Film Name: 孤注一掷 / No More Bets
No More Bets is a bit of an oddity at the box office at the moment, but what’s more magical and real than that is what it’s about: internet fraud.
The overall quality of the movie does not fail to meet the expectations of the general audience, and it cuts into the festering texture of the times with a “steady, accurate, and ruthless” brush, retaining the watchability of a commercial movie without losing the coldness of a crime movie.
Of course, “No More Bets” is still essentially a triumph of realism, Bad Monkey and Ning Hao have been silent for some time, and with the fierce generals applying for the Olympics to serve up such a work, I believe it will surely become another hit of this summer program.
I rarely jump to conclusions this early, but as a victim of a scam early last year, I fully understand that No More Bets is already a sky-high opening with its real-world social significance and notable success.
(Friendly reminder: there will be spoilers below.)
The full picture of telecom fraud in reality is actually quite complex; for example, many of the people who go offshore to engage in fraudulent activities are not duped but do so voluntarily, and also, the fraudulent discourse doesn’t just capitalize on human greed, but also preys on people through their weaknesses such as fear, ignorance and self-importance.
No More Bets smartly chooses to pounce on the one thing that’s most likely to make for good theater: greed.
To be more precise, the movie amplifies two human hearts, greed and unwillingness, which ultimately makes all of them accomplices and victims in the chain of frauds.
Programmer Pan Sheng, because of the ten to get a promotion K7 fell through, angrily on the spot to leave, with their own skills, where can not do a career? I’m going to Singapore to get a high salary to show you.
Anna Liang, a model, has been blocked from getting a job because her photo has been illegally stolen, and out of her strong desire for independence, she has unknowingly fallen into the trap of being recruited overseas with a high salary.
In contrast, gambler Gu Tianzhi (Tian) is a model of greed and unwillingness, as we witness a good-natured young man fall deeper and deeper into the trap because of a curious experiment, which eventually leads to the destruction of his family.
By showcasing these three key characters in the first and middle stages of No More Bets, it brilliantly accomplishes a vivid and typical online scam.
Speaking of which, I have to mention the audio-visual aspect of the movie, which uses a number of fruitful techniques.
For example, the section of A Tian’s first involvement in online gambling, in reality, it is just a few clicks on the smartphone, there is no skill and ornamental, but the film visualized the table, chips and cards, really let the beautiful dealer in front of you to deal, highlighting a sense of immersion and excitement that is no different from the real thing.
I’ve always believed that a good crime movie must produce the “thrill of the crime” of getting away with murder, otherwise, no matter what the film’s intentions are, it doesn’t hold up – and No More Bets clearly does that.
The most classic scene, naturally, is the fraud factory successfully swindled Fei 8 million after that celebration banquet, Lu Bingkun honored the merit, send cake, sprinkle a large amount of money, but also let all the people to take chopsticks to clip the money to do the bonus …… What is this? This is a big bowl of wine, big piece of meat, big scale divided gold and silver of the evil bandit happy life.
Especially when the celebration is cut into a montage with Tin’s family tragedy, and with Mr. Luk’s line, “It’s that gang that’s greedy, not us,” the sinister and horrific nature of fraud and crime simply seeps off the screen.
No More Bets is a good movie for what it is, but it’s the plot twists and character changes in the latter part of the movie that gave me the most surprises.
There is a major premise here, which is the narrowing of the narrative space – because we all understand that the fraud group in the film is destined to be destroyed (always give people some hope), on this basis, the image of supporting characters such as Ahn Chun Choi (Ah Choi) and Lu Bingkun, on the contrary, there are some breakthroughs from the flatness of the three-dimensional.
For example, Ah Choy’s care and favoritism towards Anna is already set up, making his act of stealing and releasing Anna unreasonable but reasonable, and for example, after Manager Luk discovers Ah Choy’s fault, he does not want to inflict the family law, but allows him to make amends under the predetermined predicament of being arrested, and so on.
Compared to My Dear Liar, a film about a wife’s murder and insurance fraud four years ago, No More Bets is a much better choice of subject matter and a marked improvement in directing, both of which are undoubtedly worthy of praise.
Of course, the most valuable quality of No More Bets is its relevance and social value, which is inextricably linked to the pain points of our time.
The movie “slightly” shows the way of network fraud, stock speculation, coin mining, online games, e-commerce, betting and so on, only you can not touch, no they can not think of, a little inattention will be tricked.
Everyone is a potential victim, in front of network fraud, regardless of gender, age, education and other conditions of difference, do not leave it to chance, not to mention blind confidence (I was because of a similar paralysis to be fooled).
On the other hand, the movie also shows the viciousness and cruelty of the fraud group to a certain extent. I won’t repeat the specific details, they are all there in the movie, so I can only say that it is really worthy of the topic.
There are thousands of story archetypes behind No More Bets, and even a casual glance is enough to make one’s heart skip a beat ……
So don’t think the movie is exaggerated because the reality is even more ridiculous and scary than the movie.
In our daily life, anti-fraud propaganda has been everywhere, but even so, still every day we can hear the news of people being cheated, which shows that there are always easy to cheat the crowd and the existence of publicity dead ends.
No More Bets is sure to be the next hit movie of the summer season. Relying on the entertainment of a commercial movie and the topicality of high exposure, it will form an unprecedented anti-fraud education for the whole nation, and its vivid image should be better than those efforts we have made in the past.
From this point of view, even without mentioning any of the value of the movie itself, No More Bets can be said to be of great merit.
My favorite part of the whole movie is the last shot of the last scene: Officer Zhao Dongran introduces the latest anti-fraud points and cases, and in the back row sits an unseen mystery man holding a “chip” key – meaning that Lu Bingkun is nothing more than a “bad luck” who has fallen on hard times. The “unlucky man” who fell, like him, there are many other fraud groups.
No More Bets is very objective and real, showing both the determination and actions of Chinese police to combat cross-border fraud, and also the difficulties and helplessness of cross-border law enforcement ……
We have to understand one thing, blackmail is impossible to be exterminated, especially blackmail in neighboring countries is not easy to deal with.
The last shot of the movie is to illustrate: this “evil” is inexhaustible, even if we win every battle, we can not achieve victory in this war, the only thing we can do is to raise their own vigilance and the people around them, as far as possible from the source of the victim side to cut off the chain of evil.
Hope you all encouragement, away from all fraud!
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