Protege

Undercover officer Nick (Daniel Wu) had spent the last eight years penetrating into the core of a drug sales ring working his way up from a street dealer post to the managerial position handling cargo deliveries for Jong (Andy Lau) - the biggest player in the local heroin market. When the ailing Jong makes Nick his protégé, Nick could not but sway before money and power and starts to perform his role like a real drug trafficker. This, together with his affair with heroin-addict Jane (Zhang Jingchu), causes Nick to becomes more and more confused about his true identity, and eventually leads to a disastrous end.

Based on materials provided by retired undercover agents of the police force, "Protégé" attempts to realistically tell the story of undercover agents in the clandestine drug world, who struggle to constantly walk on the fine line between justice and crime, but who will never see the day of serving in the regular police force.

Directed by Derek Yee (One Night In Mongkok), produced by Peter Chan (Perhaps Love).

Source: http://www.gv.com.sg/Booking/movies/moviedetails_2510.htm


After a very sumptous meal at my aunt's house (shark's fin soup..yummy), went to JP to catch this show with some colleagues. Coincidentally, my bro is catching the same show with his friends, at the same place, same time!

It's really a good chinese show. Not to mention that Daniel Wu is so suave!

It's also scary coz it's so real..

Later I realised that the movie is produced based on stories by real undercovers in HK! No wonder. Such things (drug trafickking, sniffing) are taking place right now, just that we dont have much knowledge of them. But this movie shows it all. I like the background where they shot the film, the small tiny weeny apartments in HK. Reminds me of my crappy guest house in HK..haha..

The drugs industry is like any other industry, you have competitors, and you have a twilight zone, when you're shrinking and no long that popular.

Also, when there's a demand, there's naturally a supply, so to Andy, there's really nothing wrong in doing what he's doing.

And it is human nature to be greedy, who can really stop when they make their 30million or 15 million, when they can earn more?

At the end of it, Daniel Wu succeeded in his undercover task, but he only earned a handshake, and praises from his bosses, who then have to rush to their next meetings. (Sounds familar?) No wonder he felt a sense of emptiness at the end of it.

Really worth your $9.50!

Singapore Dreaming

So much for online information privacy, and revealing too much personl info. If our FA Minister can blog openly about his job and life, so can I, an ordinary commoner of Singapore.

Caught Singapore Dreaming on DVD yest.

"Singapore Dreaming” ( 美满人生 ) is a story about a family with big dreams, living on a small island.

Heavily in debt, patriarch Loh Poh Huat can’t help but feel bitter irony whenever he has to perform his job as a lawyer’s clerk – seizing goods from the homes of credit card debtors. At the end of his career and frustrated by the gulf between his middle class dreams and his working class reality, he takes his feelings of failure and envy out on his family .

So when Poh Huat suddenly wins two million dollars in the lottery, the Lohs start believing that maybe this windfall will deliver them from their struggles. But something happens which pitches the family into a battle where the stakes are the very meaning of life itself…

“ Singapore Dreaming” is a poignant, yet darkly humorous story about a typical Singaporean family coming to grips with their aspirations. It weaves a layered and moving tale about a family dealing with loss, ambition and the search for what really matters in life.

Source: http://www.singaporedreaming.com/synopsis.htm

Alot of after-tots after watching it.

1. Are S'poreans giving up their dreams so as to make more $$? Say u like music, but u cant really make a living in Sg thru that, so u go into doing something like banking/engineering/IT, which u dont like, but can pay off the rents. Is it really worth it, or do we have a choice?

2. Is living in a "Far-East org" condo really so impt? To me, just live within ur means, if u can afford luxuries here and there, feel free to indulge, otherwise, just make do with what u have. This isnt really stagnant and of no improvement. But if u really wanna live beyond ur means, it's really taxing if u lose ur ability to earn an income, and become heavily in debt. If u cant even afford ur 3 meals, so what if u have a fancy car for pple to oggle at?

3. The life of a typical housewife in Sg-older generation. It's so real, the mum who loves singing gave up her passion to take care of her family, doing housechores, cooking proper meals for the family, only to appear stupid and unglam to bring out. No-one really respects a person who doesnt bring back the $$. Really. What are the KPIs of a housewife? The amount of clothes she washes? The ounces of dust she cleans? How spick and span the house is? If done well, everyone will just take it for granted. We're sometimes just stuck in the rut of life's episodes, that we forget our passion and go along with what come along, only to realise at the end that we haven fulfill what we set out to be.

4. The rivalry amg siblings. In Singapore, some families really ''zhong nan qing nu", the chicken drumstick always goes to the son. Luckily, this one doesnt happen in my family. But the son in the show always think that the sis and the family looks down on him coz he's just not good enuff, but in fact, that's not always the case- it's not really a case of looking-down on him, but knowing him so well to tell he's lying. The r/s among siblings can get so sensitive sometimes, but after a quarrel, they still patch up quite easily. As the saying goes, "blood is thicker than water." But this doesnt hold for friends, once 'offended' or pissed off, that's it.

5. The silly girl giving up her savings to send her bf (the son) overseas for studies, only to find out he has not graduated, and wasted all her $$. That girl is really innocent, and naive. Well, there is a thin-line b/w innocent and naive, i think she belongs more to the latter. Well, love is blind, u never know things can change so much, esp when the other party is overseas, and u cannot 'feel' his presence. I'm glad she decided to leave the guy in the end, as he became too incorrigible. But it's so sad that she's wasted much of her youth on this guy, pinning all her hopes on getting married and starting a family with him. I'm sure she needs a decent amt of time to heal the wounds in her heart. But like any typical s'porean lady, she's strong enuff to move on, and seeks out what she better deserves.

So what kind of dreams are u seeking for in Singapore? U ask me I ask who? Ask yourself.