Infernal Affairs

Infernal Affairs (Mou Gaan Dou) (2002)

Runtime: 101 minutes

Directed by: Andrew Lau/Alan Mak

Starring: Andy Lau (no relations to Andrew), Tony Leung, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, Kelly Chan, Sammi Cheng

From: Media Asia Films

NOW I am finally caught up with all my reviews. Here's one posted on Memorial Day of a movie I saw just earlier that day: 

I have the Criterion Channel 24/7 stream to thank for my finally having seen this picture; it played this afternoon & as I have this week free (including Monday, which was Memorial Day in the United States), it was a treat for me to write the review immediately afterwards and wait minutes instead of hours to post said review. To address the obvious dangling participle immediately, this will not be compared to The Departed. The two worlds they are set in are so different anyhow, it’s likely not fair to either movie.

Those familiar w/ The Departed will of course know the basics; in fact, it slavishly copies this at times. The same time that the Triads have someone undercover with the Hong Kong Police Department (Lau), the Police Department send Yan deep undercover with the Triads. A decade later-as we see a bit of their personal lives-the paths of Lau and Yan will inevitably collide as each side suspects there’s a mole—not to mention the toll this long deception has taken on their psyche. Suspense comes from each side investigating and when the other shoe will finally drop… when the two leads finally confront each other. There’s also more talk of home stereo systems & Morse Code than what I expected.

It's a taught thriller almost an hour shorter than The Departed; both work in their respective films and telling the story in 100 minutes here meant there was little in the way of lulls. Between the quality performance amongst the cast, some scenes seeping w/ suspense and an interesting, vibrant score from Chan Kwok-wing, there is at least a decent likelihood someone who is a fan of The Departed but haven’t given this a shot will find that journey to be fruitful no matter your knowledge of the general story beats. It is uncertain whether I’ll give the two sequels a shot; what IS certain: one day The Departed will finally be reviewed.