Hit Asians movies have a long history of being remade for the US market, yet few have ever snagged as high-profile a director as Martin Scorsese. For his 2006 gangland thriller The Departed, the acclaimed American filmmaker turned to cult Hong Kong cop drama Infernal Affairs for inspiration.
In this new video essay, part of an ongoing series entitled Remake/Remodel, Leigh Singer looks at how directors Andrew Lau and Alan Mak put an irresistible double twist to the undercover cop genre, and how Scorsese re-interpreted the film’s central themes and narrative devices for his own crime epic.
Watch the full video below and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more great video essays.
Published 20 Jul 2019
In praise of the Hong kong adrenaline junkie and architect of the time-honoured bullet ballet.
By Leigh Singer
A side-by-side video comparison of the seminal 1960 horror and its near-identical 1998 update.
By Leigh Singer
A new video essay offers an insightful reappraisal of Peter Weir’s eerily prophetic media satire.