Silent Code

BBS乡民的正义

Taiwan, 2012, colour, 2.35:1, 105 mins.

Director: Lin Shiyong 林世勇.

Rating: 6/10.

Okay light drama about Taiwan hackers and a BBS is technically slick but too local in content.

STORY

Taibei, the present day. Thunder Newspaper star reporter Lan Yiqing (Guo Xuefu) is hawled in for questioning by shadowy government official Li Fengxin (Li Fengxin) and asked if she knows Yan Zhengyu (Chen Bolin), a legendary super-hacker whom she’s suspected of bribing to break into corporate computers for her news column. She denies it, and says she’s already resigned from her job. She explains to Li Fengxin how she was assigned by her impatient boss (Gao Weiqi) to trawl Bulletin Board System, the country’s most popular internet forum, for news stories but was locked out when it was discovered she was a journalist and not an ordinary user (a so-called Villager 乡民). She says the recent BBS meltdown was centred on a student, Li Chengxiang (Chen Yihan), who was hospitalised for an illness but was still managing to do her work as boardmaster of BBS’ Dream Board, a forum on which users encouraged each other to fulfil their dreams. Li Chengxiang came under attack from Villagers, led by the super-geeky Acid (Cai Aga), for supposedly leaking a video and abusing her position. As the Villagers led an insurrection – which also targeted Beauty Board boardmaster, student Bai Wenhui (Lin Wenyi) – and threatened a “Purple-Hype” overload of the system, Yan Zhengyu, who was Li Chengxiang’s former boyfriend, tried to remedy the situation. In the process, he uncovers the true villain.

REVIEW

A movie about internet geeks aimed at internet geeks, Silent Code BBS乡民的正义 is a flashy, well-packaged debut by Taiwan writer-director Lin Shiyong 林世勇 that admirably pushes the envelope of the island’s cinema at a technical level but is held back by a confused (and for general viewers, confusing) script and very local content. Lin, who came to attention for a series of internet cartoons featuring the character The Woodman 木偶人 (made while he was still a student at National Taiwan University of Arts), had a creative hand in pretty much all departments of Code, whose basic theme is internet responsibility in order to keep social media free from restrictive supervision. Via a story of Taiwan’s hugely popular Bulletin Board System that’s thrown into chaos by internal rivalries and external hackers, Lin argues that user-democracy and common sense can always win the day over intrusive board moderation – and thus avoid government regulation.

The script acknowledges the destructive effect of 24/7 computer-love on a personal level, and how such geekiness can easily go viral and turn into a form of mob rule; but at the end of the day, in a rather messy finale, the movie comes down on the side of the BBS’ users (known as Villagers), with a pro-Taiwan message tacked on. (The original title means “BBS Villagers’ Justice”). It has none of the scope and dramatic depth of two Mainland films about the potential destructiveness of the internet (Invisible Killer 无形杀, 2009; Caught in the Web 搜索, 2012), nor the personal drama of Love in the Internet Generation 网络时代的爱情 (1998), also made in the Mainland.

That’s fine for a light youth film aimed squarely at its demographic; but the fact that bulletin board systems have largely been replaced outside Taiwan by other social media makes Code look a tad local. Apart from that, and a corny incurable-illness subplot, the film moves slickly, has a range of lively characters, and slides back and forth between the real world and the imagined, 3-D animated world of BBS’ computer system with impressive smoothness. The latter, rendered as a futuristic universe of robots controlling the boards, is pretty much kids’ stuff, with plenty of fighting, super-robots (with The Woodman thrown in, for good measure) and lively dialogue.

On the human level, local youth icon Chen Bolin 陈柏霖 turns on his usual mumbly charm as a star hacker, while on the female side Chen Yihan 陈意涵 (so charming in Hear Me 听说, 2009, and Love 爱, 2012) is outclassed here by Mandopop girl-grouper Guo Xuefu 郭雪芙 (in her first movie) as a reporter looking for a scoop. In a supporting role as a geeky boardmaster who gets caught in the flak, young actress Lin Wenyi 林玟谊, 24, emerges as the most sympathetic character, with the script’s best-written scene in which she defends her way of life. Overall running time would benefit from losing most of the final 10 minutes.

CREDITS

Presented by Starwood Movie (TW). Produced by Starwood Movie (TW).

Script: Lin Shiyong. Photography: Wang Junming. Editing: Lin Shiyong, Gu Xiaoyun. Music: Chen Yiting. Theme-song music: Chen Yitin. Lyrics: Lin Shiyong. Vocals: Chen Yiting. Production design: Lin Meng’er. Art direction: Zhou Zhixian. Costume design: Pan Lunlin. Sound: Zheng Xuzhi [Frank Cheng], Jian Fengshu. Special effects: Cai Chengkun. Visual effects: Liao Weizhi, Huang Kaidi (Starwood Movie). Animation: Liao Weizhi, Huang Kaidi, Xu Jialing. Animation photography: Lin Shiyong.

Cast: Chen Bolin (Yan Zhengyu/King), Chen Yihan (Li Chengxiang, Dream Board boardmaster), Guo Xuefu (Lan Yiqing/Blue), Xiu Jiekai (Huang Guanjun/Mimic), Li Fengxin (Li Fengxin, captain), Liang Zhengqun (Lin, doctor), Jin Qin (BBS moderator), Cai A Ga [Cai Weijia] (gossip student/Acid), Lin Wenyi (Bai Wenhui, Beauty Board boardmaster), Gao Weiqi (Lan Yiqing’s newspaper boss), Jiang Tiecheng (voice of Woodman), Mai Ji, Gui Lian (gossip classmates), Deng Sufang (head hospital nurse), Shen Xinyu (nurse), Wang Shi (Four Square interviewer), Chen Yu (Four Square receptionist), Sun Xiegui (his assistant), Irene Chen (Beauty Board master), Huang Luziyin, Qiu Yujie (Bai Wen-hui’s classmates), Cai Yueyun (sausage-stand owner), Lin Minghan (his son), Lin Liangjun (his wife), Liu Jifan (fat blonde Villager), Gan Zongzhe (Terracotta Warrior), Lin Enjin (judge), Jiang Duhui (voice of Queen), Chen Shukai (hacker competition MC).

Release: Taiwan, 17 Aug 2012.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 30 Jan 2013.)