Sunday, August 14, 2005

Movie review: Infernal Affairs


A great movie from my homeland, Hong Kong! I rarely watch chinese movies nowadays. I don't recognize any of the new stars, they're often vehicles for promoting pop sensations du-jour, and well, they often suck.

Infernal Affairs is a griping tale of two moles; a policeman in the mob, the other a gangster in the police force. And I checked, they actually meant to use "Infernal" instead of "Internal". And I'm using "griping", not just as a generic movie review term, but it really was! I felt the turmoil in each character as they betray those that trust them, and the race to uncover each other. Can you condemn someone for doing the exact same thing you are?

This is also quite reminiscent of Face/Off, with John Travolta and Nicholas Cage, especially in that one of them is bound by the condition that only very few knows his true identity, and therefore holds the key to his release from this mission. I would have to give Infernal Affairs the nod over Face/Off though. One of the most exciting parts of the movie was watching the cops and robbers battle each other, not with force, but with the intelligence that each mole was providing and shifting the balance of power back and forth. The ending is also worthy of praise, having not taken the cliche happy route.

Highly recommended! It'll be interesting to see the prequel and sequel!

20/23

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