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Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's Infernal Affairs - The Trilogy$
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Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's Infernal Affairs - The Trilogy

Gina Marchetti

Print publication date: 2007

Print ISBN-13: 9789622098015

Published to Hong Kong Scholarship Online: September 2011

DOI: 10.5790/hongkong/9789622098015.001.0001

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Identity as Static: Surveillance, Psychoanalysis, and Performance

Identity as Static: Surveillance, Psychoanalysis, and Performance

Chapter:
(p.116) (p.117) 5 Identity as Static: Surveillance, Psychoanalysis, and Performance
Source:
Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's Infernal Affairs - The Trilogy
Author(s):

Gina Marchetti

Publisher:
Hong Kong University Press
DOI:10.5790/hongkong/9789622098015.003.0005

In Infernal Affairs III, Lau becomes obsessed with controlling the voice, i.e. with finding and destroying the tapes of his conversations with Sam. In other words, he tries desperately to control an identity from which he has become totally alienated — and, of course, this endeavor proves futile. In his search for power over his own identity, he has lost any sense of the location of power within his environment. There is an insistent use of surveillance video throughout the trilogy and broadcast television acts as an important medium for the shaping of identity in Infernal Affairs. Infernal Affairs brings the performance ensemble together to cover all the bases — Hong Kong, People's Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan, overseas Chinese, radio, television, Cantopop, rock, radio, art film, and indies. Moreover, this motley group manages to pull together and play off of each other's performances in order to tell a coherent story presented within a unified visual design.

Keywords:   Infernal Affairs, identity, Lau, surveillance video, psychoanalysis, performance, Sam, power

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