The Kingdom of Shadows

Infernal Affairs is among the best action films I have ever seen, and quite definitely the only Buddhist action film I've seen. The plot, despite having comic book tinges and bad metaphors, develops logically from the youthful beginnings of a story, to a perfect tragic ending.

The plot is a generic "cops vs. thugs" plot, with the twist that the thugs have a spy in with the cops, and the cops have a spy in with the thugs.

The plot would be rather dry if it wasn't for the fact that the "cops vs. thugs" plot is a "macguffin" for a secondary plot about the thug spy trying to go legit. In the end he is unable to and is responsible for the death of the hero of the film, the under-cover cop. The film concludes with a line from a Buddhist sutra about the hell in which one begs for death, but death never comes.

I feel there is little to add to that plot which is so strikingly tragic, unfortunately the film was remade by Scorcese, who completely botched the job (I don't know what led him to think an American could remake a Buddhist action film, without the Buddhist), and Infernal Affairs III really botched the job by punishing the man who's punishment is not dying.

This film should have been left alone. It only causes further suffering to drag people out of their own private hells and expose them to the daylight.