Renting East Asian Culture: Regional Network of Hong Kong Film Industry
Analysis of Infernal Affairs
Why Infernal Affairs is so successful?
Apart from the use of well-known casts, Infernal Affairs involved acts of cultural production that included the packaging, promotion, and display of commodities and the production and effect of all media. Media spectacles can thus be created and it raised the profile of productions.
Living in the consumerism world like Hong Kong, the consumeristic behavior among audiences (especially the teenagers) are easily attracted by merchandising. Movie tie-ins were also previously rare in Hong Kong, but Infernal Affairs produced some star-endorsed products such as posters, theme song 《練習》by Andy Lau and Tony Leung, brush pot, T-Shirts, postcards, mousepad, DVDs, novels, and even a first day cover etc.
Infernal Affairs posters in different lanuages
Infernal Affairs poster with different designs
《練習》by Andy Lau and Tony Leung
Merchandizes (brush pot, paper bag, postcards, DVDs, novels)
《無間道前傳 - 劇本‧編劇論述》
Published on July 2003
《無間道II映像特集》
Published on Sep 2003
《無間道I + II小說》
Published on Oct 2003
《無間道III小說》
Published on Dec 2003
The Infernal Affairs media spectacles explained a great diversity of apparent phenomena and achieved the peak period of promotion. The advertising such as the display of videos all over Causeway Bay and Mongkok, as well as on the ‘roadshow’ channel which always broadcast in large number of buses, MTR billboards, and featured in all the major newspapers and magazines. Particularly for the promotional video of Quality Tourism Services which planned by Hong Kong Tourism Board in 2003, it referred to Infernal Affairs through the scene of Andy Lau stating that “He is Lau Kin-Ming”. (Lau Kin Ming, who acted by Andy Lau, is the main character in Infernal Affairs). These aggressive promotional activities of Hong Kong Tourism Board leveraged upon the film’s popularity.
Promotional video of "Quality Tourism Services" by HKTB - Released in 2003
Infernal Affairs designed to set public agendas and negotiate some importance in people’s everyday lives by generating a lot of news and rumors in order to stir people imagination. The main characters Andy Lau and Tony Leung were constantly appeared on both of the local and regional TV or entertainment programmes. Press conferences in Korea or Japan brought a greater reputation to overseas.
Generated news from 《大紀元》before publishing Infernal Affairs (Released on 12 Dec 2012)
Generated news from Apple Daily before publishing Infernal Affairs II (Released on 1 Oct 2013)
Generated news from Apple Daily after publishing Infernal Affairs II (Released on 1 Oct 2013)
Press conference in Korea on Feb 2003
TV Entertainment programmes in China - 綜藝旗艦
Press conference in Japan
TV Entertainment programmes in China - 小燕有約
Infernal Affairs used another strategy to grow their cultural marketplace further. Its plot also includes a mainland businessman, acted by Chen Dao-ming(陳道明) (a Chinese actor), and spreading anti-crime message. By using the strategy of creating media spectacles, made Infernal Affairs emerged out of many Hong Kong films in 2002. “Infernal Affairs Online”, which produced by GameCyber Technology Limited in 2006, imitated the scene and model of characters, helps extending the life cycle of Infernal Affairs.
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Reference:
Leon, H. & Leung, W. F. (2008). East Asian Cinemas: Exploring Transnational Connections on Film. Infernal Affairs and Kung Fu Hustle: Panacea, Placebo and Hong Kong Cinema. p.71-80
Lim, T. (2008). Renting East Asian Popular Culture for Local Television: Regional Networks of Cultural Production. In Chau, B. H. & Iwabuchi, K. (Ed.), East Asian Pop Culture: Analysing the Korean Wave. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
However, most of production companies in Hong Kong financed by private capital, they do not have the same capacity as Infernal Affairs for diversifying products. The problem leads to the use of co-production strategy so as to eliminate the production cost and still can create media spectacles.
