yurlee’s Blog

　　為無為，事無事，味無味。　　大小多少，報怨以德。　　圖難於其易，為大於其細。　　天下難事，必作于易；　　天下大事，必作于細。　　是以聖人終不為大，故能成其大。　　夫輕諾必寡信，多易必多難。　　是以聖人猶難之，故終無難矣。

I really hope Lao Tzu is right =\ 

Me: (sending an URL to a hollween costume) Look look look! what do you think?
S: that’s so tacky
Me: -______-|| that’s what i’m going to be…..

it’s ok.. i can pull off tacky ;P

Haven’t seen a movie for so long! last night went to see The Departed with Jenn Jon & Karen. last batch of sweet weekend escapes with lots of free popcorns sweet indeed. it was a good movie overall~ i enjoyed it a lot! re-makes always have their challenges, but they did a decent job. Of course, as all others say, casting was great (the girl… i like! so sexy!). On our way back, Jon and I got too excited discussing the movie and missed our stop -___- ended up in Chinatown.

Altho The departed is a great movie on its own, it’s hard not to compare with the original Internal Affairs. The biggest parts lost between translation are the emotional complexion and the "Yee-Chi" (friendship, brotherhood? couldn’t find a prefect word to explain Yee-Chi.. but then i have poor vocab :P). Without it, the movie feels cold. Several things I don’t dig:

- Matt Damon’s character  is flat. In Internal Affairs, Andy Lau is on the bad guys’ side but has a lot of self-conflicts in him. the great career, his own ability to handle tough cases, the gf/wife/family, and the talk with boss scene(at golf) all showed this tension within him. Lau killed his gangster boss because he wants to become that person everybody believed in, not because his gangster boss is going to sell him out to the FBI (in Asia, gangster boss would never do that! they have Yee-Chi!!). Here, Matt Damon is just a bad guy without dimensions.

-  Comparing to Matt, Leo’s character is more interesting. However, Tony Leung’s character  in Internal Affair still brings out more complexity than Leo. Leo was forced to be a spy. The whole time, he just want to finish this project and get out of all these mess. A straight on good guy that struggles in gangster life– again, clear black & white. Leung, altho also struggled, part of him respects the gangster brotherhood and bonds with the group. Leung escaped being caught because of Sa-Chuang’s "Yee-Chi", not because the dying guy happen to be another undercover cop.

- probably the only extra emotional tension the re-make created is the fact that the girl SLEPT with both spies. maybe because that’s the easiest way (in american culture) to show the complicated connections between two spies? i don’t know. i don’t think the girl sleeping with Leo is necessary except to create some sex scenes to entertain. but dang isn’t she lucky

- Several important scenes lost its original tempo: the stalking btw two spies after movie theater and the encounter of big heads from both sides. the HK version… the scene andy lau tapping the brown envelope while walking, and gangster boss sitting in police office eating bendon both had stronger tensions than in The Departed.

- Overkills: the white envelope with CITIZEN in HUGE fonts, in MARKER!? and so many close-up shots of it?? ok! we got it!!  and the ending (don’t read if u haven’t seen)… it’s unexpected ending for sure… but i think it’s just too over-kill… plus that cop suppose to be a "knife mouth tofu heart" person~ i don’ t think hating Matt Damon is enough to turn him to a killer. "overkill" indeed…

but don’t get me wrong~ i think it’s a great movie!! a good re-make from hollywood! go see!!