Protégé

Nick, Daniel Wu, is an undercover officer who spends seven years sinking into the core of a dangerous drug network. He begins as a street-level dealer and steadily climbs to a managerial role that handles cargo deliveries for Kwan, the biggest player in the local heroin trade. When the ailing Kwan elevates him to protégé, Nick can’t resist the lure of money and power and starts to operate with the same ruthlessness he’s supposed to uncover. This slippery ascent is intensified by his growing affair with Fan, a heroin addict, which pulls him deeper into a world where loyalties blur and danger feels personal.

The film opens in a dark, desolate apartment building where a struggling heroin addict lives with her young daughter. The focus soon shifts to Nick, who, fresh from a tough undercover assignment, grapples with loneliness and a mounting sense of emptiness as he retells the chain of events that led him here. As Nick’s double life spirals, the lines between right and wrong become increasingly hard to draw, and the weight of his choices begins to fracture his sense of self.

Lin Quin, Andy Lau, stands at the center of the operation, a controlling force who maintains the illusion of family within a brutal business. The inner circle also includes Quin’s Wife, Anita Yuen Wing-Yee, and Quin’s Drug Chef, Tang Tak-Cheung, both of whom contribute to a world where trust is scarce and betrayal is common. The tension between duty and desire threads through every decision Nick makes, pushing him to rationalize increasingly dangerous actions in the name of saving someone he cares about.

As the narrative unfolds, Nick’s actions culminate in a devastating sequence: he builds a case that could finally bring Kwan down, but Kwan recognizing the trap chooses suicide, a blow that leaves Nick emotionally shattered. The sadness deepens when Fan dies of an overdose, a moment that seals Nick’s sense of guilt and fuels a growing thirst for vengeance. Fan’s husband—Louis Koo—emerges as a key target in Nick’s plan, and the story intensifies as Nick engineers a drug run that leads to a trap at Changi Airport in Singapore, orchestrated with the help of authorities there, including a Singapore Customs Officer Arresting Fan, Qi Yuwu.

The plan collapses into a stark reckoning: Nick confronts the reality that the life he chose has cost him everything he once stood for. Returning to Hong Kong, he is haunted by the losses of Kwan and Fan, and the possibility of giving in to the same destructive forces he once hunted. In a quiet, piercing moment, Fan’s surviving daughter—the daughter of Fan’s mayhem and pain—arrives with a simple, salvific act: she discards the drugs and reminds Nick that he still has something to live for. Her action becomes a fragile beacon of redemption, offering Nick a chance to rebuild rather than surrender to the void.

The story is built on a careful, patient unraveling of Nick’s psychology, showing how a vow to protect can morph into a trap that erodes the very soul it aims to defend. The film paints a lived-in portrait of a city where shadows conceal both danger and mercy, and where a man’s attempt to do right can become twisted by the proximity to crime. The consequence of every choice—the suicide of a powerful ally, the loss of a beloved addict, and the near-miss of Nick’s own ruin—creates a stark meditation on identity, loyalty, and the cost of staying true when the line between right and wrong is forever shifting.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 15:10