Say what you like about Chinese cinema, but me, I love it. Hell, I adore it. I think it’s genius; wonderful, watchable and fun. And yes, yes, I know that’s a huge, ridiculous sweeping comment, but seriously, nine times out of ten, stick me in front of a Hong Kong or Chinese film, and it going to get me. It’s going to have me smiling right at the opening credits. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an old school classic like ‘Fist of Fury’, a fast thriller like ‘One Night in Mongkok’, a slick wonder like Wong Kar-Wai’s ‘1946’ (What a stunning piece of work…) or something mainstream and magical like Ang Lee’s ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’; I just know, when we click play, I’m going to enjoy.
Take 2002’s ‘Infernal Affairs’ an undercover saga staring Andy Lau and Tony Leung; now I admit, it’s no masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination – but it is a nice easy watch. It’s got everything you’d want from a movie – action, a touch of romance, superb cinematography, and catchy script. With this in mind, directors Wai-Keung Lau and Alan Mak have made a solid niche with the film. In fact, it's a lot more than a niche - the movie was huge in Asia, grossing $55 million in Hong Kong alone. It also won a pile of awards, led to a bunch of sequels and was remade by Scorsese as ‘The Departed’ starring Matt Damon, a movie which Mak scripted. It’s all quite a achievement for a movie, which essentially broke no barriers. All 'Infernal Affairs' did, essentially, was stay true to form; telling a story, without pretention, in the simplest way. And that’s the brilliance of Chinese cinema. It can be spruced up and fine tuned; it can be given a script that sees blood and gore and violence and more – but somehow, there’s always a charming side to the footage, a magic, which is lost elsewhere.
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