Wednesday, October 04, 2006

The Departed - What? The Retarded?

As you read the title, you would go "WHAT?!" and probably think that I'm retarded (If you happen to love the film or the Director) or I'm actually sane (If you love the original movie - The WuJianDao / Infernal affairs.)
Well, this post is not to discuss what my current mental state is. I'm here to talk about this movie. The Departed.
I'm not saying Martin Scorsese has anything to do with the word "retarded". NO! This word just came to my mind when I first heard about the name of the movie. I was like "huh?! Retarded??" and thinks what are weird name for this Imported version of the movie.
After I read the comment on IMDB, the user Alwood said:

Please don't make negative comments like some of the aforementioned people have been doing if you haven't seen the film yet! I have seen it, at a press screening last week. Not only is it the best film of the year so far, it marks a return to form for Martin Scorsese, and ranks with the likes of GOODFELLAS as being one of the best in his canon of films.

I'm a fan of the Hong Kong film, INFERNAL AFFAIRS, upon which this is based. While THE DEPARTED keeps the basic structure of the original, it is very much its own movie, so much so that the screenwriter, William Monahan, didn't even watch the original film while adapting its screenplay, thus enabling him to infuse the script with his, and Scorsese's, respective visions.

All the actors are first-rate (yes, even Leo, for all you DiCaprio bashers out there), and turn in some of their best performances to date. THE DEPARTED is sure to garner a host of Oscar nods, if not wins, including (hopefully) Scorsese's long-overdue statuette for Best Director. Plus, with actors like Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin playing supporting roles, that says a lot about the quality of the film they signed up for! THE DEPARTED is tough stuff, not for the faint-of-heart. That said, it is a must-see for adult viewers who long for intelligent, gritty stories to grace our movie screens once again.


Well, I personally don't know how good Martin Scorsese or William Monahan are. Then again, this post is not to discuss about William Monahan(may be not even Martin Scorsese). But just a little note, by not watching the original and goes ahead to "translate" the story is just wrong. Since you are working off from someone's idea, why not watch it and make sure you can improve on it? Or may be trying to make an exact duplicate and then say:"I didn't watch the original and it just happen that I wrote the same thing." Yeah, right. It's just the same as "I didn't copy XXX's homework/test/exam/assignment/etc. , it just happens that we did the same thing/mistake/error/etc." Yeah, right. I'm sure teachers from all over the world has heard something like that before in their long long teaching career.

The main reason that triggers me to write this post is that, after watching all the available trailer and related material on the movie's website, it gets me thinking. Just how much did Leonardo DiCaprio or Matt Damon or Mark Wahlberg knows about the original movie. Did they know that the ORIGINAL idea was from the Hong Kong movie Wu Jian Dao (Infernal affairs)??? And has anyone of them ever got a chance (or willing) to watch the original?! Or they are all so f***ing arrogant that everything that is from America is the best, even if they copy?!
(Now, don't come and shout at me saying I know nothing...yet.)

If not, why they all praised Martin Scorsese? To the extent that even they know it's a next-to-exact remake of the original, they still say that he is great with his idea and all that? It's just my feeling after watching the trailers, and compare it bit by bit with the original.

If you have watched or going to watch the original and the "The Departed", I'm sure you will find alot of the details are the same. Just one of the many things, in one of the scene, Leonardo's character's hand is in a cast. The cast will get broken to check to make sure Leonardo isn't hiding some recording device in it. This is exactly the same as the original. If Martin Scorsese is so brilliant, why can't he think of something good to replace that? Oops, that's because Martin Scorsese is just the director, not the writer. No wonder they can only from someone's idea. Well, then why would they all say Martin Scorsese has such a great idea to come up with this movie? I'm confused.

7 comments:

  1. No one ever view this blog? If not, how come no one ever say anything here?

    ReplyDelete
  2. ha. finally I can leave comment. When I click on "comment" on main page, it doesn't work. so I need to click on "read more" first, then I can comment.

    so, to answer your question, yes. there are ppl who read your blog... and I tried to comment before but couldn't figure out why it didn't work and finally figured it out this time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. oh? you can't? why not?
    what seems to be the problem?
    so i can fix it.
    i'm guessing because when you click the comment link it will just show you the comment on the post, but not taking you to this comment screen? if that's the case, i'll try and fix it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. when I click on comment on the mainpage, it give me some invalid/missing file error on Blogger.

    ReplyDelete
  5. oh well, that's beyond me... Can't do much about Blogger's system.

    ReplyDelete
  6. only your blog has this problem tho. Everyone else's work fine.
    I suspect you may need to pick a different "theme" or something like that.

    ReplyDelete
  7. but i don't have this problem wor~
    may be it's just a minor glitch that happened once on Blogger's side?
    although i do have some problem with my other blogger page.
    :X

    ReplyDelete

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