If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Scorsese's version is far better than the original. I watched this because of the overwhelming good reviews. Unfortunately, i didnt see any good in it. The acting was mediocre at best and the flow of the story was sloppy. I dont know, maybe if you're from hong kong or china you'll be able to really appreciate this film.

"Infernal Affairs" is the Hong-Kong based crime movie that eventually led to the birth of the "The Departed" by Martin Scorsese. The film certainly has its own merits, but also its own faults. The story is centered on two moles: one of them infiltrates the mob and the other infiltrates the police force. When both parties become aware of the infiltration, a game of cat and mouse (or should I say mouse and mouse?) ensues, as each try to uncover the other one first.For the most part, "Infernal Affairs" relies on its strong and intriguing premise to keep the viewer hooked and succeeds. It's a competent crime film, but if you begin to scrape the surface it quickly gives in. While the two main characters are reasonably interesting, their love interests are extremely underdeveloped and lack any of the emotional depth of the characters in "The Departed". The direction is also far from brilliant. "Infernal Affairs" tries too hard to be stylish, cramming obnoxious fade-outs and pointless slow motion shots in many scenes. Still, I could have let all of this go, were it not for the most annoying fault of the entire film: an atrocious soundtrack, which isn't only incredibly cheesy, but intrusive as well. I admit I had seen Scorsese's remake prior to "Infernal Affairs" and, no matter how hard I tried not to compare the two, the superior work is obvious.If you are looking for a decent crime film, "Infernal Affairs" will meet most of your expectations. However, if you are hoping for something more, I strongly recommend Scorsese's version.

The given is that a remake will not be as good as the original. It may be there for reasons that a studio needs to put out something, they have the rights now, let's do another spin on it. And it's not like remakes are new, they've been around since the 1930's in film, maybe even before that (were silent films remade from other silent versions, maybe, but I digress). The Departed was one of those rare occasions where not only did the filmmakers and actors improve on the previous story, they added to it, enhancing the plot. Of course the main ingredients were there in Lau and Leung's film, but it's like taking a bite out of a piece of fried chicken from your local Chinese food delivery, and getting a crisp, golden-fried piece from that awesome restaurant in the city - same bird, different spices and oil. I should let this film on its own speak for itself, and to be fair it does work on its own as a film. But the work of Scorsese, Monahan, DiCaprio/Damon/Nicholson et all took the main plot (and ironically Scorsese quipped it was his first movie that had a plot) and added humor, subtext, extra characters, real romance and stakes that weren't there before.Infernal Affairs is a good movie though because its plot is strong and compelling - you got the cop undercover in the mob, and the young mobster picked by the boss to be undercover in the ranks as a cop. The dramatic possibilities are on a silver platter for any writer (though on the flip-side it could become cliché and trite in the misguided hands). Here, we get a story that has very little fat story-wise, as we follow the drug busts, the twists, the tracking of one cop to another and the deaths of certain cops and criminals, and it's ultimately about the price paid, morally speaking, in this world - which can be a lot or a little depending on which side you're on.Again, it's hard to under-sell how much The Departed looms in my mind seeing the film. It's not totally fair, I know this, but it's also hard when so many scenes are much alike... and yet you can see where, in the opposite of what happens in adaptations, the new filmmaker adding to what's already there. And yet there's certainly good things to recommend about Infernal Affairs, especially if you like specifically HK cop movies - actually, if you're a die-hard follower of those, this seems to be a quintessential watch.At the top of what's good here are the two main actors, Tony Leung and Andy Lau as the cop and criminal undercover respectively. Leung has the more intense part - when we see him after a prologue he has been undercover for 10 years - and I was astonished by how much he dug into the turmoil of this character (normally I see him in more romantic stuff like Wong Kar Wai's films, but here, as in The Grandmaster, he shows he has the cops for it). Lau is also very good, but has to play more... reserved isn't the word, but he has to show fewer emotions, unless he's with his psychiatrist girlfriend (not that developed as a character, by the way, just enough to get by). The two actors, how they play every scene, is captivating.But while the villain here, Sam (Eric Tsang), is fairly strong, I never felt much of a threat or sense of danger about him. Again, hard to stay away from its American version, but there's much less there than in Nicholson's character (albeit that had the boost from Whitey Bulger's story from Boston). With the exception of maybe a couple of scenes, like when the drug deal goes down in the first act of the film, he too doesn't seem to have much to do except act sort of menacing, in a subdued sort of way, to his underlings. It's not that he has to be fun or exciting, but... maybe he does. Maybe he could have been the wildcard or piece of mania to give the material that extra boost.Infernal Affairs works as a kind of well-oiled machine of a thriller, and hen those major turns happen - the reveals of who is really who and not what really seems is what it is - it's satisfying. But it's got its share of flaws, namely in a score that is sappy-melodramatic, like right after when the death of a particular character happens and the hero looks on in despair. And while the directors here have a lot of excellent shots and cinematography to work with in the HK sky-line (and always with the rooftops, a joke is made at one point, which is nice), there's flashbacks once too much. I can give it to this movie that, unlike some other HK action thrillers, this isn't convoluted, it's straight-forward enough really. Actually, so straightforward it doesn't need certain obvious moments repeated for the audience.So, in short, even if I'd seen this before the Departed, it would still work as a movie. But it has short-comings as it is, I didn't find it to be that All-Time Great HK Cop Thriller that some have elevated it to, and if one puts it up against a interpretation by a master filmmaker the faults show more.

It was a watchable movie. I am not a Chinese. So my review does not get swayed by any emotional attachment with Hong Kong cinema. I feel a lot of Hollywood movies from the same genre have done much better. In this movie, the setting is good, actors are excellent but the plot is too predictable. I lost the excitement in the midway. Nothing edge-of-the- seat about it! As there is little to be revealed, the climax is also quite obvious. However, the movie has an extended climax (if you agree) which is a little more effective. Buddha's message sits well with the intended message the director wishes to convey. You will be made to think for a while about what exactly may happen next at the very end of the movie. That's one good thing about the movie.