Protege film review

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PROTEGE

Any Hong Kong thriller in which the protagonist is a cop who goes underground for years in order to bust a drugs gang is bound to raise comparisons with the sublime Infernal Affairs trilogy (later remade into the Oscar-winning The Departed by Martin Scorsese), especially if that cop is played by Andy Lau, one of the province's leading actors (and who also took one of the leads in Infernal Affairs).

But Protege is strong enough to stand on its own two feet. This increasingly engaging drugs saga has enough action, enough intelligence and is well enough acted to grab the attention of even the most ardent subtitle-hater.

Lau, a superstar on the Hong Kong and Chinese film circuit for a number of years, is Quin, a cop who permeates his way into and becomes a trusted leader of one of the area's most notorious drugs syndicates. What's particularly interesting is the depiction of the drug warlords as ordinary, family men who see themselves as businessmen above everything else. This is particularly true of Nick (Daniel Wu), the man who falls for Quin's trap, and who spends as much time worrying about his dodgy kidney and truculent teenage daughter as he does his heroin business.

Some familiar, yet fascinating, scenes take us into the world of drug production, and there is a major (and valid) side plot concerning Quin's heroin addicted neighbour. As the film progresses it takes on an epic quality as Quin and Nick go head to head and they visit the poppy fields of Thailand, where in an ironically amusing sequence, it is revealed that drugs lords use official UN anti-drugs literature as a prime source of information.

Likely to be more successful on the small screen than at the cinemas, Protege is a film that deserves attention, and one which benefits greatly from Derek Yee's nifty direction.

Paul Hurley