I think they're both great. It's simple (and don't say racist); I missed the subtlities of the English language used in the remake. Also I spent 1/5 the screentime reading subtitles that were bland. The film is 10/10 for story however I just liked Departed more. If you didn't speak English, but Chinese/Cantonese (sp?), I'm sure you'd get more out of IA.
shareWhat's the alternative to weeaboo but for Chinese culture? Pretty much defines this thread.
shareIve been avoiding the Departed like the plague, American remakes of Japanese, Chinese and HK films always suck I dont think theres any exception, this type of crap is for people who cant be arsed to read subtitles or want to see talentless actors such as Leo Dicapachino and Bradley Pitts in all theyre films (btw yeah I know I spelt there names wrong but Im being deliberately sacastic about them, before any of their fans decide to have a go). Too bad hollywood cant produce some better actors and come up with there own original ideas.
In summary if you want to watch crap remakes then all fine and well but dont be stupid and post comments claiming them to be better than the originals
i think there are some remakes that improve on the originals.
oceans 11 was better than the old frank sinatra one, 3:10 to yuma was better this time around. i havent seen the new robin hood, but anything will be better than prince of thieves. i thought the magnificent seven was a great retelling of seven samurai. i didnt like it better, but i thought they did a great job.
the same with this. i think infernal affairs is better, but i think the departed did a good job of retelling the story.
I like Infernal Affairs compared to The Departed despite of not understanding Cantonese as well as not being a Hong Kong resident and being very fluent in English as well as being a resident of the United States.
IA is more realistic and has more emotional depth as compared to TD.It clearly explores the complexities and moral ambiguity that both Inspector Lau and Yan are undergoing.Aside from that,the material is very original and it is truly brilliantly made.The acting of the film is also great especially that of Andy Lau and Tony Leung.There are more interesting characters like Inspector Wong and Sam,the triad boss.Finally,the movie's ending makes you feel for both Inspector Lau,who finally became the person that he wants to assume by becoming a real cop through a series of lies and murder; and Yan,whom we feel considering that he never got his true identity back of being a cop and will always be remembered as a criminal.
TD is just a two-hour and a half mindless entertainment.It is NOT AN ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY since it is remake of IA.(Literally it is a remake since it copied scene by scene of the IA - LOL).Most of the great scenes of the movie was taken from IA as well.Also,there is too much swearing in the film.Why do the movie has to have the word *beep* said for 237 times?Do all cops and criminals swear everytime they speak?Also,both Billy Costigan and Colin Sullivan are one-dimensional.One is good and the other is bad.There are too many characters and a lot of them are bland.Frank Costello looks more like a cartoonish character rather than a mafia boss.There is less emotional depth and complexities as compared to the original.Then there is the pathetic character of Vera Farmiga named Madolyn.Does she really have to sleep with both Colin and Billy?The actors overemote like Leonardo DiCaprio,Mark Wahlberg and Jack Nicholso.Matt Damon is simply bland in this film.Watch Damon in The Informant instead.Finally,the viewer has less empathy to the characters in the end since
everybody just has to get shot in the end.
Roger Ebert gave The Infernal Affairs 3/4 while The Departed 4/4.Have you really lost your touch in reviewing films,Roger?
I give Infernal Affairs a 10/10 while The Departed an 8/10. And many fans of both films will agree with me as compared to Roger.
With regards to the characters,The Departed had excessive criminal and cop characters by including the likes of French(Ray Winstone),Ellerby(Alec Baldwin)and Dignam (Mark Wahlberg).It made the Wong (Anthony Wong),the lead cop and Sam,triad boss (Eric Tsang) from the Infernal Affairs into multiple characters.The Departed would have been fine if it had a lead cop in Queenan(Martin Sheen) and a mob boss in Costello (Jack Nicholson).
But The Departed on the other hand,compressed the female characters from Infernal Affairs namely: Mary(Sammi Cheung),Inspector Lau's wife-to-be;May (Elva Hsiao),Yan's former girlfriend; and Dr.Lee (Kelly Chen),Yan's shrink into one character in Madolyn (Vera Fermiga),who is both the love interest of Colin and Billy as well as Billy's shrink.
Sleeping with two men remains cool in Hollywood!
The Departed is a good movie in it's own right.
However after having seen the original it pales in comparison. I had hoped that Scorsese would add something new in the mix that would justify the remake. Sadly he didn't and to me he even ruined one important scene. In IA we truly cared for Anthony Wong which caused an immense and dramatic impact when he died. In The Departed Martin Sheen's death had none of that. It did not even made sense since he as a character barely had a connection with Leo.
Throughout IA you could feel the tension. The Departed wasn't thrilling at all.
I think that people who liked The Departed better found it more entertaining considering that the actors are more charismatic like Leonardo DiCaprio,the funny dialogues especially that of Mark Wahlberg as Dignam and Howard Shore's musical score. But right at the start of the movie,you know that The Departed is a movie meaning that the characters are not real especially Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) considering the many adlib he has in the movie unlike The Infernal Affairs wherein you really care for the characters.
IMHO,I think the people who liked The Departed are not used to watching foreign movies.
The departed is and will always remain the greater movie. The very first difference b/w TD and IA is the length. Obviously, TD is more refined in this accept. IA is just another fast narration cop thriller. Whereas, TD is more of a character drama and the emptiness if living two lives. IA never shows the main character's moral dilemma properly. It just states it. TD delves into the very soul of the lead character.
I hated the thing about continuous hell. Nobody's life is a continuous hell, however many bad deeds he might have done. By making a cop movie, biblical, you won't create a soulful drama out of it.
And i've read posts that TD has lifted scenes from IA. I akcnowledge that the story is IA's first but TD is never about the story. It is about the character.
Anyways, coming to the execution of scenes. The psychiatrist scenes in TD are executed perfectly whereas, those in IA are just rushed through scenes. You actually feel the tension in the scene when dicaprio is enquired by nicholson about the rat. no tension in IA, it is just another scene among many.
The performances is IA are just good enough to carry the movie through. Whereas, you see the very soul of DIcaprio in TD. Jack nicholson is fantastic as always. Matt damon plays the mole to perfection and mark wahlberg is awesome as the hard hitting cop.
And i'll finish saying that martin scorsese is the greatest director ever lived while Wai-keung Lau, Alan Mak aren't.
Agree with OP and with thepyratror (excellent post there): I enjoyed The Departed a lot more than IA.
And I am not a fan of Hollywood remakes (to put it mildly).
thePyratror:
You can say you like it but don't go forcing it down anyone's throats making a generalization that it is a better film. That is not what everyone thinks, its your opinion and your opinion only.
and don't forget that Wai-keung Lau, Alan Mak came up with the idea and wowed audiences first. All Scorsese did was copy and paste. You still call that great? Scorsese is finished despite the fact he made great films in the past. His time is already over, just look at him now. Stop beating over a dead horse.
Okay, it is my personal opinion. And according, to me The Departed is the better movie and scorsese is still making great movies.
shareI think Infernal Affairs was a riveting cat and mouse movie, and as long as it was sticking to the back and forth of the mole and the undercover cop it was terrific. My problems with it was I found the psychology to be too heavy-handed and not enough time was devoted to show us how Andy Lau's mentality had changed. Andy Lau's fiancee was writing about a book and kept commenting "I don't know if he's good or bad." - those moments made me cringe.
As far as The Departed goes, I don't think it builds up tension as well as Infernal Affairs did, but only because it does a much better job developing these characters and their actions. Giving DiCaprio's character more history made us care for him all the more. The Departed is almost an hour longer, not all of that necessary and Jack Nickelson is more goofy than threatening, but I still think it's better entertainment.
I know who I am! I'm the dude playing a dude disguised as another dude!
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I believe that 'The Departed' was way, way better than 'Infernal Affairs'. And don't get me wrong, guys. It happens that I am a fan of Martin Scorsese while it is also true that I loved 'Seven Samurai' rather than 'The Magnificent Seven'. But I would always say that 'The Departed' beats 'Infernal Affairs' by a wide margin.
Here's why.
'Infernal Affairs' is a great cop and gangster movie and a flawlessly executed thriller but that's it. I think the biggest problem in this film is that it sticks to formula, without experimenting anything substantial. We rarely get an idea about the harsh emotional turmoil that both the moles face. In its loyalty to the formula, the movie does not expand on its characters. It is indeed crisp, sharp and very suspenseful but once you know all about the twists and turns, you really don't feel like watching it again. At least, that is what I think.
Marty's film was every bit a grand film-making achievement. What made it unique was how Scorsese rooted the entire formula into the streets of Boston. The language was as authentic as it could get, so was the humor and characterization. One of the best things about 'The Departed' is how it amps up the drama and excitement along with visceral violence to show the emotional turmoil at the center of it. Both Colin and Billy are tormented souls, caught up in inside lives that they cannot handle. Colin is struggling with personal demons- of warped up manhood and slippery loyalty for Costello. Billy is having a hard time trying to adjust to the gang violence around him, yet he himself sinks deeper into becoming violent himself. And almost every other character had something to do other than just come up and say lines- Ellerby was a showboating cop, Queenan emerges as a patient father figure for Billy, Dignam was abusive, rude yet utterly honest and Madolyn as the love interest comes off as torn-apart as the two moles themselves.
I think that it is a misconception that'The Departed' was too comic...there was a lot of pitch black comedy in the film but the second half transformed into a fascinating dark and morbid part- and I think that eventually we root for almost every character and not just the two moles- when Queenan dies, we do feel a bit unfair, we feel tormented as Billy's reaction to it. Even as a bad guy like Costello dies with his mouth full of blood, Scorsese makes us feel for him- when his phone starts ringing and we feel a stab of pity for this guy.
The magic quality of Scorsese's direction is that he brings a gut-feeling to the formula. That is what 'Infernal Affairs' could not do.
To be frank Departed sucked big time. The original had the best fast paced screen play. I guess Americans will hate IA as they are too lazy to go with subtitles.
sharewhat a sham of a comment and lazy generalization of a people. You raise nothing of an argument worth commenting on other than disgust over bias.
shareI didn't much care for the Departed. The Martin Sheen character was weak and his death had no impact for me. The Anthony Wong character was better developed and had a relationship with the Tony Leung character. The Matt Damon character was a one note character. No ambiguity. Andy Lau was terrific. Also, IA didn't need to go didn't need to swear 300 times to get my attention. All that swearing totally ruined the movie for me.
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It took place in Boston.
People swear in Boston,...a lot. Especially gangsters,....
You're not a writer Fink, you're a goddamn write off
I think the acting of Departed was better, except for Nicholson's. But the way it was set up and the pace was way better in IA.
Plus the ending on IA was perfect. Scorsese....nahhhh.
I enjoyed both movies for obvious different reasons. I thought IA had a better flow and also was able to develop a better sense of suspense. Some may say IA had better characters since there was more left to the imagination. I would disagree with that however as I thought TD did a far better job. In TD there wasn't a mystery transformation of bad to good (Lau in IA)(even tho it does make one speculate that he was roped into the gang to begin with..). The bad (Sullivan) stays bad and only wants to move on out of a more realistic sense of self preservation.
I also found the actions of the TD good character (Costigan) far more compelling as he acted upon the more base personality that he had been living. Monahan (et al) did the character twist in his character rather than of the Lau character as he is forced to take matters into his own hands out of justice. In IA Lau is doing it out of transformation? It's not as compelling in my opinion.
I thought this difference in approach to be the most interesting comparison between the two. This is more about screenplay writing than the actual direction or production value. It most certainly has nothing to do with the subtitles as I thought these were done far better than many movies. When it's all said and done I think I liked the intensity IA was able to achieve as the deciding factor of which movie I enjoyed the best. This is only a marginal victory over the better development and production of TD. TD also loses points for the horrendous portrayal by Nicholson who was only slightly more sophisticated than his joker role of past.
one area that I forgot to mention is the oddity of which movie had the stereotypical "hollywood ending".
IA had 1 good die but yet the unknown son lies on as well as the love. the other good never has to pay for his bad, other than guilt.
In TD the good dies but takes out the bad in the sh**storm that is violence and corruption. It was hit or miss on which would live on. To my mindset it was the lesser of what one would call the Hollywood ending.
Departed was good but Infernal was better. Certainly not a good option if you don't like reading subtitles.
shareLike other posters have mentioned the Departed is more entertaining but for suspense IA is way better. My heartstrings were not pulled once for the characters in the Departed but when the undercover cop is killed in the elevator in IA...holy crap!!
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