Infernal Affairs question for chinese literate
 

was having this discussion with a friend.

based on the translation of the chinese title to english, is "Infernal Affairs" mistranslated? is it really "Internal Affairs"?

thanks

I can't speak from the Chinese perspective, but I assumed it was meant to be a pun.

i figured it had to do with all the "buddha and the circle of hell" text in the beginning.

I don't know Chinese, so you can ignore this, but I doubt it's a literal translation. It's too good of a pun to work in two completely different languages.

The Chinese name for the movie literally refers to a place in hell. So the 'Infernal' part of the name is certainly accurate. At the same time, someone probably got cute and tried to make the English name a play on the 'Internal Affairs' name.

i see, thanks hammer (and the rest of you)

also, note the scene where Yan writes "bodyguard" (or "biu" in cantonese). he wrote the word correctly first. but crossed it out. and then, replaced it with "biu", a word that sounds the same but with a different meaning which means "goal". my theory is Yan figured out that the info Eric Tsang's character wanted was going to cop/triad undercover which is Andy Lau.