One of my favourite movies in my DVD collection is Infernal Affairs, a Hong Kong film surrounding triads, police and a very interesting plot. There are also two sequels which Justine and I saw a couple of years back as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival.
A year or so ago I heard about a Hollywood remake of the film, supposedly starring Brad Pitt. For the longest time I’d forgotten about the movie until Justine told me it was coming out this week! I wonder how this managed to sneak up so quickly.

Though the film — The Departed — no longer stars Brad Pitt, it does feature a lot of “big names”, such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg. It’s also directed by Martin Scorsese. Normally I’d advise to steer clear of a Hollywood remake (the most recent disappointment that comes to mind was Taxi, which was an excellent French film but awful Hollywood film). but surprisingly it’s been getting really good reviews.

What I am going to suggest is that if you plan to see The Departed, that you make the time to see Infernal Affairs (preferably before because I still feel it will be the better film, but I’m probably biased at this juncture). If you watch many Hong Kong films, you’re sure to recognise that it also has some major stars, just not “Hollywood” stars.

On Friday night, Justine and I saw the third (and currently last) in the Infernal Affairs series: Infernal Affairs III.

The second film in the series is a prequel to the first. The third, however, jumps back and forth between being a sequel and a prequel. The “prequel” sections are set after the second but before the first. The “sequel” sections are set well and truly after the first.

I’m not totally sure how much I enjoyed this one, though. Stylistically, it was quite different to the other two. Additionally, even though the story involved the same characters, it was quite different to the other two. To drive home this point; I already have the first on DVD, and may buy the second. I’m not planning on buying the third though.

Still, there’s plenty more Triad films in the sea. There is one released this year (Jiang Hu) which is said to be on par with the second Infernal Affairs. There is also a series of seven (yes, seven) films in the Young and Dangerous series which seems to be considered as one of the best Triad films/series around.

This evening, Justine and I saw the sequel to one of the best films I’ve seen in the past year: Infernal Affairs. Good thing too, since I bought the DVD without ever having seen it.

We saw the film at RMIT’s Capitol Theatre, which I didn’t even know existed. The theatre has these great Escher-esque features which were lit with different coloured lights, giving off a strange, otherworldy effect. The entire time the ads were running (didn’t have previews at this film, since it’s part of the Melbourne International Film Festival and they were mostly thanking sponsors) I was looking around the theatre, gazing at the wondrous architecture.

Infernal Affairs II is actually a prequel; and it’s a good thing too, since the first film had such a rich backstory that had never been fully explained. Though probably not as good as the first, the second film (there’s actually a trilogy, we will be seeing the sequel next Friday) is still pretty good. The story twists and turns, and has an awful lot of depth — especially for a crime drama.

Basically, the plots are thus: the Triads plant a mole into the police force, and the police plant a mole into the Triads. Both know of the other’s existence but do not know who the other actually is. There are a lot more complexities to it (i.e. the mole in the Triad group is actually the half-brother of one of the leaders of the Triads, and has conflicting emotions about damaging his family) but I won’t bother going into them here.

The worst thing about the film is that Hollywood has decided to do their own remake which — as almost all recent Hollywood remakes go — will undoubtedly suck.