A departure
Last night, I attended a preview screening of The Departed, Martin Scorcese's take on the recent Hong Kong crime classic, Infernal Affairs I-III. It doesn't have the arty visual style of the trilogy by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, you. I'm not going to geek out on you and do a scene-by-scene comparison of the two, but will say that the new version incoporates a lot of Scorsese touches, from gangster gore to Rolling Stones riffs. There's also an incredible cast that turns in amazing performances.
If you've seen the original, you won't be disappointed. Be prepared for more gore and more humor. The ending is true to the original, but slightly tidier. Purists/Hong Kong movie fanatics will debate some of the changes, but I think the movie stands on its own. It's probably one of the best movies you'll see this year.
If you've seen the original, you won't be disappointed. Be prepared for more gore and more humor. The ending is true to the original, but slightly tidier. Purists/Hong Kong movie fanatics will debate some of the changes, but I think the movie stands on its own. It's probably one of the best movies you'll see this year.
posted by gr at
4:47 PM
Andy speaks (courtesy of kfccinema.com, courtesy of yahoo.com):
"The word is in on Martin Scorsese's 'Infernal Affairs' remake 'The Departed' from the only source which really matters - the star of the Hong Kong original, the unaging one himself, Andy Lau. Speaking after the film's Hong Kong premiere, Lau noted that although it used several quotes from the original, it contained far too much bad language, and felt that it went on too long, combining elements from all three films in the trilogy, though the film makers had only paid for the rights for the first episode. When asked to rate the movie, Andy rather generously responded: 'I would rate both versions 8 out of 10. I thing I don’t like the most is how they made Kelly Chen and Sammi Cheng’s characters into one. I don’t think that the two male characters would like one female. But the remake is ok to watch'. So there you have it, Andy has spoken!"
I certainly wouldn't rate them the same, but I will say that 'The Departed' is a lot better than I expected. I would have to agree with Andy that the lead characters involvement with the same woman was a stretch, and, although Jack Nicholson's performance was good and stole the show, I never really believed he was the gangster he was supposed to be...he was just, well, Jack Nicholson. It's impossible not to compare, and I feel that Tony and Andy's performances were much more subtle and nuanced than Matt and Leo. AND I thought using different actors as the cadets was more believable for the supposed passage of time, and made the burden (especially on Tony's character) more realistic. Blah blah blah. Go see the movie.
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