Sieu From (or as it’s translated into English, Bitcoin Heist) is a 2016 Vietnamese fast-paced, action-packed, technology based feature film that centers itself around the cryptocurrency known as bitcoin.
The film centers around Interpol’s most wanted hacker, the man who calls himself as “The Ghost” as special agent DaDa (played by Kate Nhung) assembles a team of expert criminals to carry out the ultimate heist. The lineup includes Jack Magique who’s a street magician and master pickpocket; Luhan and Linh, a father and daughter glitter duo; Vi, a League of Legends champion, manga fan, and expert hacker; and Phuc, a scrawny accountant who works for The Ghost. Phuc has agreed to work with the authorities in exchange for protection against his notoriously dangerous employer, a Korean-German tech industrialist playboy with ties to the mafia.
There is a lot that more than meets the eye, as in the world of The Ghost, since any smart criminal knows that there is no honor among thieves. Award winning director Ham Tran’s film was groundbreaking for the time, in that is filled with stunning special effects and advanced technology; with a mixture of Mission: Impossible and Ocean’s 11, Bitcoin Heist brought a new concept of action and heists to the Vietnamese film industry.
The Film Itself (2/5):
I need to preface the fact that I picked up Bitcoin Heist on a whim used from my local Family Video for a really, really cheap price and wanted to give it a shot. Boy, was I disappointed with the overall concept and storyline that this movie gave me. Sure, it’s fully loaded with a lot of action with its fights and shootouts that made it semi-okay to watch, and the overall premise of the movie itself is somewhat relevant to today with the popularization of cryptocurrencies; but, dear god this movie just did not flow well with me. There was a lot of potential that was ultimately wasted with this film as the production crew failed to deliver on a lot of aspects that I found myself trying to look forward to while I tried to read through the film; and it really felt as if the cast members weren’t really into their roles and ultimately felt the same way as they made this movie.
Picture Quality (5/5):
The Blu-ray release of Bitcoin Heist looked just like any other standard Blu-ray release, as it offered a clean and clear cut view into the story that they were trying to tell with this film. There really wasn’t too much that stood out with this movie, except the variety of action sequences that get played out as they offered no distortion to the experience it was aiming at. Other than that, there really wasn’t anything notable about the visual presentation of this film.
Audio Quality (2/5):
Bitcoin Heist comes packaged with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio track with the dialogue spoken in Vietnamese. As much as I wanted to really enjoy the experience, I felt that with the complexities that accompany the language at hand, I was more distracted as I was reading the subtitles to follow the movie and premise it tried to deliver. While the dialogue itself was completely not understandable to myself, it was clean and clear. The only thing that really stood out with this movie was the acknowledgement of the camera positioning as it would move from shot to shot and the various action sequences as well as the thunderous impact that the bass track included as it shook my living room floor.
The Packaging (2/5):
The Blu-ray release of Bitcoin Heist comes packaged in your standard two-disc Blu-ray amaray case. Within that case is the standard Blu-ray copy of the film as well as the standard DVD copy. The disc, at least the Blu-ray, comes featuring artwork that resembles that of a circuit board and is completely different from that of the case art. My copy does not include the DVD disc as this was purchased from my local Family Video store. There were no digital copy redemption pamphlets included with the retail version of this release, nor were there any slipcovers provided.
Special Features:
I’m not quite sure if it’s a common item with WellGo USA releases, but the Blu-ray release of Bitcoin Heist does not come with any special features whatsoever. As a result, I have removed the rating from this section of this review.
Technical Specs:
Video
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 2.38:1
Original Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
Vietnamese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Vietnamese: Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles
English SDH
Runtime
Original Film: 101 minutes
Final Thoughts:
Needless to say, I did not enjoy watching Bitcoin Heist very much at all. The only thing that I found to be appealing at all was the execution of the action sequences; and even then, they really weren’t all that special. The story and overall experience of this movie felt too weak and that they really could have done a lot more with this movie. The visual presentation was exactly what you would expect it to be with it being a 1080p presentation. Audio, well, the only thing that I could remotely understand was the sound effects since I’m not fluent in Vietnamese; but assuming that the translation of the subtitles was accurate, dialogue was clean and nicely presented. There aren’t any special features on this release; but that may be a common item with WellGo releases, I’m not too experienced with their catalog yet. I really wouldn’t recommend picking this release up. But, if you do have the chance to check out Bitcoin Heist for cheap, definitely give it a shot; you may end up liking it.
