No More Bets

2023 2h 10m ZH

👍

6.9

SOLID

★6.9TMDB · 89

DramaCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A depressed programmer and a model decide to seek gold as a seemingly good job opportunity, but they inadvertently become involved in a well-planned Internet scam.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Zhang Yixing
Pan Sheng
Wang Chuanjun
Lu Bingkun
Yong Mei
Zhao Dongran
Zhou Ye
Song Yu
Jin Chen
Liang Anna
Darren Wang
Gu Tianzhi
Sunny Sun
An Juncai
Carmen Tong Ka-Man
Li Shuang

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Shen Ao
Writers: Shen Ao, Zhang Yifan, Xu Luyang
Languages: Thai, Mandarin, English
Countries: China

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Released 3 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Thai, Mandarin, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Shen Ao, shot by Wang Tianxing. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Fei Peng. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Zhang Yixing and Wang Chuanjun and Yong Mei carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt28076784 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

Only 89 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Shen Ao directs. Wang Tianxing behind the camera. Fei Peng scores. Produced in China. Dialogue in Thai, Mandarin, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 3 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Thai, Mandarin, English.
3Directed by Shen Ao, shot by Wang Tianxing. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Fei Peng. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Zhang Yixing and Wang Chuanjun and Yong Mei carry the top of the cast.
6IMDB entry: tt28076784 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
7Only 89 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
8Classified under 9 themes, including "money laundering", "baccarat", "compulsive gambling", "gambling addiction".

The technical file

Cinematography: Wang Tianxing
Original score: Fei Peng
Runtime: 130 min · 2h 10m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Box office: $54,578,820
Original language: ZH
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: No More Bets (2023)

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Shen Ao

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2023-10-22
★ 6/10
Were this not based on a true story, then I'd have thought you couldn't have made it up! A rather stroppy but brilliant programmer is passed over for promotion and so storms off in a huff. Like a great many clever men, "Pan Sheng" (Yixing Zhang) is a bit thick when it comes to the practical things in life and after a short plane journey finds himself attached to the lively and charismatic "Cai" (Sunny Sun) who is clearly too good to be true. A bus trip ensues and then "Pan" - and the other passengers - are promptly all but imprisoned working in a scam factory where betting odds are controlled and manipulated, where pretty girls are forced to host gaming tables and all essentially work to facilitate a complex fleecing operation that capitalises on the vulnerabilities of people at home who are successfully sucked into a fraud that nets the criminals millions of dollars and causes no end of collateral damage to those who find themselves addicted. "Pan" and former model, turned croupier, "Liang Anna" (Gina Chen Jin) try to concoct a way of escaping; of passing information to the outside summoning help - but their new guardians are savvy to just about every ploy they try. Interestingly, there is a glimmer of hope offered to all of them by their boss "Lu" (Chuan-jun Wang). He does allow them the prospect of buying their freedom - make enough money and off you go? Really? Hmmm. I did find the story fascinating - the use of some of the brightest minds to cleverly massage the data for an industry that is largely unregulated on a transnational basis is breathtaking. These guys basically print their own money as efficiently as if they had their own mint. Zhang does ok, even if he's a bit lightweight; it's Gina Jin who delivers the goods as an actor as the plot heads towards an admittedly rather unpredictable denoument. Sadly, there's far too much dialogue and the film drags it's feet all too often. A stronger, more effective, lead actor and half an hour less of preamble and waffle and Ao Shen could have given us a powerful indictment of human greed - on both sides of the computer screen. It's still watchable, though.

Production companies