Buckland-Warren-Puzzle-Films-Complex-Storytelling-Contemporary-Cinema

160 Allan Cameron and Sean Cubitthorizontal plane, traversed laterally by light and information. In this context,in which speed and light are one, united as “the shifting appearancesof momentary and false transparencies,” the spatial integrity of the film’slocations is challenged: “the glance is at once site and sight” (Virilio 1991,p. 62). In a city of screens, horizontal mobility holds sway. A lateral orientationis also suggested by the film’s insistence upon sonic metaphorsand codes. Both stereo and surround sound systems, after all, differentiatesounds in terms of direction and volume but not spatial elevationin relation to the listener. Therefore, if the stereo system at the beginningof the film provides a metaphor for Yan and Ming’s parallel destinies, thenit suggests not upward mobility but rather circulation within a horizontalsystem.This horizontality, we believe, belongs to a newer mode of social aspirationthat supersedes the myth of upward mobility, which is underminedin the film by Yan’s progressive entrapment in the underworld and subsequentdeath, by Ming’s rise to the top upon false premises, and by the sensethat this achievement will be haunted by the ghost of his departed double(indeed, Infernal Affairs III [2003] plays heavily upon Ming’s sense of guilt,to the point where he suffers a breakdown and begins to identify himselfwith Yan). Thus, upward mobility is demonstrated to be a lie in two senses:that it never occurs, or that it occurs only unjustifiably. This moral andspatial leveling is suggested in particular by the scene in which Yanuncovers Ming’s identity as the mole. When Ming leaves his glass-walledoffice for a moment, Yan begins to snoop around, triggering an interactionbetween the two characters that is conducted indirectly via a type ofnarrative cryptography, a spatio-temporal circulation of oblique codesand communications. Recognizing his own handwriting on an envelopeon Ming’s desk, Yan looks through the window at Ming, and sees himtapping a document against his leg. This triggers in turn a very rapid grayscaleflashback: a following shot from Yan’s perspective of the “mole” displayingthe same mannerism. Returning to his office to find it empty, Minggazes through the glass at the exposed envelope, realizing he has been discovered.Here, a series of shots organized around horizontal cameramovements and point-of-view shots through glass serve to level the protagonistsspatially, and implicitly morally too.That Yan’s realization occurs as a flashback suggests, furthermore, a lateralmovement through time, in which cyclical patterns of behavior andevent are replayed. A similar effect is achieved by the repetition, at the closeof the film, of Yan’s expulsion from the cadet school. The scene is replayed