Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

pete I like Derek Lee and I really wanna like this movie. it starts out weird enough, with almost a high school propaganda portrayal of drug abuse, and then a hackneyed summary of drug abuse (you know, the one that goes "people abuse drugs to fill their voids"). Then the movie was followed by almost half an hour of great drama, detailing the main character Nick (played by Daniel Wu) and his interactions with the police, the drug network, and a single junkie mama (who looks more like a heroin model than a junkie mama). It introduces the great Andy Lau as a charismatic and very human drug lord. Then it suddenly switches back to the one-dimensional, almost laughable portrayal of junkies (followed by the worst makeup for a junkie I have ever seen and the worst motivation I've heard in a modern film for dope addiction), followed by a beautiful monologue by Andy Lau, explaining the modern Hong Kong drug chain...etc. This is when you realize that you're watching a schizophrenic movie. It is at heart some kinda simplistic anti-drug propaganda, determined to use any tool necessary to dissuade the innocent viewers of drug use, but at the same time, Derek Yee and the cast and crew seem to be far too intelligent and sophisticated to beat you over the head with the valuable life lesson. In the end we get a half-engaging, half laughably bad film. Derek Yee seems to have done his homework, and he seems to not only understand the world of drug both as a business and as a crime, but also to depict it beautifully and coherently for the average viewer. Unfortunately that understanding does not translate to the other half of the drug trade nor the movie, in which great actors do their best zombie/ drunk impressions in attempts to scare the viewers straight. It really is heartbreaking when something is only half good. It's a shame too, since real junkies live in much more pain and horror than the fake movie ones, and, for better or worse, anyone with any exposure to the streets (in any major city) these days can tell the difference between gritty realism and gritty caricature. Put it this way: if Zhang Jingchu's junkie reacts to withdraw the same way she reacts to a scary kungfu master in "Seven Swords", then it can't be that convincing. The good news is, you can always rent Half Nelson or The Wire, the latter pretty much is the movie The Protégé (and many many other movies and shows about drugs and crime) wants to me.

samuelding85 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.

reptilla_666 Yes... There is going to be ***spoilers*** in my review. I do not want to go detail into the plot because I think its your job to go buy the movie ticket and watch it yourself.Honestly, I didn't really enjoy this movie at all because it started off pretty well but went downhill when reaching the middle part of the film. The movie just went downhill and got worse towards the ending which was just Ma Ma Tieh (so so in Canto), nothing interesting. How can a crime/thriller movie have no powerful climax? There were some parts of the movie that I am confused about. Especially during the drug bust scene, was it meant to be a comedic scene because the scene was supposes to make the audience feel the tension on what was going on and the comedic part took off the tension. If you saw the movie, you will understand what I am talking about. It was just disappointing. This movie's plot is very simple and typical. It is very easy to predict what is going to happen next in this movie. The plot focuses on Daniel Wu's character, Nick who is an undercover cop and also a protégé to Andy Lau's character, Kwan in his drug business. Nick was in a position where he witnesses how drugs are affecting the supplier (Andy Lau) and the consumers' life (Louis Koo & Zhang Jing Chu) and if you deal with drugs, your ultimate destiny is Death. ***spoiler*** When Nick saw Zhang Jing Chu's characters, Jane's body with rats on it, he started screaming like a girl. It was hilarious. Another ***spoiler***, nearing to the ending, after 7 years of undercover, Nick wants to continue to be an undercover which was ridicules. This movie is more like a documentary on the drug world than a movie with some exciting plot. It is a good thing that this movie touches on most parties of the drug business, such as the drug plantations, the manufacturers, the supplier, the guys in charge of deliveries and most importantly the consumers. Andy Lau's character introduces and explains how the drug business works and every party plays an important role in this industry <-- good stuff. Through out the whole movie, it also highlighted a lot of other fun facts about drugs, like how it is use, what is the market of the drug biz like, the price, how it is made, how it is transported, the consequences and so on...The acting and directing was decent. If you are a Daniel Wu fan, then this movie is a must watch for you. He had so much screen time and because of that, Andy Lau didn't have a lot. Louis Koo's character was funny but I personally think was a bit exaggerating. Zhang Jing Chu was great in this movie, surprisingly she was able to carry out her drug addict character pretty well.At the end of the movie, many people are confuse on why the director wants to include the final scene of Nick was about to try the drug. What I thought was he was feeling empty too, therefore needed the drugs. But Jane's daughter came into his life and removes his emptiness away and stops him from doing it.So… the moral of this story is don't ever try drugs because you will end up dead and always take precaution (from Andy Lau).

BanBan 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.http://themovieclub.blogspot.com