If I had just watched the English language trailer, I wouldn’t have watched Infernal Affairs; it made the movie look pedestrian and uninteresting. I liked Wai Keung Lau’s work on Storm Riders, but I wouldn’t have sought this one out just because of that. However, because I really enjoyed The Departed, I decided to try it out, and I was quite impressed. It’s hard not to compare this to Scorsese’s film: for instance, it does in the first 8 minutes what Scorsese does in 50, and yet the movie takes place over ten years, while The Departed seems to take less than a year. Each storytelling technique has its own pros and cons, and in the end, Infernal Affairs comes across not as a drama, but as an action movie with a twist.

It tells a great story, with tension and excitement. Plus, the four principal actors are outstanding. Eric Tsang and Anthony Wong Chau-Sang make their “father figure” characters distinct and work well with their respective protégés; while both intelligent and proud, Tsang’s gangster is more egotistical and explosive, while Wong’s police captain is cool and self-assured. Tony Leung Chiu Wai does a magnificent job of showing the conflict of the undercover cop who has to act like a gangster. The biggest star, though, is Andy Lau, who brings subtlety and nuance to his character, making his police mole sympathetic and distasteful at the same time. I really enjoyed seeing that the cop and the mole were connected somehow, right from the beginning of the movie, and how their confrontations were fairly low-key (as opposed to the big gang/cop scenes). The characters’ motivations weren’t black and white, which made things tricky when you as an audience member tried to cast your allegiances.

My main problems with the movie come with a lack of familiarity with some of the cultural shorthand and the rules of the Hong Kong action genre. Plus, the women in this movie are more plot devices than characters, and I just don’t have an ear for Chinese pop music. If you’re comparing it to The Departed, Infernal Affairs is a different enough movie to still be entertaining; on its own merits, it’s a fun, tense action movie with great character work. Recommended.

Its hard to appreciate both this movie and The Departed. You’ll have to choose which one to see first, and which one to watch wondering how good this would have seemed if you didn’t know everything that was coming.

While I’d seen lots of writing about Infernal Affairs and the resurgence in interest in it when Martin Scorsese decided to remake it, I didn’t really know a lot about the film. It grabbed me right from the beginning and I could see why Scorsese was interested in it as well. Infernal Affairs starts out simply with parallel characters who make moral choices, but as they live within their lies it all get blurry. With great visual motifs and a breezy pace the film cruises along in a very enjoyable way. I loved the melodramatic tone and coincidences that kept the focus on the characters and their struggle to figure out who they really are. Lots of fun. Now I have to see Scorsese’s re envisioning of film that may not have been possible without the influence of Scorsese on the crime drama. A neat cinematic exchange.

I can’t decide if I like the ending or not. Other than that it was an interesting and fun movie. Well worth watching!