Protege

February 24, 2007

 

 

Well well, what do you know? This makes the 3rd consecutive movie I will review that Raintree Productions has a part in. Nah, I’m not exactly a fan of Raintree Productions, just so happened the past 3 movies I watched are all their works. Lol. Supposed to have Ghost Rider’s review but it got postponed so you should be seeing a review on that in the near future~

Certainly as some reviews by the media have mentioned, this movie touches on the drug issue “more in-depth”, at least for a HK/Asia production. Should be the best (in terms portraying drugs and its effects) for the (commercial) movies I’ve watched before. In some sense, the message may be put across to more (receptive) people since it isn’t another (boring) educational video that certain organisations like to show to discourage drug abuse.

The acting is quite good imo, especially the drug addicts. They had that kind of addiction look on their faces, and the “high” that they get from injecting drugs into their bodies. Louis Koo for one, had the role of an addict. From the impression I get, roles of such nature is kinda rare for him, so I think he’s done quite a good decent job. Must have done quite a bit of their own “research” before they actually started the actual filming. But of course, I dont personally know of any addict much less seen one in “action” injecting drugs and stuff, so I dont know how close it is to the real thing. Nonetheless, I’m sure all those scenes will convince those who aren’t on drugs even more that they should never try it.

Another note-worthy part of the movie is that they do show a bit of how drug dealers work. A layman like me will probably know how it actually is done, but the trading part was pretty convincing, showing how drug dealers are actually quite ‘tactical” and careful people when it comes to selling of drugs into the mainstream population. Though the part about how drugs are being “diluted” for suitable human consumption isn’t something new. I certainly recall watching some movie (can’t remember what) that featured similar content for that portion. But good effort anyways in stringing everything together.

Not forgetting the movie also provided some figures and statistics about drugs around the world, it shows that the “old school” of injecting drugs such as heroin with the use of needles is indeed phasing out as it is more convenient to take pills and such. I mean, it is definitely a pain (literally and figuratively) to do an injection every time you wanna take drugs. Not only it leaves behind needle marks but also a lot of work needs to be done to ensure you dont get air embolism (sp) or infection. Though it wasn’t touched on much, the movie also showed that drug addiction isn’t merely restricted to heroin and such. Even medicine like cough mixture (or so that’s what i think it looks like) can be abused and we all know that is very true.

And of course, it also showed how drugs affect the people around the addict. In this case, a cute & innocent little girl is chosen as the victim whose Mother (and Father) are drug addicts. All the implications can be clearly seen from the movie and in fact I believe we do know most of them. in theory anyways.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that Raintree is part of this production that Singapore has to somehow be featured in the movie. It was really very very short duration of the movie. 戚玉武 got a cameo appearance, appearing for seconds (yeah you dont even it in minutes) and his name was 2nd last in the cast’s list. Then again, it could be used to portray how strict Singapore is with regards to drugs as it is a death penalty liable offence. Maybe it’s to warn people not to try to smuggle drugs into SG (but we all know there is still such problem), or maybe it’s to imply that some countries need to be more strigent and make drug trafficking more punishable by law. (Comparing HK’s 20-30 years’ jail according to the movie and SG’s death sentence)

Rating: 3.5/5
Duration: 111 minutes
Now showing

Oh i want to add that the man who sat behind me in the cinema TALKS TOO DAMN MUCH. Yes i know the little girl is quite cute and all, but he said it over a dozen times (didn’t expect him to say so often so i didn’t count from the start). And that’s among other comments he made. It was almost as good as watching a soccer match with half of a commentator’s talking… Gosh… at some point in time i really wanted to turn around and tell him off but i decided not to… Oh wells~ suay lor. Oh yah, i think SG censored (or cut away) a small portion of the movie… ~_~ (if you know what it is, please dont come scolding me. haha.)

Once again, thanks for your time in reading all that not-very-organised stuff (as usual) above. Wow, the review turned out much longer than I had expected. -_- I think i write too much nonsensical stuff… haha…
I should be posting more combo video news as I had aimed to… Will get to it soon… Perhaps later today or tmr. =) Then again, I’m kinda lazy to make screenshots. Lol. Oh well, we shall see. XP