Amphetamine

Dir: Scud, Hong Kong, 2010, 35mm, 97 mins, English and Cantonese with English subtitles

Heavily censored in its native Hong Kong because of its wealth of explicit gay sex scenes, the visually stunning Amphetamine is a passionate drama about sex, drugs and true love. 

Successful gay investment banker Daniel is debating whether to return to Australia or stay in Hong Kong. Kafka is a straight fitness trainer with an out of control drug addiction, holding down several jobs to support his sick mother. One night, after splitting up with girlfriend May, Kafka meets Daniel. Daniel makes a hefty play for Kafka, who succumbs to his advances, because he is lonely and desperate for love. The young men fall in love and believe that their love can bridge anything, even their difference in sexuality and Kafka’s amphetamine addiction…. But their situation is complicated by a dreadful memory from Kafka's past.

In Chinese the word amphetamine has another meaning, namely: ‘is this not his fate?’ and it is this idea of a fateful love that runs through this beautiful, dark meditation on love and its bonds, on betrayal and the loss of innocence.

Born in Mainland China during the cultural revolution, Hong Kong-based director Scud has crafted a homoerotic love story that revels as much in its lush, saturated cinematography - luminous panoramic views of Hong Kong, striking compositions of the protagonists bungee jumping from a half-finished highway bridge – as it does in the physical beauty of its (frequently naked) leads, Hong Kong poster boys Byron Pang and Thomas Price. 

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