From the dark core of China's drug epidemic comes “Using”, the story of an unlikely friendship between a journalist and a heroine addict. For three years, filmmaker Zhou Hao followed Ah Long as he drifted through the Chinese city of Guangzhou. His life takes place in a harrowing series of sad hostels, in which junkies either pick fights or sit on a bed lethargically, lighting one cigarette with another and shooting up. Despite their different backgrounds, the two men build up a relationship of mutual dependency. Zhou Hao documents the misery without compassion and from closeby, while Ah Long now has a “friend” who can help him make ends meet. A provocative documentary on drug abuse and the ethical boundaries of filmmaking and friendship.