MINI REVIEW: Tainted Love (2023)
The real scam was the quality of this movie.
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Online dating scams are a hot topic right now, and if there is anything filmmakers are good at, it’s exploiting a viral topic.
But, don’t get this movie confused with the other Chinese dating scam movie that was also released at the same time, because this one is the crap one.
Pig butchering. It sounds kinda scary and evil, and it is. It is the not-so-romantic name given to the online romance scam that mostly target mainland Chinese citizens, but in reality this scam affects people from all over the world.
The aim is simple: the scammer spends months and months buttering up their target with sweet talks and romantic intentions with the purpose of stealing as much money as they can from their target once they gain their trust.
And as this movie shows, the victims can be anyone.
PLOT
A lonely woman from Beijing travels to a sea-side tourist town after losing 500,000 RMB in a pig-butchering scam in the hopes that the information the scammer gave her can lead to a confrontation.
While there, she meets another man who expresses a romantic desire for her, but its his friend that takes her interest. Getting to know both of them, she realizes she may have discovered the identity of the person who scammed her.
ABOUT THE FILM
The biggest problem with this movie, is the plot is utter unbelievable bullshit. Everything that occurs is so coincidental it’s almost comedic.
And this is the biggest problem with Chinese thrillers. Bound by Government Film Regulations, the movie had to show the perpetrator getting punished - and while no one would deny that it makes a satisfying ending, the fact that our heroine uncovers all the information she needs to serve justice so easily takes the viewer completely out of the moment.
From the time she arrives in the town, which for the viewer is such a head scratching moment, it’s obvious that everything will fall into her lap. The main question is, why would the scammer actually tell her about this town, and then be stupid enough to return to it?
What makes her such an easy target that she is almost immediately set upon by another scammer? And why is it that her friend that she met off a scammer’s victims chat group, can also find justice with the same two men our heroine is mixed up with?
Rather than using the medium as a way to educate the audience as to how to avoid these types of scams and what to look out for, the movie instead tries to tell an entertaining story of revenge. And while it is a dish that’s deliciously served cold at the end of the film, it’s touch and go if you have the patience to stick it out.
What are my overall thoughts?
I dislike movies where things just happen far too easily for the characters, to the point where the drama and tension are all but removed and you can guess what’s going to happen before it occurs.
Avoid this one, and best to check out No More Bets, that’s supposed to be the good anti-scam pig butchering movie.
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Genre Thriller
Director Ma Yingxin
Starring Dongyu Zhou, Zhang Yu
Original Title 鹦鹉杀
Country of Origin China
Release Date September 15 2023
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