No More Bets

This movie really offers an unprecedented look into the complex web of the new type of overseas telecommunications and cyber fraud. The plot draws inspiration from real fraud cases across China, featuring realistic portrayals of the industry's inner workings. I was impressed by Director Shen Ao who revealed that he studied over 10,000 cases and interviewed a variety of people, from victims to police officers, to gain inspiration for the movie and also sought help from police and the anti-fraud center to collect information related to such online scams over the past three years.

Considering the amount of information gathered and people involved, I think the plot successfully managed to unfold from the perspectives of the criminals, the police and especially the victims. Some scenes seemed indeed quite cruel but it was stated the actual cases are even more extreme and what really went on was a hundred or a thousand times darker, crueler, and more brutal this movie came across as very realistic and I think overall the actors did a really great job.

I can understand now why the movie is considered so far a major success and since it was released amid widespread debate around overseas cyber fraud on social media, where dozens of people shared their experiences of being tricked by lucrative job offers, I believe "No More Bets" will hold a profound significance by educating people and by preventing others from being scammed.

This movie was both educational and entertaining to me. Everyone thinks they can avoid getting scammed but what they underestimate is how thorough and well-planned some fraudulent schemes can be, how they're adept at manipulating your feelings and getting you to spend more of your money to reach that high of winning. The first part of the movie had good momentum and it felt like the stakes were high, but after that the pacing of the story slowed down for more plot development before quickly wrapping up. Overall I thought the movie was good because it was able to hold my attention, and it had a satisfactory ending too.

The film's content is well-suited to the current times. Although not overly detailed, viewers can easily envision the structure of such organizations. Moreover, the film highlights some of the deceptive tactics employed by these gambling establishments.

This film serves as a stark warning, particularly given the prevalence of gambling advertisements on illegal websites, which may desensitize viewers to the severity of the issue.

While the first part effectively introduces the main characters and builds towards a compelling climax, the latter part feels rushed, and the relationships between characters lack sufficient depth.

Based on the Southeast Asia fraud factory incidents in 2021, No More Bets is a solid tense Chinese crime thriller that presents the world of online scams in an eye-opening fashion, delivering unnerving suspense and shock with hard-hitting truth.

Through a promising overseas job offer, computer programmer Pan Sheng and model Anna Liang are lured into a fraud factory, trapped permanently in a slave labor camp where they are forced to commit cyber fraud in an online gambling scam. As the criminal network expands, Pan and Anna conspire to contact the police...

Director Shen Ao balances the multiple storylines well and maintains tight pacing, taking the audience through the logistical pipeline of a scam from beginning to end. The narrative kaleidoscopically presents the phone scam from different perspectives, ranging from the crime boss running the fraud factory, the computer programmer coding the scam app, the model fronting the gambling matches to the unfortunate victim taking the bait.

What draws the audience to No More Bets is knowing that this all happened in reality. It was shocking to think about how as technology develops, crime networks naturally become sophisticated and better organized too. The film incorporates the factual to its advantage, finding a style between documentary and fiction, like a dramatic film that's completely composed of the re-enactment scenes out of a true crime documentary.

There's been an exploding trend of crime films from Mainland China, with the immediate emergence of subgenres this year, like pulp crime with Lost in the Stars, crime procedurals like Dust to Dust, and neo-noir with Zhang Yimou's Under the Light. Government regulations seem to have opened up, allowing the depiction of gangsters and crime as long as public service announcements are tagged before the credits, specifically, title cards detailing every perpetrator's prison sentence and a public message discouraging committing said crime.

Come to think of it, Hollywood had a similar phrase with the Hayes Act from 1930 to the 1960s with its set of do's and don'ts in cinema. I hope this is a step towards more possibilities for Chinese cinema, opening up more fresh stories in new genres being told.

I'm surprised by this movie. I heard from news that it is about scam jobs that are prevalent in Southeast Asia today. This movie depicted the situation realistically. I admire the movie attempt to also portray that the victims are on both side. I also like the moral lesson that the movie sent. Gambling is not just bad, it is destructive, and it consumes every one you love. I wish more people watch this movie, especially in Southeast Asia where thousands of people were conned to work in this scamming and online gambling center every month. I hope Southeast Asia authorities also serious in cracking down them.