Protégé

The film opens in a dark, rundown apartment where a heroin addict struggles to survive with her young daughter. The camera then shifts to Nick, who is alone and processing the memory just after finishing an undercover assignment. The setup establishes the emotional cost of Nick's double life.

Nick has just completed an undercover assignment and feels a deep loneliness that unsettles him. He resolves to recount the story for himself, retracing how each choice led to his emptiness. The narrative frame positions his memories as a reckoning.

Over seven years, Nick climbs from street dealer to the manager in charge of cargo deliveries for Kwan, the top heroin figure in town. He infiltrates the core of the operation, learning logistics and loyalties while staying undercover. His proximity to power makes the dangers of the drug world feel increasingly real.

As the ailing Kwan takes Nick under his wing, Nick is drawn by money and influence and starts to perform as if he were a real trafficker. The mentorship blurs the line between officer and criminal and accelerates his moral drift. The trust from Kwan deepens Nick's commitment to the operation.

Nick begins an affair with Fan, a heroin addict. The relationship pulls him further from his identity as a cop and deeper into the drug world he is supposed to dismantle. The romance intensifies the emotional stakes for both of them.

The more Nick succumbs to money and power, the more confused he becomes about who he really is. His double life blurs the line between protector and predator. The internal conflict drives the emotional center of the story.

Towards the film's end, Nick builds a strong case to catch Kwan. He believes the evidence will bring down the drug lord and redeem his own fractured identity. The pursuit of justice tightens the net around the operation.

When he realizes there is no escape, Kwan takes his own life. The act devastates Nick, who had placed trust and a sense of family in him. The suicide marks a brutal turning point in Nick's psyche.

Fan overdoses, and Nick discovers her body surrounded by rats. The tragedy compounds his guilt and accelerates his spiral. He confronts the cost of his double life.

Overwhelmed by grief, Nick swears vengeance on Fan's husband, convinced he is responsible for Fan's downward trajectory. He engineers a plan to trap him in a drug run, sealing his fate in Nick's own warped sense of justice.

Nick arranges a drug run that takes them to Singapore, and at Changi Airport he orchestrates a trap with Singaporean customs officials to arrest Fan's husband on the spot. He makes sure the husband faces the death penalty under Singapore law.

Nick returns home to Hong Kong, but the deaths of Kwan and Fan weigh heavily on him. He is deeply affected and nearly slips back into his old habit of using drugs to cope with the pain.

Fan's surviving daughter enters and throws away the drugs, saving Nick and reminding him that he still has something worth living for. The moment offers a fragile beacon of redemption amid his ruin.