An fei ta ming

This film is about a successful gay banker who falls in love with a heterosexual drug addict.

"Amphetamine" follows the same theme as the director Scud's last film, "Permanent Residence". A gay man falls in love with a straight guy and they develop a platonic relationship. However, "Amphetamine" is a lot less captivating than "Permanent Residence". In the beginning we are already treated with a hard sell of Scud's previous films. It's a bit too hard sell but I understand as Scud wants to recuperate the costs of making these independent, self-financed niche movies. As the film progresses, the story telling gets messier, there are many sudden short flashbacks which I find distracting and it perturbs the continuity of the film. The plot is not so engaging either. The lead character Kafka spends most of the time being high, so there is little room for emotional development between Kafka and Daniel. There are far too many self indulgent scenes, trying too hard to make the film look artistic but in the end achieving nothing but being boring. "Amphetamine", I am sad to conclude, is a disappointing, self indulgent mess. I hope Scud's next film will be better.