"The Departed" VS "Infernal Affairs"

VS

Infernal Affairs

I started out doing a review for "The Departed" ... but I think any comparisons with "Infernal Affairs" would be inevitable, since I've watched both.

On its own, "The Departed" is a great movie. The movie is worth
S$8.00
Movies in Singapore are from a range of S$6.50 to S$9.00 depending on the day and time you watch it on.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Billy Costigan, an Irish American who goes undercover into the Boston mob.

Matt Damon plays Colin Sullivan, groomed by Jack Nicholson's Frank Costello into becoming an informer for him.

Nicholson is a contained nuclear reactor as Costello. On the verge of blowing up, keeping the audience guessing as to when he is going to blow. This relationship keeps the tension on Costigan as he goes through close shave after close shave. Reminds me of The Joker in the original Batman movie.

In comparison with the Hong Kong original, "The Departed" departed on what drives the two main characters' actions. The timeline is different, for one. This accounts for the difference since in the Infernal Affairs movie, both characters started going undercover at around the same time, and the movie starts at least 8-10 years after they've been undercover.

Leonardo DiCaprio was great at portraying the role of Costigan. Always in constant danger, his internal conflicts are barely below the surface. However at times, I am a little lost on what drives Costigan. Tony Leung's character, the undercover cop, wants to be a cop... and faces an identity crisis, and internal conflict for not being able to say that he is one. He's been in the triads for 9 years. And there are plenty of opportunities for him to show that he really wants to be a cop. Costigan has been undercover in the mafia, for over 2 years? And he wants to quit the force after that. It is a little difficult to empathise with Costigan's pain.

Similarly for the role of the informer. I felt that the motives for Sullivan were too vaguely shown, and hence I could not really feel for the character. Matt Damon did a good job at whatever material he had, playing the two-faced character pretty well. But what the movie lacked, again, was what drives Sullivan? Andy Lau's character was more well developed in that as the audience, throughout the film, you understand that he really wants to be a 'good guy' too, and had been forced to be in the position he is in.

It could be due to a difference between the American and Asian culture, but I would say that I derived more tension from Scorsese's "The Departed", because Boston is portrayed as a grittier, more violent place as compared to Hong Kong. The locations and sets the movie was filmed in was dirtier, granier, closer to reality.

Andrew Lau's "Infernal Affairs" portrayed a less gritty Hong Kong, the locations and sets are cleaner, neater. The costumes and make up for the actors also leave a clean, cool feel on screen.

In my opinion, the latter allows the story to be told, whereas I found the grittiness a distraction in the former, especially in the dealing of the movie's main characters.

It is just interesting that the same plot (most of the plot keypoints are there) can be treated with such a vast difference. So what we have here are essentially two movies, both great, and both worth watching for different reasons, however, if I have to make a choice, it will have to be "Infernal Affairs" on any given day.