Edison Chen

Infernal Affairs III uses parallel storytelling, flashing between the past and the present. Five months before Yan's death Yan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) seeks to uncover the link between Triad boss Sam (Eric Tsang) and the mysterious mainland triad boss Shen (Chen Daoming). Since Sam's ascension to the seat of triad lord was due to Ngai's (Francis Ng) death (see second film), Sam is suspicious of all those who followed him in the past. He tests Yan's loyalty by asking him to smash an ashtray on Shen's follower during a negotiation, resulting in Yan being arrested by Inspector Yeung (Leon Lai Ming). After being released, Shen smashes a bottle of liquor on Yan's head and called truce between his gang and Sam's gang. At the same time, Yan is prosecuted by the police for violent behavior. His superior Wong (Anthony Wong Chau Sung) manages to persuade the court to allow Yan to go and see a psychologist instead of being sentenced to prison. Thus we are shown how he met Dr. Lee (Kelly Chen) regularly for psychological therapy. The two subsequently begins a romantic relationship. Later, Sam asks Yan to deliver illegal arms to Shen but he himself and other members of the gang did not turn up. Yan delivers the cargo but Shen's gang discovers it is just empty boxes and both gangs begins firing gunshots at each other. Shen and Yan shoot each other in the battle, but both aim at the limbs. Shen thus discovers that Yan is a cop just as Yeung arrives at the scene. Yeung then tells Yan that Shen is not Shen (but actually an undercover cop from the mainland). Yeung also tells Yan that it was due to Yan leaving the police cadets that he gained top honours, thus revealing that Yeung knew Yan is a cop. The three shake hands and wait for the mayhem to die down before returning to their bases. Ten months after the events of Infernal Affairs Former Triad mole turned top cop Lau Kin Ming (Andy Lau) has been demoted to administrative duty pending the investigation of his involvement in the death of Yan and Billy (Gordon Lam Ka Tung). In a flashback, we see a version of events that transpired through the lie Lau tells the police; Billy was the mole who wanted to kill Yan and Lau was there to arrest him when he shot Yan in the head, leading to Lau shooting Billy. After months of investigation, he is transferred back to Internal Affairs. He struggles to whitewash his past and keep his cover, while finding out a fellow Security Division Inspector (Yeung) has ties with Shen, the alleged mainland triad boss who had connections to Sam. He tries to determine whether Yeung is another former mole out to execute anyone who could give him away. A battle of wits develops between Ming and Yeung as each tries to learn the other's secret. Meanwhile, Ming's sense of identity collapses as he begins to lose track of reality, wrestling with his deep guilt in Yan's murder. He has trouble sleeping and is continuously using sleeping pills and is in the middle of going through a divorce with Mary (Sammi Cheng) due to her knowledge of his secret. Ming sets up security cameras all over the Security Division floor and Yeung's office in order to spy on him. He also steals and hacks into Dr. Lee's computer and finds Yan's file. He learns about Yan and his psychological trauma soon deteriorates to the point where he begins to think he is Yan. He even makes it his own personal mission to apprehend "Lau Kin Ming" and to catch Yeung on behalf of Inspector Wong. After seeing an incident where he holds out his gun and talking to an imaginary person, Lee brought Ming back to her office and hypnotises him. Under hypnosis Ming reveals to a shocked Lee that he is Sam Hon's mole. Ming continues to suspect Yeung is related to the mainland Chinese gang and Sam. He breaks into Yeung's office and steal tapes from his safe, using his spy cameras to determine the code. He thinks he hears tapes of Yeung relating information to Sam and he leads his team to the Security Division to arrest Yeung, just as Shen arrives. As Ming plays the tape, a conversation between himself and Sam from the movie theatre scene in Infernal Affairs is played and his second-in-command tries to arrest him instead. Ming suffers a psychotic break, asks for a chance to be a good man, but Yeung declares that "I am a policeman." the same way Yan did. Ming finally breaks and yells out "I am also a policeman!" and fires at Yeung's forehead, killing him. Ming is then shot by Shen who snuck a gun behind his back in case a fight would break out and he falls on the floor. Ming then attempts suicide by shooting himself in the neck, but fails. Present Day A series of flashbacks play, revealing that Yeung and Shen, upon the death of their friend Yan, wanted to avenge him by finding out who the mole was. Shen suspected Ming and set up a ploy to lure him to them. Yeung broke into Ming's office and found the tapes of Ming's conversations with Sam, proving Shen right. Yeung subsequently put the tapes inside his safe. Yeung is buried next to Yan in the police cemetery. Shen and Lee pay their visits. Shen said to Lee: "Events change men, but men do not change events. But these two men are extraordinary because they changed events." Ming ends up crippled and catatonic, lost inside his own mind, haunted by the spirit of Mary Hon (Carina Lau) and locked in his own personal "Continuous Hell". His divorced wife Mary visits and tells him, "Our baby can say "papa" now." As the picture fades into the next scene, the camera pans down onto Ming's finger, which is tapping out in Morse Code, "H-E-L..." (and then the start of another 'L' as the picture dims). But right before the movie ends, it returns to one final flashback of after the incident with the failed cargo trade between Yan and Shen. Yan reports his findings to Inspector Wong on the phone as he's walking through the busy streets of Hong Kong. He enters an electronics and music store, where he finds a bag of cocaine in one of the speakers. Suddenly, Ming (Andy Lau) comes in and wants to buy an audio system...

Chan Wing-Yan (Tony Leung), a police cadet, is ostensibly expelled from the police academy, but is actually selected to be an undercover cop reporting only to Superintendent Wong Chi-Shing (Anthony Wong). Wong is the only person aware of his mission and true identity. Around the same time, Lau Kin-Ming (Andy Lau), a triad member, infiltrates the Hong Kong Police Force on the orders of a powerful gang boss, Hon Sam (Eric Tsang). Each mole has been planted by the rival organization to gain an advantage over the other side. Over the course of ten years, Chan experiences great stress from his undercover work while Lau quickly rises through the ranks in the police department. Using Morse code on a secret radio frequency (the transmitter is cleverly hidden in a plaster cast on his hand), Chan is able to relay data back to Wong that Sam is conducting a drug deal with the Thais. The money will be exchanged in an apartment, but drugs to be handed over a few miles off at sea. However, Lau alerts Sam by sending a SMS to all the cells in the area using his private data card, instead of the police network, giving him enough time to order his minions to dispose of the evidence. After the incident, both Wong and Sam are tasked with finding the moles in their respective organization. After this incident, Wong and Sam realize they each have a spy within their own organizations, and race each other to uncover the moles. By this time, both Chan and Lau are struggling with their double lives. Chan is afraid he is turning into an actual criminal while also fearing his cover will be blown. He begins undergoing sessions with psychiatrist Lee Sum-Yee and jokingly tells her that he is a cop. Meanwhile, Lau appreciates his life as a respected police officer and wants to sever his ties with the triad. Lau has been charged to dig out the mole in the police department by transferring him to the internal affairs department, with a promotion. Lau uses his new role to have Wong under constant observation, hoping to catch him meeting his mole. Chan follows Sam when he gets the details of all the men who were with him on that night and intends to pass them to Lau for investigation. The info is exchanged in a dark theatre. Chan follows Lau, without knowing it is Lau, but Lau has a lucky escape when Chan gets a call and is distracted. Wong intends to pull Chan out of undercover work for fear of his safety. Wong doesn't know that Lau has him under constant surveillance. When Wong goes to meet Chan at the usual meeting place. Sam learns about Wong's location from Lau and sends his henchmen to confront them. Chan escapes from the building while Wong tries to distract the gangsters but ends up being thrown off the roof to his death. Just then, the police show up and a shootout ensues. Henchman Keung, unaware that Chan is the mole, chauffeurs him away from the scene but succumbs to a gunshot wound he sustained earlier. When the news reports that Keung was apparently an undercover cop, Sam assumes he was the mole. Through this incident, Lau retrieves Wong's cell phone and contacts Chan. Both of them agree to foil a drug deal by Sam. The plan succeeds and many of Sam's men are arrested, while Lau betrays Sam and murders him. Everything seems to have returned to normal. Chan can revert to his true identity as a cop while Lau has erased his criminal connections. Meanwhile Lau finds the password for Chan's protected file from Chan. Chan doesn't know yet that Lau is the Mole, and then later deletes all records proving that Chan is a police officer. However, back at police headquarters, Chan and Lau meet for the first time. As Lau prepares to reinstate Chan into the police force, Chan deduces that Lau was the mole and leaves promptly. He finds the papers that Sam had given Lau to help him identify the mole in the triad ranks. Realising what had happened, Lau takes possession of Chan's police identity file to use as leverage to dissuade Chan from exposing him. Chan meets with Lee, the only person left whom he can trust, and convinces her that he truly is a cop. Chan then sends a CD to Lau's address containing a recording of Lau's earlier meeting with Sam. Lau's fiance, Mary, inadvertently listens to the CD and discovers Lau's secret. Chan and Lau meet on the same rooftop where Wong was killed earlier. Chan disarms Lau and holds a pistol to his head as a rebuke to Lau's plea for forgiveness and request to remain a cop. Inspector B (Gordon Lam) arrives on the scene shortly and orders Chan to release Lau. Chan holds Lau as a hostage at gunpoint and backs into the lift, but upon moving his head from behind Chan is suddenly shot in the head by B, who then reveals to Lau that he is also a mole planted by Sam. As they take the lift down to the lobby, Lau kills B out of his desire to eradicate traces of his past, become a "good guy" cop, and end the mole hunt. Stepping out of the lift, Lau shows his identity card to the police to identify himself as one of them. Months after Chan's death, his psychiatrist Lee (Kelly Chen) (whom Chan used to frequent to keep himself from going completely Psycho) discovers records revealing Chan's true identity as an undercover police officer. B becomes a scapegoat for Lau as the real mole in the police force and the case is closed. Lau salutes Chan at his funeral. A flashback reaffirms the point at which Lau wished he had taken a different route in life. An alternate ending for the film was shot in order to comply with Article 25 (7) of the Chinese Film Administration Regulations specifying that films cannot propagate obscenity, gambling or violence, or abet to commit crimes. In the original Hong Kong ending, Lau concealed his true identity as a triad spy and identified himself as a police officer to avoid punishment. Therefore, the original ending was deemed to promote criminal activity and injustice, and an alternate ending was filmed to make the film suitable for mainland China. In the alternate ending, Inspector Cheung discovers evidence of Lau's criminal activity and immediately arrests him when he gets off the lift. This alternate ending was shown in mainland China and Malaysia.