Sree Srinivasan

I watched both "Infernal Affairs," and "The Departed," twice in the same week, and liked both immensely. Each movie is excellent in its own ways. The Hong Kong original is like a play with two main actors; the American offshoot is like a star-studded musical. The original is a condensed classic like a Stendhal novel; the offshoot is also a classic, but expansively detailed, like a Victor Hugo novel: "Le Rouge et le Noir" vs "Les Misérables." The original is like a Zen Koan with philosophical sophistication; the remake is like a Shakespearean tragedy with dramatic intensity. The original is like a starry sky viewed with a telescope, twinkling with insights; the remake is like a live heart viewed with a surgical microscope, pulsating with passion. While both movies are solely about the world of men, the women are just eye candy in the Hong Kong movie, but the woman holds her own in the American version.