Left Field Cinema

WARNING: Contains Spoilers for Both Films

American remakes of World Cinema hits is a disease within the film industry, it is a negative activity to partake in especially when the films being remade are relatively new, but even older films should have some amount of protection against the violation of their creative sovereignty by big money Hollywood blockbusters pandering to the current slothenly modern audience. Of course if the film makers responsible for the originals didn’t sell the remake rights it would never happen. It speaks of a cinema going public who are too lazy too read subtitles, too narrow minded to consider watching a film from anywhere other than Hollywood or older than ten years, and staring anyone other than the current movie star of choice. This trend within audiences is definitely being perpetuated to by the film industry that instead of calling their films remakes try to defend against criticism by stating that they’re merely inspired by the source film; see City on Fire and Reservoir Dogs for more on that subject. Unfortunately for cinema purists such as myself, we can not always hide behind the shield of originality in defence of blockbuster remakes of Indie hits, as much as we might want to we can not always claim that the righteous French, Korean, or Argentinean film makers work should be viewed over whatever bludgeoned mess of a film Hollywood has spewed into existence. The comparison between Infernal Affairs and The Departed is a good example as although there are pros and cons to both film, The Departed is the superior film. I shall examine the differences and the similarities, the expansions and retractions made during the process of transferring Infernal Affairs from Hong Kong to Boston as The Departed – one of the best remakes in recent years.

Martin Scorsese remade Wai-Keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak’s 2002 world cinema success Infernal Affairs into the Academy Award Winning The Departed released in 2006. The Departed isn’t inspired by Infernal Affairs, it is a remake, from first to last, the structure of the plot line and the various dramatic developments may look and sound completely different from film to film but they are exactly the same in all the ways that count. The plot for both films follows two moles, one is a cop who’s infiltrated a criminal organistion and the other is a criminal who’s infiltrated the police force. Each is trying to expose the other, and both are caught in a complex web of violence and deceit. In Infernal Affairs the mole in the crime world is the character of Chan Wing Yan played by the unfaultable Tony Leung, the mole in the police force is the character of Inspector Lau Kin Ming played by Andy Lau; in The Departed the mole in the crime world is Billy Costigan played by Leonardo DiCaprio who dons a scruffy goatee beard similar to his Hong Kong counterpart, and the mole in the police force is Colin Sullivan played by Matt Damon who likewise maintains a slick and tidy demeanor like his Hong Kong counterpart. Both the moles in both films are reflections for one and other, like a complex game of chess, they move and make counter moves to evade the others methods of detection. Higher up the food chain there are other reflections: in The Departed the cops who are running Costigan’s undercover operation are Queenan played by Martin Sheen and Dignam played by Mark Wahlberg, these two characters are formed from one character in Infernal Affairs, Wong Chi Shing played by Anthony Wong. In the criminal world of The Departed Jack Nicholson plays crime boss Frank Costello, he is the equivalent of Eric Tsang’s character Hon Sam.

The beginning, middle and end of these films are very similar, but there is a very clear difference between each films run time, and this is telling within both films pre-title sequences, taking his cue from the directors of Infernal Affairs, Scorsese waits until his film is completely set up before he gives us the title card, the difference is that it take Infernal Affairs seven minutes to get to this point, and it takes The Departed seventeen minutes. The major differences between the films are not what The Departed takes away but rather what it adds, certain characters are severed and made into two people, like Dignam and Queenan, others are embellished far beyond their Infernal Affairs equivalents. Alec Baldwin’s character of Ellerby for example is barely present in Infernal Affairs, Ray Winstone’s Mr. French as no equivalent character in Infernal Affairs, Mr. French is also arguably The Departed’s weakest and most pointless creation. Comparing Costello with Hon Sam is another key example, Hon Sam has no menace about him, he doesn’t kill anyone during the film, and he generally appears and acts quite reasonably toward those around him, only losing his temper occasionally with the police when being interrogated, it’s fair to say that Eric Tsang was miscast in the role and the part of Hon Sam would have suited a more intimidating and powerful actor, its hard to believe this man has the ability to command and control his rather large criminal gang. By contrast, Nicholson’s Costello is everything Hon Sam is not, vindictive, irrational, intimidating, violent, indulgent and fear inducing. Nicholson’s performance may have been exaggerated in places, and he does briefly fall into spells of over acting, but his presence does lend The Departed a powerful chief villain that is sorely absent from Infernal Affairs, even Nicholson faxing in his performance is more compelling than Tsang firing on full cylinders.

Infernal Affairs is a tighter film, through all three acts events more rapidly unfold, the final run time clocks in at 101 minutes, compared to The Departed which reaches 151 minutes, nearly an hour longer. Although the scenes in The Departed may seem quick and snappy, there are in fact many more than Infernal Affairs and the reason for this is quite simple: The Departed isn’t just a remake of Infernal Affairs, it is a remake of Infernal Affairs II and III also, it’s three films wrapped into one, and in this sense is actually a far tighter film than when compared to an entire trilogy. Infernal Affairs II is a prequel which follows the earlier exploits of our protagonists and antagonists, as both moles begin their infiltration of the others intuition. Infernal Affairs II has an interesting political backdrop as it takes place during the British-Chinese hand over in 1997, however other than this context the film is ultimately, like all prequels, it’s quite pointless as you know how the lives of these men and women will intersect and conclude. Infernal Affairs III is half prequel half sequel and what is done with an entire film in Infernal Affairs III is basically achieved in the last scene of The Departed. So Scorsese and screenwriter William Monahan decided to meld all three of these films together and the result is a large section of The Departed follows Costigan’s infiltration of Costello’s organization, in Infernal Affairs Chan Wing Yan is already an established member of Hon Sam’s gang at the start of the film and has been for many years. In The Departed, we witness Sullivan charming and romancing therapist Madolyn played by Vera Farmig, her Infernal Affairs equivalents already have established relationships with the main characters. Basically the world of Infernal Affairs had existed long before the start of the main narrative, and a brief flashback to the set-up in the pre-title sequence would be the basis for Infernal Affairs II. The Departed takes us through a fuller narrative, starting at the beginning of both operations, and seeing it through to its bloody climax. But if we were to leave the Infernal Affairs sequels out of the equation for the moment then we note how the climax of Infernal Affairs is morally murky and unconcluded by Hollywood standards, The Departed insists on falling back on swift moral justice for its final scene, the antagonist can not be allowed to get away with it, which is in part the reason the character of Dignam was created, as a fail safe to kill Sullivan, his character doesn’t exist in Infernal Affairs and at the end Lau Kin Ming gets away with it legally, even if the character may have lost his lover, and his soul, he gets away with the crime. Sullivan loses his soul and his lover but to top it off he gets a bullet in the face which was completely unnecessary, although it does add to The Departed feeling like a demented Jacobean tragedy rather than a modern thriller, so brutal, swift and pointless are the deaths that it reminds of the work of John Webster, a modern day Duchess of Malfi if you will. Nearly all the characters perish needlessly and the entire operation was utterly pointless, Frank isn’t arrested and charged - he’s murdered. Costigan doesn’t get the mole - he’s murdered. Sullivan doesn’t get discovered by the authorities but is instead - murdered. Someone should have just shot Costello at the beginning of the film when they had the chance and the whole mess could have been avoided.

The climax isn’t the only occasion the narrative falls back on Hollywood conventions, as mentioned earlier, the character of Madolyn is a composite of three characters in Infernal Affairs. Lau Kin Ming has just moved in with his partner a novelist who is writing a book about a man with different identities (a slightly ham-fisted parallel), her character eventually receives the tapes exposing her lover as a traitor within the police force. The character of Chan Wing Yan has two love interests, one is a therapist who doesn’t know his true identity, he isn’t in therapy he just uses the time to catch up on sleep, and the other is a old flame who has since moved on and had a child, the implication is that the child is Chan Wing Yan’s, her scenes feel elbow locked into the plot, almost in an attempt appease the audience at the end, to know that even though Chan Wing Yan is murdered, part of him will live on in his daughter. The Departed falls into this trap as well, but with consequences for the narratives plausibility, our love interest composite Madalyn is Costigan’s therapist and Sullivan’s lover (she is and equally dreadful and unrealistic onscreen therapist as that of Infernal Affairs, if for completely different reasons). Despite both main characters barely knowing each other and interacting in a city with a population of over half a million people they predictably are sleeping with the same woman. This absurd love triangle isn’t present in Infernal Affairs and thankfully so.

The Departed also has a bizarre sexual subtext that is entirely of its own invention; nothing in Infernal Affairs even remotely resembles this possibly misplaced underscoring of sex, and sexual ability. Costello sexually harasses women, has a partner many years younger than him, and it is implied at several points that the man, like Jack Nicholson, is a sex maniac, as Sullivan berates him for “all that fucking and no sons”. Costello seems to view Sullivan as a metaphorical son, but where Costello has cocaine fueled three ways with women half his age and owns a porno cinema; Sullivan has implied erectile dysfunction and refuses to talk about this problem with Madolyn. Both antagonists may be sterile, Costello has no off spring, and shortly after Costigan sleeps with Madolyn she falls pregnant implying that it is his child and not Sullivan’s. Costigan is sexually confident, he isn’t distracted by any other women within the narrative and he sleeps with Madolyn for all the right reasons, he doesn’t know that Sullivan is her fiancé and he doesn’t take her to bed for any sort of one-upsmanship, indeed later when Madolyn feels guilty about cheating on Sullivan, Costigan backs away. What was The Departed trying to say, all bad men are only such because their sexual organs no longer work correctly? Thankfully these sub textual readings are not possible in Infernal Affairs because no overt sexual statements are ever made, Infernal Affairs concentrates on the matter at hand and is not distracted by the characters private lives.

So if The Departed occasionally falls into Hollywood traps of sentiment, moral justice, and plot contrivances then why is the film superior to its source? Well simply put, the flaws of Infernal Affairs out weigh the flaws of The Departed. There are many examples where Infernal Affairs refuses to accept the intelligence of its audience, despite starting with a very complex game of cat and mouse involving both moles covertly informing their superiors of the others plans through Morse code and text messages, we still have our emotions repeatedly dictated to us at every turn, and major plot points in the third act are completely over done, the chief offending mechanism employed is the dire monochrome flashback, which is completely absent from The Departed, but in Infernal Affairs it is used to emphasis emotional connections, happy smiling flashbacks of our hero and his boss laughing together, but also plot points like the envelop which Chan Wing Yan scribbles on, later when it exposes the mole in the police we are forced to watch the scene again when he first scribbles the word “body guard” on the envelop. It’s insulting because it assumes that an audience member has such poor attention spans that they can’t remember what happened an hour earlier; The Departed keeps this method of exposing Sullivan to Costigan but no flashback is used, Scorsese clearly has more respect for his audiences intelligence. The other major offence of Infernal Affairs is in its music cues, the shocking scene where Wong Chi Shing is thrown from the building and lands on a taxi cab is brilliantly executed, but then any shock or emotion we might feel is not only eradicated by another monochrome flashback of happier times, but is then completely annihilated by a cruelly sentimental music cue, such heinous canto-pop music destroys the sequence and ruins the tension. The same is true for the films climax, just as Chan Wing Yan is shot entering the elevator, the same dreadful music cue begins playing again, spoiling any shock the audience might be feeling, both equivalent scenes in The Departed are infinitely superior. The death of Queenan is also shocking, but never descends into these sorts of melancholy antics, the death of Costigan is brutal, shocking and lonely, and most certainly is not sentimental, our hero takes a bullet in the head when he least expects it, he doesn’t see it coming and neither do we, we are appalled by the violence, we despise the man who pulled the trigger and we are shocked at the suddenness of his death, Scorsese knows that we do not need music to tell us how to feel, we already feel it. The Departed is a more visceral experience, it is blood thirsty and brutal, manic and aggressive, bullets hit people with no warning and we almost feel their impact on bone and flesh; where as by contrast Infernal Affairs is more sanitised and stylised, far more concerned with car chases and car crashes than shootouts and fist fights. But this difference is not just in terms of violence but also in terms of attitude, the characters in Infernal Affairs rarely become emotional or show the strain of the situation they find themselves in, they are cool and confident to the last, The Departed has far more punch and is more concerned with psychological endurance than games of cat and mouse, the focus is less on whether the two men expose each other and more on whether the two men will expose themselves. The pressure mounts continually for Costigan and Sullivan as does their emotional and psychological burden, but not for Lau Kin Ming and Chan Wing Yan, for them the situation does not escalate; for a longer period of the plot they remain coldly disconnected from the events although they both have the occasional outbursts, these can be read as the characters acting out the reaction they think or feel those around them are expecting, they still feel nothing. Infernal affairs looks visually slicker and its character may appear cooler and uncaring, but The Departed is grittier, dirtier, the characters are bruised and battered, blood soaked shirts and torn coats; Infernal Affairs climaxes on a modern mirror coated sky scrapper over looking an impressive Hong Kong vista, The Departed sets the same scene a top of an abandoned red bricked building with only dingy urban decay surrounding it, pleasing aesthetics were not on the top of Scorsese’s list for The Departed.

Visually this distinction becomes a rule, Infernal Affairs is punctuated by highly styalised raised tracking shots whilst an entire room of people stay completely still and silent, the image is distinctive but is ultimately vacuous. The Departed for the majority of its run time stays close to its subjects rarely show boating, but also not descending to shaky cam tactics of a modern police television series for example.

Where the two films are arguably the most similar is in their editing, although Infernal Affairs’ editors Curran and Danny Pang have employed slow motion to emphases emotion on occasion, they are for the most part completely dedicated to kinetic editing to an almost disorientating level sometimes splicing in time compressed shots to speed up events. Thelma Schoonmaker is usually a far subtler editor, she has a reputation as one of the best editors in the world and has worked with Scorsese for many years, but here Schoonmaker takes a number of risks with The Departed, often cross cutting scenes into extended montages, or using freeze frames during shootouts, minor time lapses are sometimes used, characters go from one side of the room to another, the edit is very economical in this sense, which is where Infernal Affairs and The Departed are at their closest

Of course Infernal Affairs has to take extra credit for originality, had it never been made, The Departed would never have been made. But if we take this factor out of the equation and simply compare the films on their own merits then ultimately the comparison of Infernal Affairs and The Departed comes down to a matter of the best of both worlds. The Departed is bloated and contrived in places, adding poorly conceived sub plots that are not in the slightest necessary. Infernal Affairs is tighter, but falls too deeply into audience spoon feeding and sentiment. The Departed is brutal and realistically violent but Infernal Affairs is stylistically gorgeous. If it were possible to recombine both films and take eachs strongest elements then we might be left with the ultimate crime movie, as it is we have two enjoyable but flawed affairs, but of the two, The Departed is the superior.

M. Dawson