The Protege

So, what can go wrong. With a cast of Andy Lau and Daniel Wu, even if the plot stinks, you are smitten by the 2 hunks. I would include my lovely Louis Koo into the above sentence but they made his character too awful and the make-up too ugly for me to indulge.

But, the plot is surprisingly tight, and the director did not go out of focus. The story sent a extremely powerful message yet it displays a soft, emotional side. It was serious yet it had its spurts of humour (though I thought the audience yesterday laughed a bit too much). It was not perfect of course, the movie was a little too gory to my liking and some parts (especially the 'hand' scene) seems like a horror movie instead of a suspense thriller.

I am however undecided whether Andy Lau was the most ideal person for his role. Sure, its an undeniable fact that he is a great actor and his performance in Infernal Affairs was immaculate, but although his performance was still top class, its just hard to see Andy in the streaks of grey hair, acting as a father of 2.5. Maybe it was also because Anita Yuen's character looked much older than him.

Otherwise, I think this movie is at the top of the charts in my billboard and doubt very much there will be another Chinese movie this year that will be able to knock my socks off as much as this did.

Great job to the entire production crew. And SAY NO TO DRUGS!