A series of suicides happen. Detective Chi and Kiki find out that all the dead persons visited Death.net, where the web master encourages suicidal tendencies.-----Policeman Ted Chan, who doesn't have the best record on the force for cracking cases, suffers from flashbacks after witnessing the suicide of pregnant Irene who dramatically leaps from the roof of her apartment after dousing herself in petrol. When there are two similar deaths in their district, Inspector Yip asks Ted to solve the mystery. The connection is that the victims were all avid users of ICQ and frequently visited the same website. Ted and his colleague Gigi discover that the webmaster is called "God of Death" and that through his chatrooms he encourages his community to commit suicide. While Gigi arranges a meeting with the webmaster, also known as Keith, Ted finds that Inspector Yip has encouraged a young officer to shoot himself in the police toilets.Deathnet.com's direction looks routine but the film is at least crisp and clean. One suicide scene is particularly well staged. An interesting aspect sees the filmmakers mention social impacts of the Internet, technology and online chatting programs in Hong Kong--a recurring theme that crops up every now and then. Students spending less time speaking to parents, people turning to the 'net to score dates and video cameras installed at home (to catch maids slacking off) are depicted in passing.
