Web of Deception
 
Director: Billy Tamg; Tekkie Yeung
Year: 1997
Rating: 5.5
Apparently this film received some sort of “worst movie of the year” award in 1997, but perhaps I was in a forgiving mood while watching it because I am sure I have seen much worse! Actually I think I would prefer watching this again to the big budget film - A Man Called Hero.

Admittedly very little in the film makes a lot of sense or is at all realistic or in anyway logical – but if you don’t worry about those sort of trivial matters – each scene taken by itself is not too bad. Just don’t try and tie it all together.

Francoise Yip is a hard driving successful fund manager in HK and has her fund heavily invested in Japanese equities. After the Kobe earthquake the Nikkei plunges like Pang Dan’s neckline and she frantically tries to come up with an investment with quick high returns. She is invited to a meeting with the head of a large Indonesian corporation who offers her the opportunity to invest in their take over bid of another company. After checking to make sure that his picture is on the company’s webpage and five minutes of research, she wires $100 million dollars to him!


Not a real thorough vetting process and sure enough it is a scam as the man she met turns out not to be head of the company and the $100 million is long gone. She learns this when she goes to the company and the head turns out to be Michael Chow and he soon finds out that he too is the victim of a scam.

Diana Pang Dan plays his very cool efficient secretary who turns out to be something of a femme fatale. Her role is not very robust, but she does thankfully have one totally gratuitous scene where she does a little dance and strip in front of a window for no particular reason. It was highly appreciated, but unfortunately the lights went out at the crucial time. Don’t you hate that!


Anyway, both Michael and Francoise are soon also framed for murder and are on the run from the cops. Much of the filming took place in Indonesia so that was interesting. Though initially they can’t stand each other, you know it is just a matter of time until they slap the monkey and sure enough one moonlit night on the beach they get down and play house in the sand. At one point during the proceedings Wong exclaims “Stop, don’t move!” Is there danger lurking? In a sense yes – as he is just about to lose control – and I don’t think he brought a condom with him! Francoise though smiles wickedly and makes one little thrust and it is all over – game, set and match.
 

There is also a fair amount of action – primarily from Wong – but Francoise delivers a few good kicks as well. None of what happens is particularly surprising or really all that interesting – but I would not say that it was one of the worst films out of HK. It is sort of on the level of many low budget cable made suspense films, but with much better action sequences and two very sexy women.