Born in the wrong era? No. There is no wrong era.

watched protege.
26 hours ago.
my first hong kong 'mole' film in a cinema.

.

very grim. very sad. it was saddening. i was saddened. thoroughly.

not fantastically great as a film, but not disappointing either.
no major flaws, and the story's kinda straightforward, so when ms lee asked me for a rating out of 5, i gave 3 stars.
i did like the way the characters were linked and how they were protrayed. not bad.
there are some subtleties presented in the film whose significance i can only speculate about and discuss with others,
but i think on the surface the message to the audience is plain and simple: don't do drugs. period.
director brings this across quite strongly with some pretty raw scenes...not for the faint-hearted...can get nightmare one.
there are other themes like prevention being better than cure, capitalistic thinking and our sense of identity and meaning, but these not so apparent, so harder for me to pick up.

according to mr ong, the rest in this genre all very sad also..

brace yourself for an emotional ride when viewing these shows:
1. Infernal Affairs.
2. Confession of Pain.
3. Divergence.
4. Election.
5. One Last Dance.
6. Sa Puo Lang.

let me watch some happy shows first before i go for these films.