I cannot find a single review that doesn't compare this to the American remake 'Departed' by Martin Scorsese which is one of my favourite movies of all time. So fuck it I'll compare it too.

First of all, the style of this movie is definitely not for me, the way they build up tension using an electrifying score with some weird camera angles and overly dramatic shots is just too off putting for my taste, gives major bollywood vibes. Some scenes are hugely exaggerated unnecessarily. That and the fact that I've seen The Departed earlier didn't really help because I knew all the twists that was gonna happen, even if I didn't I think Scorsese did a much better job at the twists, it was so sudden and unpredictable the way he did it.

There are few things this one did much better than The Departed and one is the storytelling, because here it felt like the prime focus of the movie was the storytelling, the characters so were well written and the script is impressively well executed. There is much more of an emotional pay off to the characters and each actor portrays some stellar performance.

I personally prefer if you watch The Departed first if you really wanna be blown away because it does a better job at being more a fun watch than Infernal Affairs.

Beginning with an immediate lob into both cheese and action, I was caught off guard and genuinely wondered whether I was watching the same movie as everyone else...because I really wasn't liking the 80s commercial-type editing and the horrific use of music, but despite these two aspects not necessarily getting any better, the movie does somehow become an engaging crime mystery.

Even though Martin Scorsese 'borrowed' way too much from this film, to the point where it's an almost identical story, I still think *The Departed* was a much better movie, and that's because that propelled everything that was wrong with this version. This one was incredibly rushed, giving almost no time to build characters. This one had lots of music but it was just terrible and took me away from the emotion at points. Infernal Affairs also had a very on-the-nose screenplay that almost felt like a first draft. Scorsese corrected all these things in his version with a longer run-time, a more patient pace, better use of music, a more realistic script and a terrific casting choice of Jack Nicholson!

There's a few parts I preferred about *Infernal Affairs*, but the majority of my preference leans towards *The Departed*. Great film though and very different to Scorsese's picture anyway, purposely feeling more like a cheesy b-movie action flick. I guess I liked it.

Solid Hong Kong action-thriller with good performances and fine direction. I do think The Departed did better with connecting the plot and character development (particularly between the undercover cop and psychiatrist). Also thought The Departed was more suspenseful. But that said, Infernal Affairs is a fine film. **3.75/5**