Following the success of Infernal Affairs, directors Andrew Lau and Alan Mak deployed a more complex prequel after the death of Yan (Tony Leung). Taking inspiration from The Godfather trilogy, Infernal Affairs II traces the tangled lives of its two protagonists, Yan and Ming (Andy Lau), leading up to the first film. Widely interpreted as a political fable, this character-driven crime drama makes a powerful connection to the split loyalties and transfer of power in Hong Kong just before its handover to China.

Infernal Affairs III, the last of the trilogy, sets the action in periods before and after the moment when the first film left off. From the tightly interwoven plot and the multi-thread storytelling to the narrative depth and unexpected variation on the conventional undercover theme, the achievement of the Infernal Affairs trilogy is hard to overstate, and its comparison to The Godfather films is more than warranted.

The screening of this trilogy marathon at M+ Cinema will project the original 35 mm film prints.

Andrew Lau (b. 1960, Hong Kong) is a director, producer, and cinematographer. He trained as a cinematographer at Shaw Brothers Studio in his early twenties. His night shots in City on Fire (1987) and As Tears Go By (1988) amazed his peers. Lau directed Against All as his debut in 1990. In 1995, he co-founded BoB & Partners with Wong Jing and Manfred Wong. and kickstarted the Young and Dangerous (1996) franchise. Lau’s notable works include is computer graphics-heavy films The Storm Riders (1998) and A Man Called Hero (1999). Lau established his production company Basic Pictures with the hugely successful Infernal Affairs in 2002. After a brief stint shooting the Korean film Daisy (2006) in the Netherlands and The Flock (2007) in Hollywood, Lau has turned to producing and directing films in mainland China.

Alan Mak (b. 1965, Hong Kong) is a director, scriptwriter, and producer. He graduated from the School of Drama in the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 1990 and worked as an assistant director before making his directorial debut Nude Fear (1998). Mak met Andrew Lau, who worked as cinematographer, while he was assistant director in Wicked City (1992). The duo continued with Initial D (2005) and Confession of Pain (2006) after the Infernal Affairs trilogy. Similarly, Mak continued to share writing and directing credits with Felix Chong after the trilogy and their most successful collaborations are Overheard (2009), Overheard 2 (2011) and Overheard 3 (2014).