Film reflects Web's power

The plot in director Chen Kaige's latest film Caught in the Web is simple, the kind revealed more or less in its entirety during a trailer. After being diagnosed with a malignant cancer, the beautiful Ye Lanqiu (Gao Yuanyuan) keeps her composure, donning only a look of disdain.

Upon leaving the doctor's office, she boards a public bus and brazenly sits in the front seat reserved for the pregnant and elderly. Ye refuses to give her seat to a hovering senior, despite admonishment from fellow passengers and the bus conductor. Instead, the rebel with a cause mockingly informs the senior that he can sit if he wants - on her lap. 

A precocious young journalist (Wang Luodan) happens to be on the bus and eagerly films the event with her cellphone. She passes the footage over to her brother's TV producer girlfriend Ruoxi (Yao Chen), who posts it online, riling netizens nationwide. Cruel things are circulated, entangling all those involved.  

The story then unfolds rather predictably, complete with a slightly coerced love-triangle involving Taiwanese pinup Mark Chao and the two female leads.

Followers of Chen's previous films, such as Farewell My Concubine (1993), will be familiar with the Hamlet-esque tragic archetype of his misunderstood heroes. Caught in the Web builds on this mold in the despondent Ye, though humorous quips and a flashy background soften Chen's usual conceits.

Delve beneath the saturated shots of wealth and you'll find a film that attempts to send a strong social message that reminds Web users to weigh up the consequences of posting and re-posting potentially damaging speculation about real-life figures or engaging in "human flesh searches."

The burden of responsibility that weighs on a rising population of impromptu, citizen journalists is the overarching theme.

The film also reflects the digital age, where most Chinese receive their news from microblogs and each other, as opposed to traditional, authoritative news outlets. But to quote Spider-Man, a hero who understands webs better than most, "with great power comes great responsibility."