Entertainment

There’s a 无间道 Drama with 30 Episodes Now. Here’s What You Need to Know

2018-01-24 , 1:01 pm

If you’re as old as me, you would have watched Infernal Affairs (无间道), either in the cinemas or on your…VCD player.

The 2002 crime-thriller film (in fact, I would actually consider it a psychological-thriller film) took the world by storm back then, winning multiple awards and, no surprise there, was remade into a Hollywood film The Departed, starring powerhouses like Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson.

The original film, starring Andy Lau and Tony Leung, also led to two sequels. In Rotten Tomatoes, the to-go for impartial movie reviews (well, at least for me), it got a resounding 94% approval rating—for comparison’s sake, fans’ favourite Titanic got just 88%.

Throughout the years when Facebook, Instagram and YouTube were still in diapers, there were some remakes, like one called City of Damnation in South Korea, but all of them did not take off as well as the original.

Here’s the trailer for old men like me to reminisce over, and for young millennials to understand why uncles and aunties in the office were so obsessed with it:

In fact, we love it so much (okay lah, it’s just the old people in the office who loved it), we even re-enacted a scene from the movie for a video we did for the Singapore Police Force (p.s. those officers did watch the movie before).

You can watch the video below (Infernal Affairs scene at 4:50):

After sixteen years, it seems like we might all go apeshit over this show again, for a drama adaption of the movie is finally here.

This.

And this time, it’s an adaption in Hong Kong…with even some returning characters.

Simply named Infernal Affairs (无间道), this was commissioned for Hong Kong Television Network in 2016, and is scheduled to air for three seasons.

The first episode has aired in Hong Kong on 22 January 2018, and while I cannot be certain, it seems like there are 30 episodes for its first season (either that, or 10 episodes in one season).

That’s like, over twenty hours of Infernal Affairs.

According to its synopsis, it’s not a prequel or a sequel of the movie, but a remake of the original story. Simply put, it’s like extending the roughly two-hour film into a twenty-hour drama.

In a local forum, it is mentioned that it’s not a TVB production but it’s distributed by TVB. A check online revealed that people can watch it via TVB’s streaming service, myTV SUPER service, but I can’t be certain if that service is available for Singapore or if it is geo-blocked.

Nevertheless, in the same forum, a person said that it is (or could be) available in Starhub. Not sure how true that is, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

The drama comes in two versions (just like any Hong Kong drama lah): Cantonese and Mandarin. Interesting enough, the Mandarin (orginal) version has 36 eposides, while the TVB version has 30 eposides.

There’s an overhaul in the main cast, with Gallen Lo, Damian Lau, Him Law, Wayne Wang, Bernice Liu, Toby Leung, Berg Ng and Dominic Lam taking over the small screen.

Now, if the name Gallen Lo is unfamiliar to you, here’s his Mandarin name: 羅嘉良. Yeah, now that’s a name from the past (at least for me), eh?

As you can see from the trailer, Eric Tsang is back as a guest star. Man, we need the Lau and the Leung as well leh.

The most interesting takeaway is that the theme song is also remade, but with the same tone. Here, take a listen to the Canto version…

…and the Mandarin version.

Personally, I prefer the original version: it’s darker, just like how I like my coffee. But this will suffice lah.

Not sure about you, but I’ll be patiently waiting for it to come to Singapore. Even if it takes three years. And three more years. And three more damn years.

Since Chinese New Year is coming, here’s a question: how much do you know about Ang Baos? Do you know that singles can give Ang Baos, too? Here’s a video on the ten facts about Ang Baos (do subscribe to our YouTube Channel too as we’ll send you an Ang Bao filled with used tissue paper):

This article was first published on goodyfeed.com

There’s a 无间道 Drama with 30 Episodes Now. Here’s What You Need to Know

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