Infernal Affairs

Infernal Affairs Review
A triad boss named Sam has planted an informant inside the police department. At the same time, the police have placed an undercover cop into Sam's triad gang squad. The informant inside the police department is Inspector Lee, an intelligent cop with a flawless background who becomes a top detective. On the other side is Yan, the undercover cop who has risen in the ranks as a triad gang member. When they are pitted against each other, Yan and Lee begin a deadly game of figuring out who is the policeman and who is the gang member?

I saw this movie after seeing The Departed. Although, The Departed isn't a shot by shot remake of this movie, this is one of the rare moments that the remake actually improves upon the original. Infernal Affairs, although still a great movie, isn't blessed with great actors like Jack Nicholson or Leonardo Dicaprio. Sure, Andy Lau and Tony Leung are good actors, but I found their performance to be lacking in Infernal Affairs.

One of the main differences between The Departed and Infernal Affairs was the character of Sam. This character was played by Jack Nicholson in The Departed. In Infernal Affairs, Sam is not as interesting of a character as Nicholson's Costello. This doesn't come as a shock to me since Nicholson is one of Hollywood's best actors. Still, screen time is barely given to this character who should be pivotal to the plot. Infernal Affairs instead focused on the battle between the two main leads, which is ok, but it made the plot feel less suspenseful since the crime boss had such a small role.

The plot of the movie is solid. One guy is on the good guys side and pretends to be a bad guy in order to inform the cops. The other guy enlists into the cadet training program in order to become a cop so that he can be an informant for the triad boss. In the middle they realize that each side has an undercover agent working for the other side and thus begins a cat and mouse chase between the two lead characters. I really like the plot because it involves two people of equal mental caliber trying to outwit each other. It reminds me of another movie I enjoyed, Death Note. Although this movie doesn't have the psychological trickery aspect that was so prevalent in Death Note, Infernal Affairs makes up for it by being more realistic.

When compared to The Departed, I find The Departed to be a better movie overall. There were elements of that movie that improved upon Infernal Affairs. Infernal Affairs isn't bad, but the characters are just not as good. Tony Leung and Andy Lau lack the charisma of Leonardo Dicaprio and Matt Damon. Nicholson also vastly outperforms Eric Tsang's Sam.

Infernal Affairs is still a top notch movie and shouldn't be overlooked.

Written by Lance


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Infernal Affairs Cast
Andy Lau as Inspector Lau Kin Ming
Tony Leung Chiu Wai as Chen Wing Yan (as Tony Leung)
Anthony Wong Chau-Sang as SP Wong Chi Shing (as Anthony Wong)
Eric Tsang as Hon Sam