| Amphetamine | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Scud |
| Produced by | Scud Lawrence Ah Mon (executive) |
| Written by | Scud |
| Starring | Byron Pang Koon Kei Thomas Price Linda So Winnie Leung |
| Music by | Shan Ho Yat-Yiu Yu |
| Cinematography | Charlie Lam |
| Editing by | Heiward Mak |
| Studio | ArtWalker Productions |
| Distributed by | Golden Scene |
| Release date(s) | 15 February 2010 (BIFF) 8 April 2010 (Hong Kong) |
| Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | Hong Kong SAR, P.R. China |
| 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 is one of four such films by Scud. The three others are: City Without Baseball, released in 2008, Permanent Residence in 2009, and his most recent, Love Actually... Sucks!, in 2011.
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Kafka is straight while Daniel happens to be gay. The young men fall in love, believing that their love can bridge anything, despite their difference in sexuality and Kafka's drug-taking. Daniel does not regret his love for Kafka, who tries to love him back against his nature. But a flashback memory from Kafka's past makes it difficult for their relationship to work. It turns out that their addiction to love proves more fatal than the drugs they use to explore the boundaries of their friendship.
The film stars Hong Kong Chinese actor and former model Byron Pang (Cantonese: Pang Koon-Kei), who was a runner-up contestant for Mr. Hong Kong in 2005, and Thomas Price, a half Chinese-half British actor who appeared in Permanent Residence and City Without Baseball. Like Scud's previous films, Permanent Residence (made in 2009) and the earlier City Without Baseball (2008), Amphetamine features full-frontal male nudity in many scenes, in among others, an outdoor fight scene in which Pang is stripped naked by other boys, gym showers, and a leap from a public building, in which Pang wears 'wings', and his whole body is covered in calligraphy and silver paint.
Amphetamine examines the limit of passion, and is the second of a trilogy: the first, called Permanent Residence, examines the limit of life, while the third, known as Life of an Artist, examines the limits of art. Amphetamine was screened at the Berlin International Film Festival on 15 February, 2010, and was also shown at the Hong Kong International Film Festival on its final day (6 April, 2010). The third film has not yet been released.
An uncut version of this ArtWalker film was internationally released on a Panorama (HK) VCD, DVD and on Blu-ray Disc on 24th September, 2010.
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[1], Scud protested against the authority's decision and complained to the Chief Executive Donald Tsang.[2] The shots in concern were finally blackened-out but with sound in public screening as a protest by Scud.[3]