The goal of the screen shot quiz it not to just guess what the movie is that the screen shot is from but to encourage discussion on the film. Feel free to shout out in the comments what the movie is and then provide an opinion or some thoughts on the movie. Oh and the first person who gets the movie right wins our respect.
Infernal Affairs. The Tube-amplifier stuff that was excised out of the Scorcese version.
I cannot believe that Jay is not willing to see this movie. I know he has problems with the HK style of acting — but the acting in this film is top notch. In fact, except for some minor characters, the acting is far superior to The Departed. Come on, there nothing better than seeing Andy Lau vs Tony Leung.
I was disappointed with The Departed originally but I have really started to like it after multiple viewings. The Infernal Affairs trilogy though is a much more subtle and character driven story. I remember throwing it on after a party at my place one night. It was 12 and everyone had just left. I ended up sitting transfixed through all three movies.
I don’t think I ever said I wasn’t willing to watch it…I’m just not that interested (which means I’m not going out of my way to find it). If it ever pops up on Netflix, I’ll give it a look. If it’s anything like Kill Zone/SPL (which I suspect it isn’t), I would definitely pass.
I like both films. The Departed is more of a neighborhood-inflected character piece, and Infernal Affairs is a super-slick genre piece, much showier, and much more ‘john woo esque.’ Scorsese is more about the rhythm of things. They’re not easily comparable (except for the acting across both films is good) due to the radical different director approaches.
My biggest problem with The Departed was that all the subtlety was gone. It took me a bit of time to realize its not the same movie as Infernal Affairs and that it was okay.
Infernal Affairs is less actiony that John Woo. There is some action but it is more of a drama thriller… especially once they get into part 2 and 3.
I was disappointed with both films to take a completely different side. I found the love story aspect of Infernal Affairs to be quite weak and sappy (not helped by the dodgy music), but I loved the other aspects of it. With The Departed I agree with John, I just found it really blunt and heavy handed (the ridiculous final shot for instance). I didn’t like the tacked on bit at the end either, it felt just that – tacked on.
I would hardly call INFERNAL AFFAIRS subtle, that’d be like calling a Tony Scott or Michael Mann movie subtle. Not buying it. Sure Scorcese hammers home things even further, but Infernal Affairs lays itself out blunt…that was actually why I thought of John Woo. The action style more closely resembles Johnnie To, but really, it wants to be Mann and Scott (particularly the latter, whose fingerprints are all over that opening sequence in IA)
I actually think one of the reasons I was disappointed with Infernal Affairs was because I expected it to be more of an action film resembling John Woo’s work. The drama is handled in a similar fashion though, you’re right.
I’ve not seen either film for a while so it’s difficult to remember too much about their subtleties, it’s just that I can remember a few ridiculous moments in The Departed and not so many in Infernal Affairs.
I don’t think Infernal Affairs is as well-rounded as The Departed. While Scorcese edits a lot of (arbitrary) stuff out, he presents a version that flows a lot better and is generally much tighter. I honestly cannot find any reason why Infernal Affairs is better than The Departed asides from the fact that it was first.
Just as an aside to hijack a post about Asian cinema: I recently watch some Johnnie To’s most well-known films (PTU, Election 1&2, etc). Election 1&2 are amazing and work really well as successive sequels: I think they are To’s best work to date. It’s funny how he works so much better with multi-group ensemble pieces but once he delves into the ‘band of brother’ stories he’s resorting to cheesy and lazy (in this day and age) John Woo antics.