Shock of the Network
2003
Director: ?
Stars: Edmond Leung, Diana Pang Dan, Amy Fan
I've been harping on the state of HK films lately. Quite frankly, the stuff coming out nowadays isn't nearly as good as the films from even a few years ago (much less the "golden age"), and Shock of the Network is a prime example of this. From start to finish, this is about as cheap and boring as movies can get. Even the distributors seem to have thought the same way -- this one didn't even come out in theatres, instead taking the Z-list route of going straight to video.
Like many HK cheapies, Shock of the Network steals its' basic idea from current events. In this case, it's the death of a young man after a marathon online gaming session. In another classic cheapie move, the film piggybacks on the success of recent movies like The Eye and adds a paranormal twist. The plot here is that people are being killed while playing a popular online game. A reporter (Amy Fan) becomes interested in the story after her game-addicted boyfriend disappears, and along with a mysterious private eye (Edmond Leung) and a cop (Diana Pang Dan), she soon discovers that ghosts are using the game to steal people's souls.
This might have been a good movie -- especially for someone like myself who is a fan of both video games and Diana Pang Dan -- but it just fails miserably, mostly due to its' ultra-low budget. The picture was shot on digital video and looks like total crap; the sound is also horrible -- sometimes the actors' voices are drowned out by traffic on the road. There is a lame attempt to add in some special effects towards the end that is laughable, especially after seeing movies like Legend of Zu. This film is so cheap that they actually use BB guns instead of regular prop guns. Hell, they even keep Pang Dan's mystical breasts covered up in an unflattering cop uniform for most of the movie.
Shock of the Network isn't a total stinking pile of excrement -- the eye candy from the lead actresses save it from being a bomb on the level of Dragon and the Cobra -- but most HK film fans can hopefully find a better movie to fill their time with than this almost Godfrey Ho-esque "masterpiece". In this "down time" of the HK movie industry, when even top-level films are disappointing, Shock of the Network brings things to a new low. I'm not going to jump on the "HK cinema is dead" bandwagon, but each time I see a movie like this, it doesn't exactly restore my faith in the system.
RATING: 3
A review for the VCD of this movie can be found here