protege (2006) (original title moon to). directed by tung shing yee.

this movie is downright depressing, akin to traffic (2000), though not as extensive in scope as the latter. the mood is bleak, junkies in worldly hell of drugs, dealears and drug lords suffering from delusions of grandiose, and the undercover, simply suffering from too much reality. the undercover found no purpose in trying to bring down the cartel, life as meaningless as corpses being eaten by rats as a result of being tired of trying to kick the habit away, never succeeding. who can save us from such misery? only when we look beyond ourselves.

i like the fact that it is grounded. HK movies normally suffer from trying too hard, too much action, too much colour, too many characters, and it's just a havoc lacking control. it seems directors have become wiser, and a steady flow of films recently produced have seen the effect of afterthoughts in terms of plot, editing & scripts.