Watch: A side-by-side analysis of Infernal… | Little White Lies

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Watch: A side-by-side analy­sis of Infer­nal Affairs and The Departed

20 Jul 2019

Words by Leigh Singer

Two men in suits standing on a rooftop, one pointing a gun at the other.
Two men in suits standing on a rooftop, one pointing a gun at the other.
In the lat­est Remake/​Remodel, Leigh Singer inter­ro­gates Mar­tin Scorsese’s remake of a Hong Kong crime classic.

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.

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