Web junkie (Israel, 2013) review

“I used the internet. My dad brought me here to see the doctor… But they tied my hands and locked me in here instead”

Director: Shosh Shlam, Hilla Medalia

Writer: Shosh Shlam, Hilla Medalia

The documentary opens with the desperate face of a Chinese teenager. He’s crying. He said that he still doesn’t really know why he’s there. He didn’t do anything wrong. His parents drugged him and took him there while he was still sleeping and now, he’s trapped.

 

 “I was just playing” he says. He’s feeling actually hopeless, depressed and with no motivation to live and, exactly like him, other 70 teenagers are in the same situation. There’s no time to play there. Just march, obey orders and be reprogrammed.

 

Welcome to Daxing Camp, where your useless videogame-addicted son can “reconfigure” himself, and finally become responsible and excited to become a productive member of Chinese society.

 

According to a report released by China Internet Network Information Center in 2017, 170 million people under 18 regularly use internet in China. The videogames industry reached 24 billion dollars JUST in 2016 and even if the contribution to the Chinese economy is quite huge, game industry is still strongly criticized and blamed, because it’s actually the drug dealer for 24 million teenagers that are completely addicted, and spend more than 17 hours gaming on daily basis. Internet addiction is a real problem in China. The situation was so bad that, in 2008, the Government decided to implement new laws to regulate the use of videogames and formally declare “internet addiction” as a clinical disorder. They opened 400 rehabilitation camps to help desperate and broken families giving clinical and medical help and psychological support to their lost children.

This documentary was extremely painful to watch: in my view, these boys were just playing. Did they deserve to be treated like freaks just because they love “World of Warcraft”? No, of course not. But most of them quit school, neglected family and friends and refused any contact with reality. They spent most of the time at internet cafés, some of them spent over 8500 dollars to play videogames being constantly awake for days. Now in the camp, they look like just oversleeping lifeless zombies.

 

I am not a gamer, at all, in general I’ am not a huge fan of technology and I am still struggling to use my smartphone but, for anyone watching this documentary, is definitely clear that for these teenagers gaming is not just a hobby but a way to escape from the pressure that society put on them to succeed, to have a good job, to finally settle and commit themselves to something serious.

 

The movie director chose close–ups as narrative aesthetic and it’s masterful how she lets – in front of the camera- not the mouths but the eyes of those boys to talk about hidden worlds in which they venture alone to not be observed or judged.  In these far worlds they can be finally themselves, they can be understood and have real friends that, probably, share with them this thing (I really struggle to say “addiction”).

 

Much of the criticism that the documentary had to face is focused on the lack of insight into the healing method, therapeutic choices but, with the benefit of the doubt, it hasn't been really easy to shoot in a military hospital under close and forced surveillance and review. Tension during shooting in the presence of the camera is clearly palpable and even the psychologists, in those few moments when they got framed during counselling, they express themselves with the same ease as they are walking on eggshells.

 

This tension in the shooting also includes the mysterious professor/addiction specialist/mastermind of the camp Dr. Tan Ran who, in many pompous words, makes the main point of the problem quite evident: families are afraid to have a mental ill person at home, the Government fears that young people stop to be functional, do not communicate and reject social roles and relationships, to turn themselves into depressed and anxious adults who are actually useless to society, and something to be ashamed because of their non-productivity.

 

 

Both of the parts refuse to see reality: these teenagers feel deeply lonely, they distrust adults cutting any communication with them and, above all, they reject the Confucian vision of the family where fathers are always right just because they are your parents.

With their empty eyes these boys say: "I won't respect you if you won't hear me".

It's really heart breaking but I’m a romantic person and I would like to think that their games addiction is only their way to scream a giant NO.

The best: All the scenes during family therapy are truly powerful and they hit your guts. If you don’t feel that: sorry mate, you are heartless.

 

The worst: Consistent with her narrative choices, the director chooses again an anthropological approach focusing on the tormented protagonists and, purposely, leaving out even a minimal investigation to the massive Chinese videogames market.

Written by Valentina Zaccagnini.

 

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