Dragon Dynasty's latest release is a film called Protege, a crime drama from 2007 that was nominated for fifteen Hong Kong Film Awards, of which it won two (Best Supporting Actor: Andy Lau and Best Film Editing: Chi-Leung Kwong). The movie is not an action film, although it has no shortage of adrenaline-filled sequences; it is much more a dramatic thriller. It chronicles the story of an undercover police officer who is infiltrating a drug-running operation, seeking to climb to the top in an effort to take down the entire organization. It bears a resemblance to films like Infernal Affairs and Donnie Brasco.
Writer/director Derek Yee wastes no time throwing you into the drug-infested world of Protege. As the scene begins, we watch a woman, Fan (Zhang Jing Chu), inject herself with heroin and lay down on a couch, needle still hanging from her arm. The scene does not cut as a young child (Tung Tseo-tsz) enters the room, pushing a little red pram. She matter-of-factly goes over to the woman, her mother, removes the needle and places it in the trash basket on the other side of the room. It is a jarring scene; it just breaks my heart that a child would ever be in a position to have to do something like this, and do it as if she has done it many times in the past.
The story proper follows Nick (Daniel Wu). He is the undercover officer climbing the ranks of a drug organization headed by Quin (Andy Lau), who is suffering poor health due to failing kidneys. Quin and Nick have a strong father-son relationship developed as we build towards him either exposing the drug ring or inheriting it. We also watch Nick ponder the nature and reason for addiction through his relationship with Fan, who lives next door to him.
Protege gets down into the nitty gritty of the organization. We are taken deep inside the operation from those who run the show, to the cookers of the drugs, to the runners, to those purchasing he product, and even to the fields of Thailand where opium poppies are grown. It is quite fascinating to get taken in so deep to the way the business runs.
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