Review of Infernal Affairs (2002) by Mac C — 31 May 2008

This is the film that Martin OSCAR-CUZ-I-SAID-SO-E based his The Departed off of.

Having seen Departed first, I was able to immediately identify what would be happening next and that is something I expected. However, what I did not expect was seeing some of the same scenes from Departed in IA, we're talking the exact same shots. Scorsese copied verbatim certain things from this as far as visuals go, just with different dialog. But is IA better than Departed? In many way yes, it is. First of all, profanity is kept to a minimum unlike The DeGoodFellas. Second, there aren't a plethora of actors I despise off the screen. Finally, IA requires you to work your brain more, as certain things are not explained away or made hugely obvious. You have to infer.

My only gripe is the length, IA needed to be longer so we could get to know the characters better. That was one thing Departed excelled at, being over two hours long. At the beginning of IA, if you blink you could miss the introduction to the two main people. But this is minor considering how well done the rest of the film is, this is a fine piece of Hong Kong drama.