Movie Review: Protégé

A Hong Kong thriller about a cop deep undercover into a dangerous criminal gang starring Andy Lau? We're obviously talking about Infernal Affairs...
Actually, this weekend we're talking about Protégé, a gritty new film that's been a massive hit in its homeland.

This is a hard-hitting anti-drugs tale, in which a cop called Nick has spent seven years infiltrating a heroin gang run by grey-haired Andy Lau. To complicate matters, Nick has started looking after his sexy smack-addicted neighbour and her little kid.

While Hong Kong was the place to go for action thrills during the 80s and early 90s, in the last few years the island has been overtaken by Korea and Japan, with only Johnny To and Infernal Affairs movies capturing the magic of old.

Protégé isn't a vintage slice of Hong Kong thrills, but it is an often powerful film that mixes some old-school cop high-jinks with a tough addiction drama. Although you've seen it before, the cat-and-mouse game between gang boss and undercover rozzer is grippingly told, with some first-rate acting from upcoming star Daniel Wu and veteran Andy Lau.

At times, Protégé resembles a Cantonese Traffic, with the drugs trade explained in intricate detail, and director Tung-Shing Yee finds some black humour in the fact that drug barons get their heroin use statistics from official UN drug studies.

Where Protégé isn't quite so strong is in the subplot centred around our hero and his dragon-chasing neighbour. It's admirably gritty, but told in an overly heavy-handed way.

Yee also tries to draw rather obvious parallels between drug addiction and vices like cigarettes and chocolate – you wonder why he didn't go all the way and have some characters trapped in a deadly spiral of Pringles and World Of Warcraft.

And female lead Jingchu Zhang still manages to look gorgeous even when ravaged by smack – I can only presume her descent into soul-crushing addiction and moral decay was a direct result of having to star alongside Chris Tucker in Rush Hour 3.