A doco that plays out like a crime/heist movie. Does shine a light on the crimes of big businesses and how they get away with it.

This documentary purports to expose new financial corruption following the 2008 crisis and what is (or is not) being done about it. It achieves this to some extent, but it makes the error of trying to get us to sympathize with Wall Street investors, specifically short sellers. We are supposed to believe that these short sellers, who profit off of the very schemes that they and the film apparently condemn, are the true crusaders of justice in this story. (There is some great footage of them going to Washington DC and sitting impotently and squirming during a Congressional hearing.) These self-proclaimed "activist investors" say they fight the good fight by taking down fake Chinese companies. They do this by hiring Chinese nationals to be their private investigators and have them uncover this fraud in China at great personal risk. Essentially, wealthy white US men send poor Chinese men to risk their lives in uncovering fraud in Chinese companies. These US men then turn around and make huge profits when they short the stocks of these Chinese companies. The second half of the film doubles down on its Sinophobia and features several interviews about how China is the source of all this corruption and fraud. Never mind that early on in the film, we learn that these schemes are really the work of low-level US investment banks with the cooperation of the big banks and the US government. This film would rather blame China than look at how these schemes mirror the day-to-day flow of capital in just about every business and bank trading on the stock market. We don't see how every new hyped-up tech startup with billions in backing is really just a front for money laundering. We don't see how the 'China hustle' scheme of inflating the value of companies to defraud the public connects to the wider problems of the market. We don't see how this 'hustle' is not some aberration of free trade capitalism but rather a necessary trait of it. In other words, this is really just business as usual.

What did you think of the movie? Very biased piece, with unsatisfactory evidence. Very short sighted when it comes to geopolitical affairs, and even more when it comes to depicting the laws and complexities of a foreign country like China. It starts with a promising "there are no good guys in this story" only to portrait clear villains and heores to the service of the main subject of the piece. Though it explains some financial terms in a very efficient way.

The anti-China overtone was trying a little too hard, since the major problem can be seen in the American lack of regulation and due diligence process. If you can't go to China to verify, why would you be ok to list them for trade and expose your people to the undue risk?

When will we ever learn?

Sets out with a clear narrative and an interesting premise. Sadly then loses direction in the second half until it devolves into rapid cuts and one line slogans, not dissimilar to an obnoxious YouTube creation. If you want to kill time/ need some background noise to your afternoon nap then I'd recommend it.

I thought it was very informative and honestly jaw dropping!!

It should be Hong Kong S.A.R., HK is dying and becoming more like mainland China everyday but we aren't dead yet.

17/11/18 on flight from Mumbai to Singapore - an interesting look at yet another scam delivered by wall street.

Some pretty profound logic and factual errors diminish the investigation and conclusions of corporate corruption

Eye opening!, frightening. Greed at its finest

Great documentary minus trying to make you feel sympathetic for the individuals that put 50%+ of their wealth into the scam. Shouldn’t be doing that if it’s Apple or Google let alone some random Chinese companies. Basic investing principles.

the depths of deception..

This was a very Eye Opening Documentary.

Excellent. Compulsory viewing for all investors and for all high school and university students studying economics.

Stunning breakdown of how greedy brokers find a way to create a new place to bamboozle stockholders while opening up our stock market to the Chinese creating new billionaires while bankrupting middle class investors. A horror film that hits us at home but this is something our government is willingly allowing to occur.

pretty scary to watch

Interesting Doc. Worth watching. Led me to look into Muddy Waters Research, which has an interesting report on CIFS and is short CIFS. Worth reading if you want more info after watching the doc.

Excellent movie, anyone who invests in the stock market needs to watch this. Do a search on this movie and see the excellent reviews from various Financial sites such as Forbes, MarketWatch, etc. Very good drama and this is really what is going on, more people need to know about this. It hasn't yet received the notoriety of or mainstream knowledge like the Madoff scandal but this is probably a bigger fraud and mess. Interesting how all this works.

Don't you get tired of hearing one sided American stories? The fact that this movie calls out China for deceptive practices, while they live in a country that only arrested 1 Indian man for the trillions stolen in 2008 financial crash, is proof enough for me that they are blinded by their own corrupt system. The stock exchange is exactly as fair as a casino. The house always wins. Those foolish enough to think its an "investment" are foolish enough to lose their money.