Infernal Affairs (2002)

#30 in my 2007 movie challenge was Infernal Affairs, the Hong Kong movie that Scorcese remade as The Departed. When I saw The Departed earlier this year, I liked it a lot, and I thought DiCaprio especially did a great job. Seeing IA has given another dimension to my experience of TD, which I’ll discuss after I get through telling you how great IA is.

Two kids go undercover, one criminal into the police, one police cadet into crime. Both rise in the ranks, and in the esteem of their bosses. IA is a tight, stylish film that doesn’t miss a beat–the music, the editing, the small details that clue the viewer in but aren’t hammered home. While Andew Lau and Tony Leung are compelling as the leads, the rest of the cast also shines, most notably their two bosses and Leung’s dimwitted criminal colleague. This is a bittersweet, smart tale, told exceptionally well.

By comparison, TD’s merits have dimmed for me. Much of what was good about Scorcese’s film was taken from the original, such as the cat and mouse scenes between the two moles. Jack Nicholson was miscast, and his analog in IA, played by Eric Tsang, only underscores that. Further, Scorcese lengthened the script by 50(!) minutes, most of which was to overexplain things that were done with skill and subtlety in IA. Martin Sheen was good as DiCaprio’s father figure, but Anthony Wong as SP Wong was better in IA. I still think DiCaprio did a great acting job, but seeing IA made it clear that he had the most sympathetic role. Lau and Damon had the thankless task of embodying an almost unempathizable character. Two female charactes from IA were needlessly, and less believably, condensed into the same person in TD, though played well by Vera Farmiga. The Departed was a good film. DiCaprio and Damon were very good, but the standout of the film was Mark Wahlberg. That role and his performance were original to Scorcese’s film, and truly great.

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