Martin Scorsese interview
I was definitely unsure when I first heard that they were remaking Infernal Affairs as The Departed, but slowly, bit by bit I've been turned around (no, I don't get influenced by Studio's and advertising, despite the banner - that only gets us the competition prizes for you!). Hearing that Martin Scorsese was helming, then the huge cast, that helped, but it was the trailer that really turned it all around for me.
Now Scorsese has turned it up a notch again with an interview over at CinemaBlend. In it he talks about his feelings of Asian cinema, and suddenly I'm with him.
once I saw John Woo's The Killer, you can't go near that, you can't even begin. As far as my skills as a filmmaker, you can't. That's taking our film and their culture and mix everything up together......the Hong Kong cinema of Wong-Kar Wai and Stanley Kwan, all of this is something that you have to appreciate as a filmmaker...
...no matter even if I had a moment where I said to myself, ‘Gee, maybe I can make a film like John Woo,’ the minute I get to design the shot or I get behind the camera with the cinematographer, well, many times I saw my god I've done this shot five times already in two other movies. But that's what I do, that's how it came out
Well that's certainly hit the spot for me. I'm not saying Departed is going to be superb because everyone is saying the right things, but at least you can tell from this interview that he approached it knowning that Asian cinema is Asian cinema, it won't work remaking it because it becomes Western and it no longer works the same way. He also says that he approached the film from the westernised script he was given, not from Infernal Affairs, which I guess is the best way to approach it.
Are you holding out hope for the film? I think we might just be surprised.
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