Andrew Lau brings a restless camera and a taste for polish to crime and action films. We recommend Infernal Affairs, which he produced and co-directed, for keeping its attention on the people doing the deceiving.
Fi1m perspective
In Infernal Affairs (2002), Tony Leung Chiu-wai looks worn out by the work of concealing himself, while Andy Lau seems to inspect each expression before allowing it onto his face. Andrew Lau and co-director Alan Mak know to keep looking at them. This is a tense, unusually attentive crime thriller, built around a policeman among criminals and a criminal inside the police. We felt anxious even in Leung's quieter moments, because his watchfulness makes it clear that he cannot afford to relax.
That concern with faces sits within a career spent finding ways to keep familiar genres moving. Young and Dangerous (1996), his breakthrough as director and cinematographer, adapted comics about triad life and also drew criticism for making that life attractive. The Storm Riders (1998) took him towards extensive computer-generated effects in martial-arts filmmaking. He later co-directed the street-racing manga adaptation Initial D (2005) with Mak, and directed The Captain (2019) as his work extended into mainland Chinese production.
Lau established Basic Pictures in 2002, and took three jobs on Infernal Affairs: producer, co-director and cinematographer. Sharing the photography with Lai Yiu-Fai, he uses restless camera movement to follow people watching one another and weighing what they have heard. The sheen could have made all this seem remote, but the camera keeps returning to faces. It is hard to romanticise this occupation when Leung makes it look so punishing.
The script's parallels occasionally feel too tidy, with the two infiltrators matched more neatly than we might believe. At 101 minutes, though, the film moves quickly without hurrying past the effort it takes these men to keep their stories straight. Lau and Mak trust small changes of expression to hold our attention, and the actors repay that trust. Start with Infernal Affairs, and resist the temptation to do anything else while it is on.
Biography
Andrew Lau Wai-Keung (also credited as Andrew Lau) is a Hong Kong film director, producer and cinematographer. He began his career in the 1980s as a cinematographer, working with directors including Ringo Lam, Wong Jing and Wong Kar-wai. His credits include the first segment of Chungking Express (1994).
Lau made his directorial debut with Against All (1990) and continued to serve as cinematographer on many of his projects. He is best known for the Young and Dangerous series (from 1996) and the Infernal Affairs trilogy (2002–2003), co-directed with Alan Mak. He has also directed films in mainland China, South Korea and the United States, including Initial D (2005) and The Captain (2019).
