Quote of the Week Review: Infernal Affairs (2002)

By Thomas Broome-Jones

"I can't finish the novel, I don't know whether he's good or bad" 

The film that was remade into Martin Scorsese's Academy Award-winning 2006 crime thriller The Departed, Infernal Affairs is a tightly-edited, strongly-written masterpiece of kinetic storytelling.
The story concerns a cop who is sent undercover in the Triads and a Triad who is sent undercover in the cops, both organizations find out they have moles and each mole is tasked with the job of finding the other. Their paths will cross at key points in the film and add an extra layer of tension in situations where the audience will know the truth but the characters will not.

Where loyalties lie: Which one of these is the bad guy?

The editing in this film is incredible, it leaves a trail-blaze of energy as the film bursts through the narrative, hitting you with blow after blow and twist after twist. This contains all of the high production standards that you would expect from an American thriller, but the fresh insight into another nation's police force and criminal underworld is welcoming. Gone are the old tropes of watching New York's finest trying to take down the mob, no, this is Hong Kong police vs Triads, two groups whose methods differ hugely from their American counterparts.

Human morality plays a key part in this film as both main characters will have their loyalty put to the ultimate test and you will sometimes forget they're moles and will unwillingly root for the bad guy. I preferred the acting in this film when compared to The Departed, whilst I did love Leonardo DiCaprio I never really bought into Matt Damon as an Irish mobster, probably because he had a pretty unconvincing accent. All of the key scenes from The Departed are present but in a different order and the pacing is much quicker, likely due to the film's shorter run-time.

There was a distinct lack of character development in this film and The Departed very much handled the character relationships more effectively. But 'The Departed' did have a longer run-time to work with, in fact it was a full 50 minutes longer. This lack of development did bother me towards the end but in retrospect the strength of the script and the tension that is created more than made up for it.

Even though I knew what the plot twist was having The Departed, it was handled much better in 'Infernal Affairs' and felt like a more important moment. The supporting character equivalents were pretty much all the same, aside from the fact that Jack Nicholson's mob boss in 'The Departed' got more development. Although I must say I did prefer Mark Wahlberg's character, Staff Sergeant Dignam, in The Departed, the key part his character plays in the ending was added in by Scorsese. In fact, the films both have two completely different endings, although I do prefer 'Infernal Affairs's ending personally.

Overall, an exhilarating watch fueled with great writing, interesting humanistic themes and tension you could cut with a knife. I recommend this to both fans of The Departed and people who haven't seen either, a brilliant film. 

Thomas Broome-Jones is on Twitter, you can follow him @TBroomey.