Kinda dissappointed, kinda not
So moving on with this movie thing I have going, gally99 and I decided to take up a movie this evening. So we had two to choose from, Man of the Year or The Departed, we chose the later knowing it would be good.
The movie was great, it's a good movie, I highly recommend watching it. The story line is fantastic but over all plot is nothing new. It's a cops and criminal movie, and they chose great actors who played their parts well. I just had my hopes up WAY to high that it was going to be different than (don't click on the link if you don't want the details of the movie) Infernal Affairs that came out in 2002 in HK and in Chinese Theatres 2004 which was about the time I first saw it.
I won't go into details of environment and culture, frankly, if it was in french filmed in France, it would have French mofia guys and police in their Peugeots chasing down some guy... oh wait that sounds like Ronin....
The entire storyline is identical, write down to each scene and the main plot of each scene, (there was some Americanized scenes, such as sleeping with the main female charactor) but I still find the HK version to be better for several reasons.
I'm not covering the loopholes because it is rather "Hollywooded" to make it exciting.
What I liked about The Departed:
It was a little quicker in pace.
They shared the same girlfriend and never got caught.
It was still pretty exciting to watch.
What I didn't like about The Departed:
The second detective who knew about the undercover agent decided to retire when the Cheif died, then later come back at the VERY end to kill the mole. (the mole never dies in the HK version)
And WHY chinese mofia as the gang they were trying to deal with. The chinese dude had such terrible bad chinese accent and was OBVIOUSLY not from HK by his pathetic speech pattern (this means I know I speak in a closer accent then he did, but even HKers know that I'm not from HK). It would've made more sense if he was a chinese triad contact in America and spoke English.
What I liked about Infernal Affairs:
The timeline in whch the story was shown was a little more realistic. For example, it took almost 10 years before the respective mole/rat gained the trust of their bosses.
The mole/rat are friends joining the cadet, but went their seperate ways just before graduation. But still maintained contact from time to time, and had NO idea.
The psychological aspect didn't just affect the rat who was going crazy being undercover for 10 years, but the mole also had pschological issues of why he's taking this abuse from the mob king.
The mode of communication was a little more creative during a stake out, when a leak came that cell phone tracking devices were used.
The slower storyline, had a purpose, it showed how intricately organized and careful planning of each side.
There was only ONE person in the police station who actually knows of the real identity of the undercover (not two)
What I didnt like abot Infernal Affiars:
The female roles were too underplayed
No sex scene by Kelly Chen (It's not that kind of culture)
Overall impression. If I've never seen Infernal Affiars, it would've been a great AND entertaining movie to watch like Face/Off, but unlike movies where they remake and modernize an old classic ... well let's just say I was playing the entire HK version of the movie in my head and waiting for each scene to happen.
So, I have all three Infernal Affiars move, the prequal, and the pre-prequal... which fills in all the HUH's!?! in the original movie.
The movie was great, it's a good movie, I highly recommend watching it. The story line is fantastic but over all plot is nothing new. It's a cops and criminal movie, and they chose great actors who played their parts well. I just had my hopes up WAY to high that it was going to be different than (don't click on the link if you don't want the details of the movie) Infernal Affairs that came out in 2002 in HK and in Chinese Theatres 2004 which was about the time I first saw it.
I won't go into details of environment and culture, frankly, if it was in french filmed in France, it would have French mofia guys and police in their Peugeots chasing down some guy... oh wait that sounds like Ronin....
The entire storyline is identical, write down to each scene and the main plot of each scene, (there was some Americanized scenes, such as sleeping with the main female charactor) but I still find the HK version to be better for several reasons.
I'm not covering the loopholes because it is rather "Hollywooded" to make it exciting.
What I liked about The Departed:
It was a little quicker in pace.
They shared the same girlfriend and never got caught.
It was still pretty exciting to watch.
What I didn't like about The Departed:
The second detective who knew about the undercover agent decided to retire when the Cheif died, then later come back at the VERY end to kill the mole. (the mole never dies in the HK version)
And WHY chinese mofia as the gang they were trying to deal with. The chinese dude had such terrible bad chinese accent and was OBVIOUSLY not from HK by his pathetic speech pattern (this means I know I speak in a closer accent then he did, but even HKers know that I'm not from HK). It would've made more sense if he was a chinese triad contact in America and spoke English.
What I liked about Infernal Affairs:
The timeline in whch the story was shown was a little more realistic. For example, it took almost 10 years before the respective mole/rat gained the trust of their bosses.
The mole/rat are friends joining the cadet, but went their seperate ways just before graduation. But still maintained contact from time to time, and had NO idea.
The psychological aspect didn't just affect the rat who was going crazy being undercover for 10 years, but the mole also had pschological issues of why he's taking this abuse from the mob king.
The mode of communication was a little more creative during a stake out, when a leak came that cell phone tracking devices were used.
The slower storyline, had a purpose, it showed how intricately organized and careful planning of each side.
There was only ONE person in the police station who actually knows of the real identity of the undercover (not two)
What I didnt like abot Infernal Affiars:
The female roles were too underplayed
No sex scene by Kelly Chen (It's not that kind of culture)
Overall impression. If I've never seen Infernal Affiars, it would've been a great AND entertaining movie to watch like Face/Off, but unlike movies where they remake and modernize an old classic ... well let's just say I was playing the entire HK version of the movie in my head and waiting for each scene to happen.
So, I have all three Infernal Affiars move, the prequal, and the pre-prequal... which fills in all the HUH's!?! in the original movie.