Infernal-ly Departed

The Ring was a re-make of a Japanese horror movie. So was The Grudge. Granted, these were both Japanese horror flicks (which were supremely scary), but they are still re-makes. In english. Why can't Hollywood come up with its own concepts? Borrow from other cultures, sure, but don't outright copy other works.

Who can guess, from the title of this post, what the latest based-on-an-asian-film re-make is? If you guessed Martin Scorsese's The Departed, then you guessed right. Bonus question: What movie is it a re-make of? Answer: The Hong Kong thriller, Infernal Affairs.

The premise of both films is this, there's a mole in the police department, and a mole in the mafia/Triads. Who will find and remove the opposing mole first? A writer on MSNBC.com summed it up nicely in that when you remove a mole, blood is always involved.

Though I have not yet seen The Departed, I'm not holding out for it to be an amazing movie. At least not as amazing or as exciting as Infernal Affairs. As a complete and total CBC (Canadian Born Chinese), Infernal Affairs stands as one of my most favourite asian films. In addition to being the film that inspired my hair-style. Most people who see Martin Scorsese's version will not know that this is a re-make. I'm sure box office numbers will soar however, due mostly to the presence of Leo DiCaprio, Marky-Mark, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson. But from what I saw in the trailer, it does not look terribly well acted nor well put-together. My only hope is that someone let's them in on the fact that a) this is a re-make, b) Infernal Affairs is much better, and c) this is not an original concept (I know 'a' and 'c' are redundant, but I wanted three points).

So, if you haven't seen Infernal Affairs yet, go see it before you go see The Departed. Or, do Hollywood a favour and ignore Scorsese's movie altogether.