two years later, boozing with Ngai's gang members, as if he faced no consequences for his crime. Wong remarked the incident with a fitting proverb while voiced his regret for not emptying his gun in the gangster's face.

* BrokenPedestal: Wong fell out with Sam after [[spoiler: Ngai's death and latter's treatment of Ngai's remaining family members]], establishing their rivalry in the first film. Sam even foreshadows this in the beginning of the second film, where he was hanging out with Wong for lunch in police station.

** When Wong was giving a watch to Yan, he noted a pinhole camera was located at the number 5, reflecting Yan's birthday and his status as an undercover. [[note]]'''二五仔''' was the term in question, which means snitch in English. This slang is only used in Cantonese language.[[/note]]