Gu zhu yi zhi

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.

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 is a rollercoaster ride..Amazing movie ... I was totally hooked from the starting.. It will tell you the reality of scams and frauds which happen and how horrible the outcomes can be.... I m really impressed by the acting of the cast specially the character played by zhang Yixingggg...the scenes were so genuine and natural... I will recommend you to watch this.. The direction, makeup was on point..no wonder the movie is doing great.. If we talk about visuals of the movie.. those are great too in comparison of the budget.. You will not be disappointed.. Pls give it a try it will open your eyes..

No more Bets is a great well written thiller with great twists and surprises and a great cast and a very different type of performance from Lay from EXo fame The movie was very tence and make great use of its budget and locations and the movie highlights real life issues and gives use viewers a real insight of China and Cambodia .

The movie is a box office success and it's very well deserved and I expect many more thillers in the future to capture this type of tone and atmosphere within the movie as it was great 2 hour movie and it really has a interesting payoff for all characters invloed for the movie.

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.