Review of Infernal Affairs (2002) by Cj R — 23 Nov 2008

Infernal Affairs is an amazing movie coming out of the Hong Kong cinema scene, you have probably seen it's nearly as successful remade Hollywood counterpart "The Departed" and while both are incredible movies in their own right but I believe that IA edges out The Departed.

IA is a very well done movie that takes you through it's incredible performances and tight, well paced script with an ease that afterwards makes you wonder just how they did it. Coming in at 1 hour and 41 minutes (50 minutes shorter than TD) it's one of the few movies that doesn't have any forced scenes and doesn't waste one frame of film. The plot is more streamlined and while both films have some scenes that are nearly shot for shot identical, many have been tweaked and many major instances have been maneuvered around and in doing so, both versions have the odd scene that is better than it's counterparts.

The cast is incredible and is mostly better acted than TD. (The lone exception being Nicholson. Marky Mark's character isn't present in the film and Martin Sheen and Anthony Wong's police captain are both exceptional.) Andy Lau brings more emotional impact to his character than Matt Damon and even Leonardo Dicaprio's amazing performance can't quite touch Tony Leung performance.

If you have seen The Departed, you owe it to yourself to see the original which most claim is the better of the two. The endings are somewhat different and what with the different pacing, acting and scene arrangement it feels like two completely different movies. Come up with your own conclusion on the great debate.

Infernal Affairs or The Departed?