I appreciate how the film is driving home the idea of the yin and yang, these two men both on the same mission, but from different sides. In nearly every scene, you wonder who you should be sympathizing with. It’s a difficult decision because one choice gives you the truly good guy (Yan) who is helping the bad guys, even at the same time trying to get information to his superiors. The other choice sides you with the cop who is playing at trying to stop the drug lord, but secretly working for him. It’s all very confusing, but worth every second of moral torment.
Check out my full review at The Oscar Project on Substack (https://theoscarproject.substack.com/p/classic-review-infernal-affairs)
Yes of course Martin Scorsese, you haven't seen Internal Affairs before The Departed. There are simply scenes where the shots were taken over almost 1 to 1. If you like The Departed, you should watch the original
Amazing, great acting, great storyline, and of course I was one of those that seen the Departed first, and I still love the film, but this is equally as good and better in other areas, however the departed also is better in other areas. Its a win win situation the chance to watch either, and unlike the departed there is a 2 follow up movies to enjoy.
Classic Hong Kong film.
It is also an epoch-making work.
An incredible crime-thriller, with an intense, perfectly-paced, well-thought out plot that's thoroughly gripping due to the incredible character dynamic between the two leads, each giving excellent performances.
The original title of the film is Mou Gaan Dou.
The inspiration behind Scorsese's Oscar-winning The Departed, this Hong Kong original contains the core fabric of that story but few of its offshoots. It's strictly the tale of two double-agents, working both sides of the law in a desperate race to be the last man discovered, as the stakes climb steep and swift. Rapid and concise, it speeds impressively through some very tricky waters, effectively ratcheting the tension to an almost-unbearable level through both plot and cinematography.
As a non-Mandarin speaker, it's often tough to keep pace with the lightning-quick subtitles, but strong performances from the two yin-and-yang leads saves the day on more than one occasion. Ballsy and cold-hearted, I wish the American adaptation hadn't spoiled so many of the twists for me. I have a hunch the ending would've been twice as jolting if it hadn't.
Beginning with an immediate lob into both cheese and action, I was caught off guard and genuinely wondered whether I was watching the same movie as everyone else...because I really wasn't liking the 80s commercial-type editing and the horrific use of music, but despite these two aspects not necessarily getting any better, the movie does somehow become an engaging crime mystery.
Even though Martin Scorsese 'borrowed' way too much from this film, to the point where it's an almost identical story, I still think The Departed was a much better movie, and that's because that propelled everything that was wrong with this version. This one was incredibly rushed, giving almost no time to build characters. This one had lots of music but it was just terrible and took me away from the emotion at points. Infernal Affairs also had a very on-the-nose screenplay that almost felt like a first draft. Scorsese corrected all these things in his version with a longer run-time, a more patient pace, better use of music, a more realistic script and a terrific casting choice of Jack Nicholson!
There's a few parts I preferred about Infernal Affairs, but the majority of my preference leans towards The Departed. Great film though and very different to Scorsese's picture anyway, purposely feeling more like a cheesy b-movie action flick. I guess I liked it.
Great acting and ofcourse the biggest advantage of this movie is perfect plot.Really enjoyable!
A seriously refreshing police thriller that cranks up the tension to the max. There's no overblown gunplay or buddy cop crap here, this baby is tight as a drum and will have your nails down to the quick. Superb performances, a tight script and tense direction make this a winner in every department. Pick it up if you can, it's fantastic.
Does anyone have this in Chinese audio version instead of mandarin?
better than the HOLLYWOOD one
If u like I recommend the Infernal Affairs Chronological Edition, the best for watch a second time the trilogy ;)
Why do people hate on a movie JUST BECAUSE it's a remake? While it's true that most remakes don't turn out as good as their originals, its completely wrong to make that assumption 100% of the time. I've seen this movie as well as The Departed and I must say the latter's story was fleshed out a bit more and believable. Don't get me wrong, this movie deserves all the praise it received, but the remake took its story and made subtle improvements to its betterment. All this "watch this and not the remake" talk is just nonsense.
It's definitely better than the remake (which is The Departed, in case you didn't know... ;) ). And that means something because I consider The Departed a very good movie, too!
One of the best movies of all time and like mortstar said... watch this one NOT ther american version.
Watch this movie not the Hollywood remake!
Review by Dulneth PereraBlockedParent2024-04-28T10:51:10Z
I cannot find a single review that doesn't compare this to the American remake 'Departed' by Martin Scorsese which is one of my favourite movies of all time. So fuck it I'll compare it too.
First of all, the style of this movie is definitely not for me, the way they build up tension using an electrifying score with some weird camera angles and overly dramatic shots is just too off putting for my taste, gives major bollywood vibes. Some scenes are hugely exaggerated unnecessarily. That and the fact that I've seen The Departed earlier didn't really help because I knew all the twists that was gonna happen, even if I didn't I think Scorsese did a much better job at the twists, it was so sudden and unpredictable the way he did it.
There are few things this one did much better than The Departed and one is the storytelling, because here it felt like the prime focus of the movie was the storytelling, the characters so were well written and the script is impressively well executed. There is much more of an emotional pay off to the characters and each actor portrays some stellar performance.
I personally prefer if you watch The Departed first if you really wanna be blown away because it does a better job at being more a fun watch than Infernal Affairs.