IA better than Departed - Mou gaan dou (2002) Discussion

[–] djfrancophilippe 11 years ago

IA is simply a better film, in every department. The only argument seems to come from crazed Scorsese fanatics and people who complain about it being a Chinese language film. Personally, I couldn't care if it was in Klingon! Like most lovers of cinema, I've been watching foreign language films since I was about 9 years old, a bit of light reading doesn't hurt.

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] mjr1114 10 years ago

The Departed copped out when they killed off the Matt Damon character. IA was a much better film, overall. The trilogy just knocks it out of the park to the point of no comparison.
The Departed is cheesy compared to IA.

Credo ergo sum

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[–] chocoholic_ 9 years ago

Hmm, The Departed is cheesy, yet IA is the one with the ridiculous dumb montage when Wong dies that reminds me of the Korean soap opera skits from Mad TV.

Ok...

IA was a faster-paced and tighter movie, and I certainly liked Lau better than Colin Sullivan, who was self-serving and terrible (credit to Matt Damon for making him so loathsome). But I didn't care about the characters in IA much at all.

If life gives you lemons, throw them at someone

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[–] Stewart46217 9 years ago

The Departed wins hands down. Departed is a completely different film, made by the master and with first class actors in the roles. The 'Original,; is ridiculous on many levels and fall's into melodrama.

The fact that IA came first means nothing. It's like saying the original silent frankenstein is better than the 1931 James Whale masterpeace. They are both culturally miles apart. Just because a movie is in a foreign language does not make it better. Grow up people.

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[–] mrrockey 9 years ago

The Departed may have been made by a master, but the film was by no means his best work. The film just came off immature in places, it sometimes feels like it was written by a teenager with the violence and profanity dialed to absurd, almost comedic degrees. There was no subtlety or tension to it at all, I actually cracked up a few times while watching it because of how over-the-top it was. Infernal Affairs on the other hand, had palpable tension and suspense throughout and the violence was more effective because it wasn't so over-the-top in each scene.

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[–] 9 years ago

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[–] mrrockey 9 years ago

You're only thinking of Wong's death. The rest of the score is excellent. And the montages kept the pacing brisk throughout. Infernal Affairs isn't a deep film, but the film is an interesting morality tale that explores themes of choice, fate, and suffering. All very much tied to Buddhism. It blows The Departed out of the water.

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[–] pjtaylor2011 9 years ago

I thought the Departed was incredibly tense....Perhaps it was because you'd seen IA first? The funny thing here is I loved the Departed....I've had Infernal Affairs on my to watch list for years and have only just found out the Departed is its remake. I generally do prefer the original film first, It gets an extra mark simply for being original. But there are plenty of remakes that do a great job...Rec/Quarantine, Tale of 2 sisters/Uninvited etc....Think too many people become film snobs over original or foreign titles.

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[–] mrrockey 9 years ago

Yeah, I did see Infernal Affairs first. But I don't think that's why I liked it so much more than Scorsese's film, I just felt it was better. Like most of you, I generally prefer originals over remakes, but I can accept when a remake is done well. I liked the Evil Dead remake on first viewing and I consider the 2010 Karate Kid just on par with the original. I also enjoyed The Grudge and The Fly a fair bit(but I haven't seen either of their original counterparts).

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[–] mmserrano4 8 years ago

Dude. No. Clockwork Orange has laughable violence. The Fast and Furious movies have laughable violence, superhero movies have laughable violence. This has good, tasteful, storytelling violence used when necessary to character development or to advance the story. "Over the top" effects were not used. Someone gets shot in the head, there's blood on the wall. If you just didn't like the movie, that's fine. Everyone's entitled to be wrong sometimes. Just don't make it as if your opinion has more validity than mine or someone else's. Violence is obviously used differently in each film. I can't speak for Infernal Affairs, but The Departed used violence in relatively calm scenes or shockingly.

All great and precious things are lonely.

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[–] envity1981 9 years ago

the only good thing about 'Departed' was Leonardo DiCaprio. Anything else sucked. The original movie was 100 times better.

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[–] jimmyolsenblues 9 years ago

I agree.

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[–] RynoII 8 years ago

I agree that IA has a better ending, but I think that The Departed is a better movie for the rest of it, besides the ending, only.

I like how in The Departed, they combine the two female love interests into one character and I thought that added more to the dynamic.

But the main problem with IA is that it does suffer from cheesy dialogue. Now I do not know Cantonese, so I am going by the English subtitles only, but I feel that the dialogue is quite cheesy.

The dialogue in the therapist's office where the cop alludes to how he has a crush on her was written cheesy, and I also felt that the other female love interest talking about her book character being a 'bad guy' or a 'good guy' was written cheesy too, while she was alluding to her boyfriend.

The Departed has much better written dialogue in some scenes. For example, in the scene where Costigan is talking to the dying gangster, the gangster says to him "I thought whoever doesn't show up is the rat. I gave you the wrong address, but you went to the right one"

Then he dies, and Costigan almost shoots him to keep him from yelling that that he was the rat, to the others.

That was a great suspenseful scene. In the original, the guy say's something like "That masseuse you go too... She better not look like a pig, otherwise it's not worth it".

That's what I mean by cheesy dialogue and it does bring the original down. It's still very good though.

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[–] bushd0 8 years ago

Most Hong Kong movies you see are dubbed in Mandarin sadly, and if you didn't buy a legit copy or just watched it online the subs will be fan made. Whatever they did say is lost in translation, but it still came down to the fact that both characters in the two movies protected him.

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[–] RynoII 7 years ago

Most Hong Kong movies you see are dubbed in Mandarin sadly, and if you didn't buy a legit copy or just watched it online the subs will be fan made. Whatever they did say is lost in translation, but it still came down to the fact that both characters in the two movies protected him.

Okay thanks, but I watched the official store bought DVD release with subtitles, and the line about the masseuse looking like a pig is the line on the official copy. How is that protecting him, when he says that?

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[–] porfiripetrovich 8 years ago

Firstly,this is not a ''original is always better'' circlejerk.I acknowledge the fact that some remakes can actually be good/better.Still...
People are able to have their own opinions,but I can't wrap my head around how someone can think that The Departed is better.
Some people claim that,TD is more character-driven,but it is actually vice versa.
Specifically two characters,the police chief and the mob guy,who discovered the police mole before he died.Both movies have these characters,but in TD,you don't care about them,because they are not developed.Not even a single bit.You don't feel anything.
TD is also much more romanticized,in so many ways.Mark Wahlberg character adds nothing except making the movie a bit funnier and the ending.Talking about the ending,let's point out how poorly-executed it is.
The ending in IA is much more realistic,while the ending of TD is just fan-service.It doesn't add up to the story.It's all about revenge,but it is not the point of IA.In the end you can feel just a bit good after all,because you start to symphatize with Lau.You can see in his facial expressions that he can actually become good.He was devastated when he saw Yan die.In TD,Matt Damon plays the lucky mole.He doesn't care when Billy dies,he is just glad that he survives.I don't think it was Scorsese's purpose to make the viewer feels this way,but I think he failed big time there.
Like I said before,everyone is able to have their own opinions though...

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[–] stonedprune1975 8 years ago

IA is better for a number of reasons.

-It doesn't have Mark bloody Wahlberg.

- It doesn't have that annoying Alec Baldwin character either. Both the Baldwin and Wahlberg characters were only invented for The Departed because American audiences love cheering for alpha male dickheads. The Departed would have been a better film if these 2 meaningless characters didn't exist.

- It doesn't have micropraaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwsessors.

- Andy Lau kills his gangster boss in cold blood in IA because he likes his new life as a high ranking police officer. Matt Damon only kills Jack Nicholson in self defence in Departed. The bad guy is not as evil in Departed.

- The bad guy gets away with it in IA. Departed has the Hollywood ending where the bad guy must die. And worse still, killed by Mark bloody Wahlberg!

- DiCaprio screws Damon's wife. One rat screws the other rat's wife without knowing that she is the wife of the rat that he is trying to identify. What are the chances of that? There is no such ridiculous scenario in IA.

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[–] ianmitchell-45214 7 years ago

The Departed was a bloody good film but I'd probably consider it an absolute insult to this great classic if I watched it 2nd.

Also, it feels like the messages were well portrayed in this movie compared to the Departed. The Western Counterpart felt a bit more glorified in the violence department.

Overall, I feel IA is utterly superior and I can't wait to watch the 2 sequels.

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