After seeing the "Infernal Affairs" created by Sykoseth, I suddenly felt like I didn't know each other. In the same storyline, you couldn't see a trace of familiarity. This may be because a master director never speaks only with his own voice, so this "Infernal Affairs" is definitely a Scorsese style. If you can read romance, sadness, and delicacy in Liu Weiqiang's "Infernal Affairs", then in Sykes's "Infernal Affairs" you can read only cold, cruel, and gritty, which is absolutely the opposite. Two styles. Perhaps the two films should not be compared, but as a Hollywood version of a Chinese movie, we have to compare it with the original Chinese version, but such a comparison will only disappoint many friends who like the original version. Maybe they have not seen it. Friends of the original version will feel completely different watching this film.
The gangs in the United States are also different from the associations in Hong Kong. Just as the Irish gangs in the film are rooted in the lowest immigrant culture, the associations in Hong Kong are the continuation of the old-style Jianghu gangs in the mainland. Although they can be called As a triad, but the things in the bones are completely different. The Chinese community can talk about the friendship between the rivers and the lakes, but the Irish gangsters don't know what the rivers and lakes are. How can you copy everything? So it's hard to see anything emotional in Scorsese's "The Departed", every character is so cold, especially when Scorsese gives a completely different ending to the film, you can't help but be stunned , maybe at this moment you can understand that even the same story may express completely different ideas.
Like Woody Allen's comedy movies that always take place in New York, Scorsese's gangster movies always revolve around the city, and it all depends on one's preference and familiarity with a city. However, the fact that the background of the story was moved to Boston also seemed to show a certain change in Scorsese, but what remained unchanged was his preference for gangster characters. In "Infernal Affairs", the role of the gangster is obviously heavy, Nicholson's gangster Frank and DiCaprio's undercover detective Billy have more and more room to play, and the role of the police also has It's brilliant, but most of the scenes are less in green leaves, and even Matt Damon's role, Colin, has less room to play. In the Hong Kong version of "Infernal Affairs", the arrangement of the two sides of the police and bandits is balanced, and in "Infernal Affairs", because of Cissikes' personal preference, the gangs overwhelm the police. Nicholson's gangster boss's flamboyant and complex personality is what director Sykeseth is keen to express. Such a character can better express his multi-layered interpretation of the cruel side of the lower-level human nature, and DiCaprio's role is also Violence was completely extracted, a kind of beast-like violence. It's a pity that the lack of foreshadowing of Matt Damon's character of Colin's struggle to change and desire for bleaching makes the character a little pale. The question of Coseth's tendencies.
In fact, Nicholson's line in the film "You're either a cop or a criminal, but when you're facing a loaded gun, what's the difference between the two?" Thinking about violence, all the police and gangster characters in the film are full of foul language and violence, blurring the so-called boundaries of justice and evil, one kills the other, and the other kills this one, and even the film ends with a The ending in this way reflects to a large extent that the legal scale is only an appendix of violence to a certain extent. Perhaps the weakest part of each character is the sense of justice. The violent behavior of Billy played by DiCaprio is not inferior to that of gangsters. Compared with him, Tony Leung in the Hong Kong version is too gentle and elegant. . And the blood-stained Frank was even more evil than Zeng Zhiwei, completely perverted like a demon. And in Matt Damon's Colin, he showed a cold-blooded temperament, completely different from the multi-layered complex mood like Ripley played by him before. Remains of humanity. The two police officers played by Baldwin and Wahlberg are not good-natured at all. Don't think that Wahlberg's last shot was for justice. God knows what a police officer is doing in this way? Only Martin Sheen showed some kindness of the elders.
If the original version of "Infernal Affairs" is a refined style of restraint, then the American version of "Infernal Affairs" has completely become a rough style of publicity. Just listening to the characters' philosophical lines and countless swear words, people can feel it. The gritty original taste from the lowest life. All the sad and emotional acoustic music in the original version was replaced by rock music, and the situation created by the Hong Kong version of "Infernal Affairs" was completely broken. What Sykosese needed was the cruelty and coldness of the metal texture, and all fell into depression and hopelessness. to the abyss. As mentioned earlier, you will never be able to find the deliberately condensed aesthetic literary atmosphere in the original film. You may be very uncomfortable or not enjoy the unpretentious style of Scorsese, but this is the only way It's a Scorsese movie, not some flamboyant movie.
After watching the Hong Kong version and then watching the US version, facing the same story, I really need to erase all the inherent images. But memories always pop up when familiar situations arise, and unless you suffer from amnesia, it's hard not to be disturbed. The only thing that can be done is to adjust one's viewing mentality, and try to experience such a film from a different perspective as much as possible. After all, the cultural foundations are different, the audiences they face are also different, and the styles pursued by the directors are also different, let alone expectations. Scorsese will move closer to Liu Weiqiang. If it really looks like the Hong Kong version, how can the audience be satisfied with fried rice with the same taste, and it is not a master-level Scorsese. The American version of "Infernal Affairs" has its own unique style, which may not suit some people's tastes, but it is by no means a bad movie. Of course, there are flaws in some of Scorsese's handling in this film. For example, Frank steals computer chips and sells them to the Chinese, which makes the gang look like terrorists. In addition, the character Colin played by Matt Dimon is not fully represented. Excavation, the problem of shifting the center of gravity of the film exists. However, Scorsese is still good at depicting cruel reality, and the film "The Departed" is really not bad.
Text: Between the eyebrows
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