Amphetamine (film)

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Amphetamine
File:AMPHETAMIN POSTER 20100118-2.jpg
Directed by Scud
Produced by Scud
Written by Scud
Starring Byron Pang Koon Kei
Thomas Price
Linda So
Winnie Leung
Music by Shan Ho
Yat-Yiu Yu
Cinematography Charlie Lam
Edited by Heiward Mak
Production
company
ArtWalker Productions
Distributed by Golden Scene
Release dates
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  • 15 February 2010 (2010-02-15) (BIFF)
  • 8 April 2010 (2010-04-08) (Hong Kong)
Running time
 97 minutes
Country Hong Kong
Language Cantonese

Amphetamine (Chinese: 安非他命; Jyutping: on1 fei1 taa1 ming6) is a 2010 Hong Kong film starring Byron Pang and Thomas Price. It revolves around the story of a Chinese fitness trainer, Kafka, who meets Daniel, a business executive. The film is directed by acclaimed Hong Kong Chinese film-maker Scud, the stage name of Danny Cheng Wan-Cheung. It was nominated for a Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival of 2010. It explores several themes traditionally regarded as 'taboo' in Hong Kong society in an unusually open, convention-defying way, and features full-frontal male nudity in several scenes. It is the third of five publicly-released films by Scud. The four others are: City Without Baseball, released in 2008, Permanent Residence in 2009, Love Actually... Sucks! in 2011, and his most recent, Voyage, in 2013. Two more films, one named Utopians, and the other, Naked Nation, are currently in production.[1]

Plot

Set after the 2008 financial collapse, the story follows Kafka, a swimming instructor, when he meets Daniel, a wealthy investment banker who changes his life. Daniel is openly gay, and helps Kafka to come out of the closet, despite Kafka's being Catholic, and they quickly fall in love.

Their relationship is complicated by Kafka's erratic behavior, stemming from habitual abuse of Amphetamine. Also a contributing factor is his impotence, which can be attributed to when he was violently gang-raped by three men, and sodomized with a wooden stick, after saving their original target, a woman.

After the death of his mother, Kafka goes into a tailspin, raping Daniel's best friend, Linda, and flooding his and Daniel's apartment. When Daniel tries to console Linda, the two end up having sex, and Kafka sees them.

The next morning, Daniel does Amphetamine with Kafka, and Kafka confesses that despite everything he's done wrong, he still loves Daniel. Daniel affirms their relationship by asking Kafka to return to Australia with him, where they can get married, but Kafka asks for more time.

At Daniel's going away party, Kafka is stripped, painted with silver body paint and calligraphy, and given white wings to wear (a visage which is seen at the beginning of the film). He then jumps off of the balcony of the apartment, attempting to fly, but escapes mostly uninjured.

When he wakes up and doesn't see Daniel, Kafka escapes from the hospital and looks for him on the bridge they visited on their first date. Distraught and hallucinating from detox, he jumps of the bridge, into the still-frozen water and dies, with his final thoughts being those of him and Daniel, together and swimming.

Cast

VCD, DVD & Blu-ray

An uncut version of this ArtWalker film was internationally released on a Panorama (HK) VCD, DVD and on Blu-ray Disc on 24 September 2010.

Controversy

The level III-rated film met controversy in Hong Kong when the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority asked for several shots of anal intercourse to be cut before public screening. As the whole film had been allowed to screen as the closing film of the 34th Hong Kong International Film Festival,[2] Scud protested against the authority's decision and complained to the Chief Executive Donald Tsang.[3] The shots in concern were finally blackened-out but with sound in public screening as a protest by Scud.[4]

Films by the same director/producer

See also

References

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External links

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