A simple revenge story transforms into a film about rage, guilt and acceptance. Set in Singpore it deals with a young prison officer who comes face-to-face with not only the hangman who pulled the lever that hung and killed his father, but also face-to-face with others who face capital punishment, and the complication of his part in their fate too. The story is effectively told with drip-feed revelations and a mounting tension as the plot takes the character into successively grim scenarios. Thematically, it is simple, however, and the film stops short of broaching the subject of legal killings - broadly, or the one pertaining to the character.

"Apprentice" tells the story of a young man, who begins working in a prison and soon is discovered by the director, who wants him to serve duty in the death tract. What the director doesn't know, is that the young man's father once was hanged in the very same prison. Now he is facing a decision to become who he once hated or remain his integrity.

I like the general plot of the movie, even though it is hard to believe that nobody noticed the personal connection to this very prison in advance. And that really is the weakest point of the plot already. It is well played and believable that a young man would suffer and question himself under those given circumstances, but the reasons for him to chose this path in the first place are only very basically explained. That way there's always a voice in the head asking why he even got into this situation. Otherwise it is very professionally produced, delivers a lot of emotions and can't be criticized.

All in all this is a movie above average but it lacks the the last logical motivation to really become something outstanding. Definitely a film worth watching, though.

Strong and straight forward drama in which a young prison guard is trained by an old chief to be the next 'hangman'. Both the young guard as the old chief have their inner demons and strong difficulties in coping with the job. Being a kind of legal killer is not like another day in the office. It leaves marks. This film describes in a non-sensational way that those who actually have to execute the death penalty, die also a little bit inside with each hanging the system 'asks' them to do.