One of the best films I've seen in years. (The director, Derek Yee, wrote and directed the excellent ONE NIGHT IN MONGKOK)
Watching it was like going into a surreal alternate universe--part horror, part human drama, part cop story.
The plot description does not do it justice, as it sounds like a typical HK action drama, or at best a copycat of INFERNAL AFFAIRS, or TRAFFIC.
This harrowing film is complex and has its own vision. Addiction, despair and betrayal are at its core.
The cop-mole plot is only part of the story. The world of heroin is explored on several levels: poppy growers, "cookers", suppliers, an amazing sequence in Thailand in the heart of the "Golden Triangle", and --best of all-- a look inside the world of a young mother and heroin addict-- which is shot with such a dreamlike but gritty reality you are horrified yet entranced.
The cinematographer and production designer should be commended for creating such a fascinating universe for the actors to inhabit.
The actors all give strong performances, but it's Zhang Jing Chu who is mesmerizing and heartbreaking as Jane, who plays the heroin addict as if she were a "living ghost."
Watching it was like going into a surreal alternate universe--part horror, part human drama, part cop story.
The plot description does not do it justice, as it sounds like a typical HK action drama, or at best a copycat of INFERNAL AFFAIRS, or TRAFFIC.
This harrowing film is complex and has its own vision. Addiction, despair and betrayal are at its core.
The cop-mole plot is only part of the story. The world of heroin is explored on several levels: poppy growers, "cookers", suppliers, an amazing sequence in Thailand in the heart of the "Golden Triangle", and --best of all-- a look inside the world of a young mother and heroin addict-- which is shot with such a dreamlike but gritty reality you are horrified yet entranced.
The cinematographer and production designer should be commended for creating such a fascinating universe for the actors to inhabit.
The actors all give strong performances, but it's Zhang Jing Chu who is mesmerizing and heartbreaking as Jane, who plays the heroin addict as if she were a "living ghost."