Just out of curiosity, are most of the people who are saying "infernal affairs" is better than "the departed" Asian?
Im Chinese by the way and i thought Departed was better. However, I think it really depends on if you grew up in an American or Chinese society.
Yep, I am Indian but that has nothing to do with me liking Infernal Affairs more than The Departed.
The ending is much better for this film than The Departed. It serves a purpose.
I am Russian living in US. I saw IA way before Departed and rewatched it many times. I consider Departed a completely secondary movie which doesnt capture the finer points of original and is just dumbed down for american audience.
Departed is movie where everything is chewed out and spit without any questions or doubts. Characters are black and white -there is no grey there
I am American but thought Internal Affairs was better. I have always been put off with Scorsese's fixation with violence and his portrayals of the same that inevitably go to excess. It is a sad commentary on U.S. taste - I might say culture in general. The graininess and bleakness of IA are internalized - more psychological, as opposed to the externalization of The Departed. The IA violence is more of a sidelight. With Scorsese, it takes center stage.
shareThe people I know who prefer The Departed appear to either be Scorsese lovers or too impatient to read subtitles.
shareI loved the original and I am not Chinese, I'm Swedish. The Hollywood remake wasn't ANYWHERE near as good. Infernal Affairs wiped me out, it is one of the very best films I've ever seen. It drew me in and had me so involved that my memory is of hearing it in Chinese, not even noticing subtitles, and falling in love with the characters. It was utterly brilliant, a masterpiece of cinema. Hollywood couldn't come close.
shareThe only reason I liked IA better was that I can not get over the overacting in The Departed. I know most people think that the acting is fine (if not amazing) in The Departed, but I thought everyone was trying WAY to hard and it's incredibly jarring for me to watch.
I say this as a big fan of everyone involved with The Departed, but for me, it's just too much.
I think you're all crazy.
Infernal Affairs is the original and is very very good but it's not as well put together as The Departed, simple as that.
This is one of the reasons why remakes are made... to improve the original attempt, and in this case, I'm very glad that was done!
The two scenes that, to me, were just awful and made Infernal Affairs inferior to The Departed are:
- the one after the cinema, with Lau being ridiculosly followed by Chan... typical overdramatic suspense, very unnecessary and it kind of takes a lot of realism from the situation.
- the car death scene... that one was just ridiculous.
Summing up, it is a great film, i loved it, but it lacks the editing and finishing touches of a real masterpiece.
I agree Mr Fox. All the above, plus Jack Nicholson...
I'm European with a natural dosis of US-sceptiscism btw
First off great casting in The Departed, but something went wrong somewhere. Infernal Affairs just really gets to you. I didn’t feel the turmoil of what the Leo’s character must have been going through the way Tony Leung’s character did. The intensity was better captured in the Hong Kong original.
shareI'm Russian, I thought Infernal Affairs was superior to the Departed. Don't get me wrong, I liked the Departed and saw it first, but then I saw Infernal Affairs and thought it was a much more powerful movie.
shareI think they are both really fine films, but I can see why someone like Martin Scorsese would want to remake IA. He tells a far deeper story with much more attention to the supporting characters using the elements of IA as a take off point. I guess you either like that sort of thing or you don't. But I really enjoyed getting to know characters like Frank, Ellerby, Madolyn, and Dignam who either have no equivalents, or aren't as well developed in IA. For example I thought the psychiatrist and Ming's wife were almost afterthoughts in IA and treated pretty superficially.
Alternatively what the original did do well was its treatment of issues Scorsese didn't really take up. I liked the idea of the police mole changing his path in life and wanting to make good whilst the triad mole simply wanted to come in from the chilly and stressful, cold and dark undercover work.
Different strokes in this case, spooky. To me, all that "character development" with giving the crime boss a girlfriend, the coke-fest scenes, the "masturbation" in the movie theater, the sex with the psychologist etc all seemed pretty superfluous after enjoying the more streamlined story in the IA (and that is a wholly subjective judgement on my end). As a woman sometimes I enjoy the romance storylines/storybranches, but in this case they didn't feel totally necessary for development to me. But I can see how others might enjoy these elements in the Departed, I cannot say I hated them, but after comparing to IA, I thought they were a tacked on for "Western audiences" type of deal. The ending in IA in particularly worked better for me. But I would not badmouth the Departed at all, it had a different feel to it, less cerebral imo, but plenty entertaining and I liked the movie.
shareDifferent strokes in this case, spooky.Can understand that Valeria and think I mentioned that in my previous post.
American.
IA is the better film all around.
The Departed lacks all the nuance that made the actual story so intriguing.
It, like, many American remakes gutted the soul from the story.
The Departed is a good film, but it is not great.
It's not even in Scorcese's top.
Credo ergo sum
British. I have no Issue with watching subtitled films. we get a lot of them over here from japan, China, russia, France, Germany, Sweden etc.
But the reality is that The Departed is the better movie: Deeper, richer, better acted, better directed and an all over better crafted movie. frankly, I thought IA was ridiculous and melodramatic in parts that just took me out of the film. I don't see the realism of characters in IA and I like my movies gritty and realistic, like the Departed.