Protégé

Boosting some of Hong Kong's film industry biggest with producer Peter Chan (Perhaps Love) and director Derek Yee (C'est La Vie and One Night in Mongkok), "Protégé" looks set to become this Hong Kong biggest film this Chinese New Year.

The Protégé here is Nick (Daniel Wu), trained to take over Jong's (Andy Lau) heroin trafficking business, but is in fact a police officer. His inner conflict is between the loyalty towards his 'teacher', and duty towards his job and justice. Things get more complicated when he falls in love with a heroin-addict (Zhang Jingchu), forced to detriment by her husband (Louis Koo).

The story of an undercover police would remind many of "Infernal Affairs", especially when both stars Andy Lau. The difference lies in its subtlety. While there are still police chase scenes and fights, the focus of the film is on the character development more than its actions.

Daniel has proved his acting abilities in One Night In Mongkok. Though he is playing the lead role in "Protégé", his character lacks of a very distinct quality to showcase his acting skills. This is so for Andy Lau's 'baddie' role as well, and you can't put across strongly how you should feel for him. Anita Yuen has very little screen time, perhaps due to the fact she was six months pregnant, and there could be more chemistry between her and Andy Lau.

The scene stealer is the refreshing China actress Zhang Jingchu who breathes an air of vulnerability and frenzy as a woman forced by circumstances. We should expect more from her as she moves on to a Hollywood in Rush Hour 3. Louis Kook, in stained teeth and tattered clothes, changes his image successfully playing her abusive husband.

Starting off slowly, the movie picks up after moving to the Golden Triangle, where audience are treated to the eye-opening sight of heroin plantations and produce.

"Protégé" may not be adrenalin pumping or mass audience entertainment, as director Derek Yee probably wanted to weave in a social message in a subtle and restrained manner. The last scene was enough for me to understand the story, though you wished he had pushed the movie forward a little more.

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I saw this movie in the Hong Kong IFC mall before I got the train to the airport. It is one of the best films I have ever seen. I am a huge Daniel Wu fan anyway, and I related to his relationship with his smack-head neighbour straight away, having lived with a smack-head with a little daughter. Some of the "it's not my fault" statements by the neighbour and her slimy husband seemed very familiar to me. Judging by the reaction of other (Chinese) people in the cinema, it was familiar to them as well. I expect this film to be available soon on DVD. When it does I will buy it instantly. I can recommend it totally to any HK film fan, and to anyone else who appreciates films that make you think.

One of the highly anticipated films of the year, Derek Yee's 'Protege' brings together Andy Lau and Daniel Wu in a tale centred around the world of drug trafficking in Asia.

Nick (Daniel Wu) is a young and ambitious cop who has been working undercover in a drug ring headed by diabetic crime-lord Lai (Andy Lau). During a long course of being undercover, Nick has been able to gain the trust and support of Lai by doing may things against his duty as a policeman - and he is chosen to be his 'protege'. During this he meets Jane (Zhang Jingchu), a young mother who has become an addict due to her husbands' (Louis Koo) actions. While expressing sympathy for Jane's daughter, Jane ends up falling for Nick - but he cannot see past the point that his actions are responsible for people like her becoming addicts. Thus Nick feels the need to reform and do his bit for society.

The film itself resembles Steven Soderbergh's award-winning 'Traffic', the world of drug trafficking is shown in different perspectives. Derek Yee uses detailed character work, exploratory cinematography and visually impeccable locations. Like his previous film 'One Nite In Mongkok' Yee uses the camera and characters to bring the locations to life - highlight being scenes shot at the Golden Triangle - an area of Hong Kong where a lot of the drug-trafficking and production takes place.

Daniel Wu seems to improve with every film he does, this time he plays a rather mixed up man that is guilt ridden by his actions.. where as Andy Lau plays a negative character with ease, looking at the drug trade as pure business: supply and demand. Zhang Jingshu steals the show from everyone as a junkie mother living in a run-down apartment. For instance, the opening shots where she's shown shooting up - no dialogue yet physically expressing her character with such brilliance (her daughter coming into-the shot just touches so deep, hard to not be compelled). Louis Koo proves to be above average as a very unlikeable addict and manages not to overact at times. Support cast such as Anita Yuen and Mei Tan-Hei are underused and represented as one-dimensional characters.

The script is rather tightly wove, that is until the end where it just follows a conventional ending and stating that 'Drugs are bad', which does make the effort seem rushed. But amazing direction, notable performances and a rather interesting point makes 'Protege' a one-of-a-kind Hong Kong movie. There are some action sequences which carry tension,and the chemistry between the main cast carries off as really convincing. This is the kind of movie that a lot of film buffs would love to see: its smart, gritty, intense and shocking. One of the best Hong Kong movies of the year, if not one of the best movies of the year.

Highly recommended.

Ordinary development, good research on today's drug-dealing, satisfactory (only) acting, a just so-so plot plus a perfunctorily didactic story, nevertheless, I still recommend this as a light Sunday afternoon amuse-bouche.

We are living in a world of mixed, confusing values. What is right? What is wrong? Lin Quin is an extremely careful businessman. He has a clean family and clean life (he doesn't even smoke, not to mention drug). He is very clear-minded to the point of having a frozen heart without much feeling for the others. He knows, very rationally, all the tricks and danger of drug and drug-dealing. He knows, super-sensibly, the wants and behaviour of the drug consumers. Trafficking drug to him is only a means of accumulating wealth regardless whether it is harmful or evil. He even makes an analogy between cigarette and drug. According to the world system and world values, he is correct: as there is a demand, I supply. As the buyers (drug users) get what they want and I get what (the money) I want, we are both happy. Isn't that the world we are living in? Nick's remark at the opening and closing of the film somehow is a futile didactic statement. "For long, I didn't understand why people take drug.... actually it's all because of emptiness (loneliness). And, which is more horrible? Loneliness or drug? I really can't tell." No philosophy class but loneliness kills more, for sure, more destructive than drugs.

What touches my heart is the ending. Nick promises to continue his duty as a special agent (undercover). When loneliness comes, he also intends to take drug but at last his salvation is brought by "innocence" (personified by Jane's little daughter) who dumps the syringe for him. Only when we come to purity and innocence, goodness and kindness can we have a way out from evil.

Brian De Palma talks about cocaine in Scarface, the 1983 drug epic that makes Al Pacino well known for his role of Tony Montana, a ruthless drug lord that trades cocaine in the early 80's.

Now meet HongKong director Derek Yee, who creates a friendlier Montana of HongKong, Quin aka the Banker. Andy Lau took the role of Asia's friendly Montana, who trades heroin instead of cocaine. He decided to hand his heroin business to Nick (Daniel Wu), his driver who has followed him for 8 years. Nick is just like Manny Ribera, the best friend of Montana. However, Nick is actually a police undercover who has been gathering evidence to nab Quin and his organization.

Protégé is an adaptation from one of the case handled by the HongKong police. Audience who has watched Yee's previous production such as One Night in Mongkok, The Truth About Jane and Sam and C'est La Vie, Mon Cherie knows that he would not overuse use any car-chasing or gun-firing to achieve the effect of telling the story of the battle between the police and the underworld. Instead, he uses down to earth dialogues to tell the story. Having a plot that discuss drugs, the film goes deep into the world of drugs, from money to damage, from love to extreme hatred from drug abusing.

Certain scenes featured explores the damages done to the people for abusing drugs. In the film, damages were featured in the character Jane (Zhang Jing Chu) and her husband (Louis Koo), where both were drug abusers. The husband forces the wife to prostitution so as to feed his craving for drugs. Jane, on the other hand, starves herself and did not give proper education to her daughter, for she was too poor and tired to take care of her daughter. Eventually, her cravings for drugs leads to her self-destruction.

Audience are treated to a exploration of the Golden Triangle located in the South East Asia, which was well-known in the world for poppy plantation. The film also features steps in producing heroin, such as growing, extraction, processing and the various names used to differentiate types of drugs. Compared to other films that discusses drugs, Protégé has featured something that others have never tried before.

Apart from the above named cast, Protégé also features Yee himself as Nick's superior, the banker's wife (Anita Yuen's comeback appearance after ceasing herself from the big screen for a long period) and Qi Yu Wu (an Singapore actor from Mediacorp). While it is a surprise to see Yee and Yuen taking supporting role in the film, Qi's role as a Singapore Police Officer seems pretty redundant, for that few second's appearance doesn't make much difference. It is not surprising to see Qi given such a small role, since Protégé is a production of Singapore Mediacorp's Raintree Pictures and they are well known for using throwing in their own actors playing redundant roles. Think Tay Ping Hui in Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's Infernal Affairs 2 and Hossan Leong in Max Makowski's One Last Dance, where Raintree has a part in it.

Overall, Protégé might seems to be another films about drugs, but once you go deeper into the film, you will find the ugliness of drugs baring naked in front of you.