No More Bets

A programmer loses his job and is offered well paid work abroad. A model is on the same flight. Both have their passports taken from them where they land. The building they arrive at is a fraud centre; hundreds of people sit at computers inside deceiving strangers over the internet. The programmer is told to build the system, the model to draw the victims in. Anyone who wants to leave is beaten. Outside, messages go to their families: everything is fine, send money. Shen Ao directs. Lay Zhang, Gina Jin, Wang Chuanjun and Sun Yang are in the cast. It is a Chinese production. The film opened in China on 8 August 2023 and took around 3.8 billion yuan; it was the third most watched film in the country that year. The name of the country it is set in is never spoken in any scene. Myanmar's government said the film damaged the country's image, and Cambodia banned screenings. The narrative rests on reporting about real fraud compounds and the film openly means to warn. The matter it treats is the hope of a job; every victim went there to earn money and none of them was abducted. The film does not avoid showing violence and some scenes are hard. The narrative runs on two lines; those held inside and the families searching outside. The ending is tied to law enforcement and the message is delivered directly. Its limit is tone; the narrative turns into a public service film in places and the characters are not finely drawn. Who it is for: viewers who like crime films based on real events. Who it is not for: the violence is heavy, the tone didactic, and the ending dark.