February 13, 2004
Infernal Affairs, Amercanized
It looks like Martin Scorsese will be trying his hand at the double cross of Hong Kong's hit film, Infernal Affairs: Variety reports that Scorsese is in negotiations to direct the remake. Brad Pitt, who bought the remake rights with his Plan B production company (with co-partners Jennifer Aniston and Brad Grey), is discussing taking a starring role in this tale of a corrupt cop and a cop undercover in the mob who cross paths. Infernal Affairs, snubbed for a best foreign film nomination, is one of the most popular Hong Kong films in recent memory, spawing two other films. A beautifully shot film, IA is one of the most interesting good cop-bad cop double cross films to come along in a while. Gothamist hopes it's set in New York.
Infernal Affairs screened at last spring's New Directors/New Films and will be released in the U.S. this summer. However, if you have a region-free DVD player, you can probably get yourself a DVD of the film with a little elbow grease.
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Is that photo a poster or a shot from the movie? Either way - where can I get it?
Watched Infernal Affairs at a San Francisco festival last year. I was excited to see Tony Leung who is great in the Wong Kar Wai films and curious about the associated Pang brothers. However, I didn't find much depth in it and walked out halfway through. Though John Woo is crap now, Infernal Affairs seemed like a glossy derivative of his Hong Kong style.
Even for filmerati, taste is such an individual thing. I'm trying to find a critic who's judgement I can rely on — no luck. For me, the freshest films last year were 28 Days Later and Lost in Translation. The yeshiva student and prostitute story Holy Land was confident and surprising — the writer-director is promising. In This World was very affecting while viewing, though somehow didn't hold up in my memory. The melodramatic Mystic River (lest we not forget, from the director of Space Cowboys) was highly overrated. I should have seen more films last year but sentimentality has thoroughly drenched the Hollywood and indie scene so I'm wary with my $10.
infernal affairs 15 should be out by the time the u.s. version hits the theaters.
and ag: its both a shot from the movie and was the used for the posters. chris doyle (hero, wong kar wai movies, etc...) was the visual consultant for the movie. you can find the dvd online...ebay or an asian dvd site like aznfilms.com.
Thanks for the feedback. Know of any DVD shops in manhattan that would sell it? Also, I hear Equilibrium, Volcano High, and Versus are must-buys of the same genre. True?
kims video on st.marks, otakuden at broadway and waverly (2nd flr), or any chinatown video store.
versus was a bit underwhelming, volcano high was fun to watch...but they pose too much, and equilibrium wouldve been better if they just spliced all the fight scenes together without all the prose. try 2009:lost memories, battle royale, or wonderful days...
There's tons of places that sell DVDs of it for like $13 in Chinatown. Try the place by the Buddhist temple near the bridge on Canal, where you can buy those Chinatown bus tickets. It's the best place to get Asian movies. They even have Infernal Affairs 2 and 3.
That's funny I just got back from movie shopping in Chinatown (bagged "The Twins Effect" for $10 and the "Police Story" trilogy for $4.50 each). So I can confirm they have an all-region DVD for Infernal Affairs 1 and 2 now, about $13 each, and also deluxe box set versions. They had IA part three too but it might still be only region 3.
Y'all should definitely always try chinatown before you hit Kim's et al. Here are some spots I like (just happened to be planning a post about this tomorrow):
NY Music and Gift
151 Canal St.
(red awning, near to the buddhist temple that used to be the Rosemary)
DVD Music and Gift
60B Mott St.
(yellow awning, bet. canal and hester)
P.S. - that Malaysian "Taste Good 2" spot on Hester is bangin, i hadn't been there before
oops, i mean bet. Canal and Bayard.
btw I was also a little underwhelmed by Infernal Affairs, when I caught it at Lincoln Center.. maybe just too much hype beforehand. I heard part 2 is even better tho.
Jay Smooth - thanks for the tips. I liked IA a lot when I first saw it - probably because I thought it would crappy. There are cheesy parts, but overall, I found it very snappy and entertaining. I saw another HK corrupt cop movie, PTU, at the NY Film Festival, and that made IA look like Bergman.