Film Journal 1/30

Last night I watched Infernal Affairs, the Hong Kong film that Scorsese's The Departed was based off of. It wasn't the best film I've ever seen, but the story was brilliant. Basically there is a drug lord who sends his younger minions off to become police officers so they can work for him on the inside. One gets "kicked out" and works undercover for the police and the other becomes a high ranking police chief. Many years later, the under cover one is a mole for the police and the other is a police chief mole for the drug lord.
The two moles eventually learn of each other and in the end you find out whether they will team up for one side or whether they have to kill each other. It's not the most original sounding premise (the double more thing), but I really can't think of any other film that plays this dynamic so well. I haven't seen The Departed yet (though I plan to as soon as it comes out on DVD), but now I'm very excited to see Mr. Scorsese's spin on the whole thing.