Moon to

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.

Ordinary development, good research on today's drug-dealing, satisfactory (only) acting, a just so-so plot plus a perfunctorily didactic story, nevertheless, I still recommend this as a light Sunday afternoon amuse-bouche.

We are living in a world of mixed, confusing values. What is right? What is wrong? Lin Quin is an extremely careful businessman. He has a clean family and clean life (he doesn't even smoke, not to mention drug). He is very clear-minded to the point of having a frozen heart without much feeling for the others. He knows, very rationally, all the tricks and danger of drug and drug-dealing. He knows, super-sensibly, the wants and behaviour of the drug consumers. Trafficking drug to him is only a means of accumulating wealth regardless whether it is harmful or evil. He even makes an analogy between cigarette and drug. According to the world system and world values, he is correct: as there is a demand, I supply. As the buyers (drug users) get what they want and I get what (the money) I want, we are both happy. Isn't that the world we are living in? Nick's remark at the opening and closing of the film somehow is a futile didactic statement. "For long, I didn't understand why people take drug.... actually it's all because of emptiness (loneliness). And, which is more horrible? Loneliness or drug? I really can't tell." No philosophy class but loneliness kills more, for sure, more destructive than drugs.

What touches my heart is the ending. Nick promises to continue his duty as a special agent (undercover). When loneliness comes, he also intends to take drug but at last his salvation is brought by "innocence" (personified by Jane's little daughter) who dumps the syringe for him. Only when we come to purity and innocence, goodness and kindness can we have a way out from evil.

One of the best films I've seen in years. (The director, Derek Yee, wrote and directed the excellent ONE NIGHT IN MONGKOK)

Watching it was like going into a surreal alternate universe--part horror, part human drama, part cop story.

The plot description does not do it justice, as it sounds like a typical HK action drama, or at best a copycat of INFERNAL AFFAIRS, or TRAFFIC.

This harrowing film is complex and has its own vision. Addiction, despair and betrayal are at its core.

The cop-mole plot is only part of the story. The world of heroin is explored on several levels: poppy growers, "cookers", suppliers, an amazing sequence in Thailand in the heart of the "Golden Triangle", and --best of all-- a look inside the world of a young mother and heroin addict-- which is shot with such a dreamlike but gritty reality you are horrified yet entranced.

The cinematographer and production designer should be commended for creating such a fascinating universe for the actors to inhabit.

The actors all give strong performances, but it's Zhang Jing Chu who is mesmerizing and heartbreaking as Jane, who plays the heroin addict as if she were a "living ghost."

I saw this movie in the Hong Kong IFC mall before I got the train to the airport. It is one of the best films I have ever seen. I am a huge Daniel Wu fan anyway, and I related to his relationship with his smack-head neighbour straight away, having lived with a smack-head with a little daughter. Some of the "it's not my fault" statements by the neighbour and her slimy husband seemed very familiar to me. Judging by the reaction of other (Chinese) people in the cinema, it was familiar to them as well. I expect this film to be available soon on DVD. When it does I will buy it instantly. I can recommend it totally to any HK film fan, and to anyone else who appreciates films that make you think.

I saw this last month at the 2008 Palm Springs International Film Festival. The title of this film I believe is Munto not Moon To as listed here on IMDb and this Munto film is not to be confused with the Japanese animee movies of the same name. This is a gangster thriller set in Hong Kong. Nick (Daniel Wu) has spent his entire police career infiltrating a major drug organization led by Kwan (Andy Lau). Nick went straight from the police academy to undercover work and has never worn a uniform or even been inside a police station. For the past seven years he has worked his way up drug lord Kwan's organization that he is in a position to be Kwan's heir to his drug empire. Kwan, in fact, has selected Nick as his heir apparent because he is dying from the long-term results of diabetes. In the meantime Nick has been living in an inner city apartment where his next door neighbor Fan (Zhang Jingchu) is a pretty single mother whose low level drug dealing, heroin addicted husband (Louis Koo) drifts in and out of her and her daughter's life when he isn't in jail to pimp her out. Fan has also become a heroin addict. Nick develops a relationship with Fan and acts as a surrogate father to her little daughter. Nick has also become very close to Kwan. Thius is a good story from writer/director Derek Yee. Within the story line, it takes us to Burma and Thailand and complete with charts and graphs, almost becomes an educational anti-drug documentary on the workings of the Asian heroin trade within the Golden Triangle. Excellent cinematography by Keung Kwok-man and editing by Kwong Chi-Leung. Good production design by Yee Chung-man with Academy Award nominated costume designer/art director Chung Man Yee on board as a consultant. Fast-paced original music score by Peter Kam. This is a good movie and I would give it a 8.0 out of 10 and recommend it.