Supercapitalist (2012) User Reviews

Well not bad

[john_jay1987 · 5/10 · 29 August 2013]

Well, for the record, i seriously think that this movie is not bad, it makes me have the interest on the finance market, quite informative, at least for me. There isn't a lot this kind of movie brewing in the market, so when i come to the summary of the title, i just know that i am so dying to watch this movie, at least it din't disappointed me.

Quite surprise me when two of the aged Asian actor are speaking quite proper English, its " wow " me a lot. Although some of the actor aren't really good at acting, but i think it's acceptable, at least for me, hope that there is more of these kind of movie brewing and i am expecting more from the team of making this movie.

Overall i vote the movie at 5 out of 10, informative, realistic, rare.

Worth a watch.

Do Not read any of the 7 crew reviews of 9-10 stars, it's BS

[ThrillKillZ · 1/10 · 16 April 2017]

You know guys, it's just a tad obvious that all seven user's popped their cherry to give this film 10 stars. Maybe sometime in the future the IMDb can fix it so first time users cannot give a rating with their review at the very least and maybe highlight all of the text in green, yea that would be nice. I would have watched this film hell I was planning on it until I saw the pathetic attempt at attention getting,one star & bye bye. :)

This movie is pure garbage 0/10

[dontroslo · 1/10 · 28 March 2016]

Ultimately plodding and resolutely old-fashioned, a corporate thriller for folks too square to indulge the possible existence of hungers so strong they must be satisfied at any cost. It's lensed with a tiresome gloss meant to mimic the seduction of the Asian metropolitan high life and filled with clumsily didactic talking points and inadequate performances. Filled with enough clichés (finance culture seems to have the same frat-boy DNA the world over, bro) to be broken up and sold in pieces as junk material. It's very dry as new bank notes and doggedly uncinematic, Simon Yin's "$upercapitalist" approaches the seamy side of international finance with a story as stale as the subprime meltdown.

Life imitates Art

[k-94726 · 9/10 · 20 May 2017]

I've been a Hedgefund trader out here for 10 years now and I have to say that this movie is the bomb! It's totally like this out here,...or at least it was back then. Economy is slowing down a bit and now tech seems to be hotter. There definitely was a HK brothers scandal by SHK company in Hong Kong, and I know plenty of big prominent shipping families. All of the technical finance was really on point. Lived and loved it.

Bloomberg

[u-77164 · 8/10 · 21 May 2017]

I recognize the Bloomberg offices in Hong Kong anywhere when I visited them. As a finance analyst, I was kind of taken back at how the dialogue resembles my day to day. I've certainly partied in Hong Kong like that too, maybe even more...definitely give it a watch if you are in biz. I'm going to watch it again. There were a few parts I missed because I was looking at all the scenery and pointing out places I've been!

A juicy finance film

[gh45-638-752119 · 9/10 · 20 March 2013]

This movie yells: finance can be fun and finance can be sexy! I am a college student and this movie illustrates the long and short hedge fund trading strategies perfectly. It's so interesting to see this concept coming alive in a romantic story. I am a big fan of financial literature and one of my favorite books is "More Money than God" by Sebastian Mallaby about different hedge fund masters like George Soros and John Paulson. (Did you know that the first hedge fund trader Alfred Winslow Jones travelled and drank with Ernest Hemingway?) Anyways, if the story in the movie happens in real life, I think it is engaging and educational enough to be included in the book!

A must-see!

[benepesce · 10/10 · 3 August 2012]

I enjoyed watching this movie greatly! It had a great plot--easy to follow even though it dealt with a lost of financial concepts (and trust me, I have no mind for the stuff ha!). A New York hedge fund trader is sent to Hong Kong and gets involved with a major company's dealings, only to find out that everything is not as it seems. I found it riveting, action-packed, smart and with true gems of humor scattered throughout.

The characters were well-cast and well thought-out. There was a good message throughout the film, a lesson anyone could learn from. And the locations! Very cool shots of each of the cities...made me want to go visit all of places.

I recommend this movie highly! Go see it!

Blend of East and West, Intricate Plot

[tonimikler · 10/10 · 4 December 2012]

I read about this in NY Times Dealbook article because I follow Hedge Fund and M&A activity all the time. This is one of the first financial movies where I felt the financial plot was very intricate. The pieces were given at different stages while developing the characters and then it kicked into high gear during the 3rd act.

I don't want to reveal any more. This is a fun movie, with a good story. The movie has some good messages that I liked as well.

Could be slightly shortened and better edited. There were also some out of focus shots.

THe cinematography is strong, the soundtrack is good, and the acting is good. I liked seeing all the parts of Hong Kong. It's a lot cleaner than I expected!

Entertaining film

[lenaarenson · 9/10 · 21 November 2012]

I recommend this for anyone who is interested in Hong Kong and Asia like me. I'm headed there after getting a job transfer and a friend of mine recommended me to see this film. It starts off really well, starts to lag halfway through, and then really picks up 2/3's of the way. I work in finance and found this plot to be more complicated than other movies which I liked. If you are not in finance you'll still get it. Really enjoyed the writing and acting(overall, there were areas that weren't so good) from fresh faces as well as really liked seeing strong performances from recognizable actors.

After reading more about this film, I was surprised how they pulled it off for the budget. Looking forward to move to Asia!

Pretty Good film

[jamiethorington1 · 8/10 · 16 November 2012]

Discovered this film after reading about it from a Forbes article by Martin Fridson. I was very inspired how they put together such a solid film for such a little budget! Very realistic after searching on different scandals! I didn't know that much about Hong Kong. I am now thinking of a trip out there. I am interested in the behind the scenes writing and how they shot the film in so many countries. I am curious if that's how Macau is or is it more like Skyfall's macau? I also thought the use of chinglish was interesting by the HK veteran actors? They seemed very comfortable doing it! Hope to see more from these filmmakers!

Really Good Film

[nedschiavoni · 10/10 · 22 November 2012]

I'm an indie filmmaker and I know how hard it is to make a movie. I'm stunned on how good this film is and the amount of production value they had. This film has inspired me to make my own movie and I feel it's really possible now. I hope to read more about how they made the movie and the behind the scenes and how they got all the HK veteran actors like Kenneth Tsang and Richard Ng. And I've been a huge fan of Linus Roache even before he was in Batman Begins. The film flows really well. It does have some clunky parts and flaws, but I'll forgive it for overall it's a good film.

Too the filmmakers, Please make more!

I don't understand the critics

[James_chie · 8/10 · 17 August 2012]

Supercapitalist was a fun movie to watch. It had its flaws here and there and at times I wanted the movie to slow down, and at other moments the movie could have picked up speed. But I was convinced at the end that this was not a rehash of "Wall Street"', "Boiler Room", or even "Margin Call", which are all movies made with budgets 12 to 22 times the size of Supercapitalist, which was made for a mere 500,000.

I got to see a genuine conflict, maybe not 100%, of Derek Ting being portrayed by Chinese people as a "banana", yellow on the outside, but white on the inside. it also in some ways gave a portrayal of Asian Americans in the US today, how we're assumed that we would be great at crunching numbers, doing our tasks, and not be vocal and shout for our rights. Needless to say, Derek breaks that mold by speaking his mind, and that impressed me in the movie where in the US new york scenes he does exactly that.

On the other side of the pacific, he plays a guy just wanting to play by the rules, and in Asia, especially with the Chinese, the rules of the game, especially negotiation are much different. Derek does a decent job portraying how the rules in the US doesn't particularly fit or take you anywhere in Chinese. Sure phrases like "shake it up a bit" and "bro" might be a little overused in the film, but it doesn't distract me from what the storyline and all.

Music and cinematography was great. Come on everyone, this is a Hollywood quality film on a SHOESTRING budget of 500,000. I challenge ANYONE out there without many connections in the film industry, to go bust your but and do a movie on such budget, both production AND marketing and get this far... So the critics shouldn't try to compare this with high overpaid and overpriced Hollywood films. Its an apples to mangos comparison. Comparing tapas to dim sum...Respect this film in its own right....

Bet on this one if you like finance films

[zzz-37162 · 8/10 · 2 June 2017]

If you are in finance like me, you'll really like this one. It's got everything: short trading, shareholder activism, poison pills, interest rates. I really liked how they weaved everything together. Hong Kong is shot beautifully and so is Macau and New York.

Enjoyed all the different types of gambling on and off the trading floor. so I know the rules of Baccarat and Poker. Really fun movie for me, but if you don't get finance and gambling, some of the stuff may fly over your head! Nonetheless, you'll still get most of it.

On the money!

[p-11915 · 8/10 · 11 June 2017]

I can't believe I missed this one. After I saw the movie, I checked out all of the reviews. I can see what some of the negative ones were saying, but I think all of my heroes like Martin from Forbes, Chrystia from the NY Times, Will from Dealbook are on the...money!

I've never seen a film that embraces and shows the real side of how deals are done, especially in Asia. This is how it is, and and how we speak. The plot has a lot of intricate finance related terms which if you are in the industry, you will appreciate. It also shows the real dirtiness of what happens on both sides of a trade.