Quote:
Originally Posted by Once A Villain
It was a more interesting story/premise in the original without the love triangle. That's all I'm saying. The Damon character in the original, played by Andy Lau, had a girlfriend. However, this girl wasn't also sleeping with Tony Leung, the DiCaprio of the original. Much was the same though. The girl heard the tape that Tony Leung sent and she puts it on the speakers for Andy Lau to hear. Then she leaves him.
In the original, Lau regrets his actions. He shows this much better than Damon did. Instead of revealing some sort of angle about Costello being an FBI informant so Damon kills him, the original has Lau kill his boss (in the same scene; phone rings and the men are led to each other in a parking garage) simply because he wants to stop being a mole. Plus, at the end of the original, when Lau kills the other mole it has more weight than in the remake. When Damon kills the mole, he appears to just be covering his tracks. In the original, it comes across as almost being revenge for the mole killing Tony Leung.
Kinda thought the tragic storyline was done a bit better in the original too. Heh. Costello was just too much, as I said before, and toward the end all of the headshots were more comical than effective. My audience laughed, and I hear reports of the same thing happening in theaters across the country.
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Missed this because I hadn't realized you just edited it into your other post. Anyways, I don't even know what the point of this argument is anymore as I haven't seen the original. I still say one shouldn't grade the merits of this movie based on the original material, which is all you're doing here and I of course can't really respond effectively. But I will say that it was perfectly clear, to me anyways, that Damon killed Costello because he was tired of being the mole, and perhaps the the FBI informant thing just took him over because of all the work he had to do to cover Costello while also searching for the rat, and having to lie to Madilyn, etc. I didn't see the FBI revelation to be the only thign that took Sullivan over. This is why I liked Damon's performance, more understated than DiCaprio's, for me anyways--I thought he perfectly conveyed these attitudes with his stares and whatever without ever actually saying it.
My audience didn't laugh at the headshots. I was perfectly shocked each time because they were all so well edited/placed. It didn't feel like Fatal Attraction where they ruined the movie in the last 20 minutes by turning it into a violent horror movie; the deaths in the Departed felt like they should have happened, or rather they didn't feel out of place.
I guess that's all I can really comment on until I see Infernal Affairs.
Terrabin - I'm not really surprised at all that Flags of Our Fathers is getting better reviews. It's a WWII movie....by Clint Eastwood. Critics are bound to eat it up. I was already kind of wary about The Prestige; if the critics are in fact panning it as you say, I guess that'd only confirm my fears. Christopher Nolan is talented but I can't say I'm a big fan. Memento was pretty cool and I liked Insomnia and Batman Begins, but he hasn't really wowed me yet. Neither has Eastwood (as director) except for Unforgiven. I feel like, while his recent hits are bound to be critical and awards darlings, they will be forgotten pretty quickly. I'll feel pretty sad for Scorsese if Clint Eastwood shuts him out again (I also thought The Aviator, while not being great, was still better than Million Dollar Baby), even if I end up absolutely loving Flags of Our Fathers.
