When I was first introduced to the 2002 hit, "Infernal Affairs", I was anticipating a Hong Kong John Woo type Action film with lots of shooting and high body counts. Infernal Affairs did not meet that anticipation nor was it a cookie cutter action movie of someone else's idea. The film is considered one of the best all time. I can agree with the movie being good. But that is about it.
I think the reason why I thought it was decent was because I just finished watching the Korean 2003 sensation "Old Boy" and compared these two movies accordingly.
What the story of "Infernal Affairs" didn't lack was story and plot line of each character. The biggest attribute of this film was story line. The story of opposite sides of the law were very impressive and kept me interested.
The scenes of organized crime was articulately plotted and almost matched that of "Heat" and "Jackie Brown". The god cop/bad cop image was well played by Andy Lau and Tony Leung. The delivery of the plot wound up being somewhat straightforward in the beginning with a couple sub-plot twists later on near the end. There was no real guess work needed.
The heist in the beginning was rather impressive and the opposite sides with the undermining battle between the moles of each side of the law. Uses of intel and surveillance techniques were pretty darn good. One thing I do wish, was some more action (a car chase, a shooting, something...) but this type of scene was like a long chess game that ended in a stalemate. I guess direction wanted to apply a sense of realism that not all surveillances and heists end up in violent casualties (fair enough...).
Throughout the rest of the movie was all story and proper execution of each scene. Direction did at least that. Acting was okay but none of the characters were convincing enough for me to fall in love with. Dr. Lee, the psychiatrist in which the hero Yan was involved with, had only 4 distinct scenes. Both Yan and Inspector Lau each had a good story with a certain degree of depth, were actually a bit bland. I don't even feel for some of the role playing characters that get killed. There is no real stirring emotion or drama. There was some action but it wasn't focused on any specific action scenes.
Overall, "Infernal Affairs" is like watching a chess game and rematch of a chess game with different outcomes. I can't discredit this movie for being an intelligent police story but don't expect an old school Chow Yun Fat action movie like I did. I recommend watching this movie as long as you take it for what it is. 7/10.
I think the reason why I thought it was decent was because I just finished watching the Korean 2003 sensation "Old Boy" and compared these two movies accordingly.
What the story of "Infernal Affairs" didn't lack was story and plot line of each character. The biggest attribute of this film was story line. The story of opposite sides of the law were very impressive and kept me interested.
The scenes of organized crime was articulately plotted and almost matched that of "Heat" and "Jackie Brown". The god cop/bad cop image was well played by Andy Lau and Tony Leung. The delivery of the plot wound up being somewhat straightforward in the beginning with a couple sub-plot twists later on near the end. There was no real guess work needed.
The heist in the beginning was rather impressive and the opposite sides with the undermining battle between the moles of each side of the law. Uses of intel and surveillance techniques were pretty darn good. One thing I do wish, was some more action (a car chase, a shooting, something...) but this type of scene was like a long chess game that ended in a stalemate. I guess direction wanted to apply a sense of realism that not all surveillances and heists end up in violent casualties (fair enough...).
Throughout the rest of the movie was all story and proper execution of each scene. Direction did at least that. Acting was okay but none of the characters were convincing enough for me to fall in love with. Dr. Lee, the psychiatrist in which the hero Yan was involved with, had only 4 distinct scenes. Both Yan and Inspector Lau each had a good story with a certain degree of depth, were actually a bit bland. I don't even feel for some of the role playing characters that get killed. There is no real stirring emotion or drama. There was some action but it wasn't focused on any specific action scenes.
Overall, "Infernal Affairs" is like watching a chess game and rematch of a chess game with different outcomes. I can't discredit this movie for being an intelligent police story but don't expect an old school Chow Yun Fat action movie like I did. I recommend watching this movie as long as you take it for what it is. 7/10.