Top 250

Mou Gaan Dou (2002)
Number 250 on IMDb's Top 250

The setting is the never-ending war between the police and the Triads of Hong Kong. Chan Wing Yan is a cop who's been assigned to undercover work inside the Triads for so long that he's been able to rise through the ranks to a position of some authority. Lau Kin Ming, meanwhile, is a secret member of the Triads who has infiltrated the police force with an equal level of success. As they feed their bosses information on the plans and counter-plans of the organizations they pretend to serve, they both begin to feel the stresses of their double lives as they become torn between the oppressive obligations they owe to their superiors and the growing camaraderie they share with the foot soldiers around them. As the two organizations become increasingly aware of the moles in their midst, the race is on for Chan and Lau to try and get out of the game alive. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: The English title is a play on words mixing Ming's job in the IA, the infernal nature of both characters' double lives, and finally Dante's Inferno, relating to the original Cantonese title. When Yan and SP Wong are waiting at the elevator, the digital floor counter skips the 4th floor. In China and Hong Kong, the number 4 is considered bad luck because it sounds similar to the word 'death'.

If you think you have heard this plot summary before on this blog it is because you have. It is the plot for one of this year's Best Picture Oscar Nominees The Departed. The Departed is a remake of this movie from Hong Kong. The Departed was very faithful to the plot of Infernal Affairs but it didn't matter that I had basically seen the movie before. Infernal Affairs is able to keep you in your seat until the end. This is a very good movie. You know, I am starting to really like a lot of the foreign films that I am watching now, does that make me a geek (well, at least a bigger geek then I already am)?

Okay, now for a little ranting. Do marketers really think American Audiences are that predictable, that we are all sexually depraved individuals that won't watch a movie if there isn't an element of sex in it? Case in point. The two DVD cover pictured in this post. The American release (the red one) has a picture of the two main guys, AND A PICTURE OF A SCANTILY CLAD YOUNG WOMAN HOLDING A GUN. Now, I have seen the film. There are two main female characters, neither one dressed like that in the movie, and neither one even touched a gun (one was a psychiatrist). For that matter, they were minor characters used just to drive the plot. I didn't watch the movie to see scantily clad women (though I have nothing against scantily clad women). Why do they think they can't sell the movie without that picture? The Blue cover is just as interesting to me and actually tells me more about the movie. The sad thing is that it that the cover was probably redesigned here in America by someone for the American Distributer (who probably never even watched the movie). For what it is worth the female characters in The Departed play a much bigger role. So you guys (my international readers) are we Americans that bad? Or are we being typecast like people who come to Texas and expect everybody to be riding horses and wearing boots and cowboy hats (we only do that for the rodeo). End of rant, you can now go about your business, nothing to see here.