Two undercover men, one infiltrating the Irish mafia in a war the Boston police wages on organized crime, and the other, selected by a mafia head to join the police force—serving as the ears and eyes for his boss, make the story of the newly opened Hollywood all-star hit, The Departed. Hollywood, the movie-making giant, has long been the “role model” for many others, especially in Hong Kong where many Hollywood movies are adapted. A recent musical, Perhaps Love, for example, which won the actress a Golden Award, the Hong Kong equivalent of an Oscar, was entirely inspired by Moulin Rouge. This time, however, the route is reversed. The Departed is an adaptation of a Hong Kong thriller from a few years ago, Internal Affairs.

Internal Affairs was an instant success in China, and perhaps in the entire region of East Asia, when it opened in 2002, and it is already a classic among millions of mafia-police movies Hong Kong has produced. After only a few years, Hollywood already has its own commercially successful adaptation, The Departed, so Hollywood-tailored that you would see no impact from the Orient if you hadn’t known the original. But, I knew it when I stepped into the theatre, and I must admit that it was less fun to watch a movie when you always knew what was going to happen in the next scene. However, I wanted to see how Martin Scorsese had adapted Internal Affairs, of which I am very much a fan. And when it comes to this point, things get interesting.

Internal Affairs is known in Chinese as Wu-Jian-Dao, a phrase originally coming from Sanskrit that depicts one layer of Hell in Buddhism where people, if fallen, suffer eternal tortures. As suggested by the title, the two main characters constantly struggle in their situations. The undercover policeman, Chan Wing Yan, portrayed by Tony Leung, has worked as a secret agent in the mafia for so long that he almost confuses his identity. He has strong emotional attachments to his police supervisor, played by Anthony Wong, the only person in the world who knows his true identity. On the other hand, Chan also develops a friendship with one of the gangsters. Lau King Ming, portrayed by Andy Lau, is sent to the police force as an undercover by the mafia Godfather, played by Eric Tseng, and manages to have a successful career in the police department. Seemingly a bright and good character, Lau wants to cut off his ties with the gangsters to become a truly good man, which proves to be painfully difficult. Along such a story line, Internal Affairs is a movie that is gripping from the first moment and moving through the end, with a touch of melancholy.

When it is transformed into a Hollywood thriller, the cycling of causes to consequences, so deeply rooted in Buddhism, is completely eliminated. Leonardo DiCaprio takes on the role of the undercover policeman as someone constantly suffering from fear and stress. He is, however, much detached emotionally from the two policemen, Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg who force him to go undercover. Matt Damon, on the other hand, as a villain who is undercover in the police force cares only about himself and never really struggles to become a good man. A lot of time is spent on telling how Damon becomes attached to gangsters, how DiCaprio goes undercover, and on those interesting interwoven jump cut scenes where DiCaprio survives all the bloody jobs while Damon, dressed up, gets promoted and meets his lovely girlfriend. Obviously Martin Scorsese is more interested in the development of the characters, yet almost indifferent to the eternal sufferings everyone has in his heart, which is so vital to the original Hong Kong version.

Not only has Martin Scorsese modified the theme of the movie, he has also made the story appear more dramatic and striking. For example, Jack Nicholson’s mafia boss is a disturbing and brutal maniac, in contrast to Eric Tseng’s calm and calculating figure. Vara Farmiga, the only female role in the movie who is at the center of a love triangle, is actually the combination of two female roles in the Hong Kong version and makes the movie emotionally more challenging. Blood, big bangs, and the intense and sometimes violent language add even more flavor to the movie. In one sentence, the Hollywood remake is visually more dramatic, but internally less complex than the Hong Kong original.

This, if you would like to go one step further, may reflect a difference in aspects of more than just a movie. It perhaps says something about why Hollywood thinks that straightening out and flavoring everything heavily make more money than subtly pasting things together. It may also explain why the rating of The Departed on imdb.com continuously climbs up, having exceeded that of Internal Affairs long before, while so many Chinese cry out that the remake is just an unsatisfying adaptation of the original. The difference is perhaps also an internal affair that has departed several millennia before.

To visit the official Web site of The Departed, click here.