Review of Infernal Affairs (2002) by Andy G — 07 May 2008

Comparing Infernal Affairs with The Departed is a great example of the differences between Eastern and Western cinema. Whereas Scorcese's film delves into its characters and has no problem turning the original story into a 2 1/2 hour Hollywood blockbuster, Infernal Affairs, despite its big name Asian stars, is still very economical in scope- nearly an hour shorter. Extraneous relationships are merely touched upon, character development scrapped to let the action take center stage. This isn't surprising given the fact that a sequel and a prequel of Infernal Affairs were made; if there's any place that likes cashing in on hits even more than the US, it's Hong Kong. But back to the movie itself. From what I've seen, it takes a phenomenal balance of different elements for movies out of Asia to reach that same level of America's greatest films. John Woo's "The Killer" and Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" are two such movies, especially the former because of its heroic bloodshed roots.

Infernal Affairs falls short of this esteemed group. Still, it always had my full attention, and that attention was always on the mole vs. mole line rather than subplots that were absent. In fact, the story was arguably better in that there's a sense of wanting redemption instead of "did the bad guy get it?"Dissolves and slo-motion shots felt awkward at times; I'd compare them to those of the Godfather Part III. I found myself wondering what the point of this dissolve was, and I could never answer my question. This was in contrast to the rest of the editing, where bursts of a mugshot or flashback worked great. And the four lead actors were all very good. Along with his acting prowess, Tony Leung has that "Asian cool" look going for him. Good combo.

Stylistically, I thought The Departed was better than Infernal Affairs. Yet the latter was as equally enjoyable as the former, proving that a solid, compelling story will usually win out over mere exercises in technical prowess.