Protege: Movie Review

Protege: Movie Review

Rating: 6/10
Cast: Daniel Wu, Andy Lau, Louis Koo, Anita Yuen, Zhang Jingchu

Director: Derek Yee
Playing as part of the first ever Hong Kong Film Festival in Auckland, Protégé is the tale of undercover officer Nick - played by Daniel Wu.
Nick has spent the last seven years working undercover, trying to crack the drugs supply line which has slowly been ravaging his city.
Working for the kingpin, Quin (Andy Lau) Nick has worked his way to the top from the very bottom - and is poised to take over the empire.
But at the pivotal point where the end is in sight, Nick ends up involved with his heroin addled neighbour Jane (Zhang Jingchu) - and desperate to try and save her and her young child from the clutches of the drug, he teeters precariously between the police officer he's supposed to be and the life he's led for the past seven years.
Protégé is an at times, gripping look at the lengths undercover officers go to and how their day to day lives with the criminal underworld causes the lines to blur and judgments to become impaired as they walk a fine line between right and wrong.
Wu does excellently at conveying this dilemma as he tries to do the right thing by his neighbour - and as he battles with wanting to see what effect the drug would have on himself, the feeling of self loathing and loss over his identity sets up a good conflict.
Unfortunately, director (and writer) Derek Yee (who directed Shinjuku Incident with Jackie Chan earlier this year) manages to muddy the waters a bit with some heavy handed direction - at each moment of real conflict and emotional turbulence, we cut to scenes of rolling storm clouds - a stock tactic which is too oft employed during the film's duration.
Protégé works best when it concentrates simply on the drama - the scenes between Quin and Nick are tense as Quin's distrust and uncertainty starts to breakthrough - particularly in one scene set in the heroin plantations of the Golden Triangle.
It's when the direction and script are pared back to their most simplistic that they are the most effective.
However, it's Jane who humanises the whole piece. Played by Zhang Jingchu, her descent as a junkie is nothing short of horrifying - a reminder of the reality of the worlds skated between by Nick - and as he desperately tries to save her, it becomes clear there are very real human costs involved in this ongoing war.

Protégé is an intriguing film - it's a gritty portrait of moral conflict and harrowing in places; as a character study of conflict with a social message, it does manage to feel slightly overlong in places, but there's plenty here to immerse yourself in.

Also playing at the Hong Kong Film Festival are: The Way We Are, True Women For Sale, The Beast Stalker, and The Three Kingdoms: Resurrection Of The Dragon - full details of times can be found on the official Hong Kong Film Festival website.