You have to wonder how much has been lost in translation in films like Infernal Affairs. The direction is stylish but functional, the plot good, but the dialogue seems very basic; like the mangled simplification of a poor translation.
The film does not suffer too much for this: the story is still comprehensible, even if it does have a few bizarre subplots (was the psychiatrist really necessary?).
Worth seeing.
Posted: March 5th, 2004
#Permalink: Infernal Affairs, By Gary Fleming
Wow your “cultured” ; )
You’re right in saying that the dialogue is dodgy, it’s always funny reading the subtitles. I speak “Hak Ga” which has some similarities with Cantonese and even I noticed some mistakes!
The psychiatrist was of course the great Kelly Chan (Steve’s sister), highly successful Asian pop star. As for the rest of the cast I have been informed that they were also famous in their own right.
All in all great traditional Chinese film with the cheesy love scene, fat comedy boss etc. It’s great to see a film break the UK market which is not the stereotypical kung fu flick.
Not sure if the prequel and sequel will live up to this but then again they rarely do. Then again they can’t be as dissapointing as the forthcoming American remake ; )
# Posted by shi fu, on March 7th, 2004 at 9:54 pm
An American remake? You’re joking, surely? They should have given up after they butchered Nikita.
And yes, the fat comedy boss was great.
While we’re talking about this sort of film, it’s worth mentioning that Tartan Films (the UK distributer) have put out a lot of similar stuff.
# Posted by Gary Fleming, on March 8th, 2004 at 9:16 am