Bitcoin Heist

Old-fashioned heist thriller meets high-tech world of cybercrime in this colorful caper from Vietnam. The plot involves the efforts of Special Agent Dada (Kate Nhung), working in the cybercrimes division, to catch an international money launderer known as Ghost. The sting operation goes wrong when their snitch panics, the accountant (Thanh Pham) with the digital key flees, and a Bitcoin fortune is stolen by a hacker. So Dada goes rogue, pulls the accountant out of prison, and puts together a team of criminals to break into a high-security fortress to access the protected Bitcoin vault. Also on hand are a former pickpocket who now works as a nightclub magician (and just happens to be Dada's former lover), an aging forger, a teenage cat burglar, and a hacker out for revenge—all sharing troubled pasts and regrets as they bond on the mission. Bitcoin Heist is steeped in the sentimentality, melodrama, and cartoonish comedy common to Asian action cinema, but it also has a clever twist that sends the third act into a new direction involving double crosses and an elaborate confidence game. Directed by Ham Tran with rapid-fire editing, splashy graphics and digital effects, jaunty music, and plenty of colorful (and corny) comedy and romance, this is a rare action spectacle from Vietnam that should interest fans of Asian action movies. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)