January 7, 2016
We watched the movie Lao Paoer (aka Mr. Six) this evening.
Before I watched it, I already received all kinds of the reviews, both positive
and negative, which pushed my expectation very high. (By January 5th,
the movie has been on for 12 days, and the total box office is ￥700 million.*)
So as a professional drinker, I prepared beers, and my friend
prepared chips and salami. With excitement, we entered the theatre earlier than
anyone else.
On imbd.com, it says the story line of this movie is “A former
Beijing crime boss swings back into action when his son is kidnapped by thugs.”
So here’s the story, the son Xiao Bo/Bobby who is plays by Li
Yifeng, goes to a night club and messes up with a pretty girl, but the girl has
a boyfriend Xiao Fei/Kris who is played by Wu Yifan, then Bobby scatches Kris’
most expensive Ferrari, so Kris kidnaps Bobby. Liu Ye/Mr. Six (is played by
Feng Xiaogang) was a Beijingese thug who went to the prison several times, and
at present he wanders around hutong and is doing nothing. Mr. Six goes to Kris’
place and tries to save his son, and has a deal with Kris that three days
later, he will bring ￥100,000
and get his son back. He goes back and borrows around, when he shows up with
the bunch of money, his old friend tries to fix the scratches by painting some
cheap paints on that totally ruins the car. To fix this problem, Kris and Mr.
Six have a deal again, to have a battle at summer palace.
Surprisingly, Kris’ girlfriend drives Bobby to Mr. Six’s girlfriend (Chatterbox)’s place (is played by Xu Qing) and gives them a bag with money and several envelopes in there. To most of people, that would be it. But Mr. Six’s home was broke in, the bird was killed, Mr. Six and his son were hit by a group of people. When Mr. Six’s friend Scrapper leads a group of teenagers to smash Kris’ place, Kris calls them, claiming that there’s something very important in one of the envelopes, if they bring the envelope back, then the cost of repainting the car will be written off. Chatterbox checks the envelope, and finds it is a bank statement, there are 7million euros in Kirs’ account, which inclines his father is a corrupt governor. But Mr. Six talks to Kris later, and decides to fix this problem in Beijingese way—by group fighting. He gets all his old-time friends by saying he has cancer, and wants to meet them for the last time. He sends out the envelope to the government (yes, he breaks his words). On the fighting day, he brightens his katana (Japanese sword), wears his best woolen coat, throws his insurance to Chatterbox and rides from Houhai to Summer Palace (I googled it, it’s 17km!). When he arrives, Kris is with his guards (more than 20 people). Mr. Six holds his katana high, and walks towards them through the frozen late. But he has a heart attack, and finally falls down. At the end, his son opens a bar as he wishes (maybe using his insurance indemnity), and on the news Kris’ father is arrested.
(Kris, played by Wuyifan)
In my opinion, the castings are good, Feng Xiaogang himself is a
famous director in China, Zhang Hanyu as Scrapper shows the masculine figure
well. Even Wu Yifan who plays Kris, with too much botox on his face but still
plays a good role as a rich spoiled boy. But whenever he is on the screen, I
couldn’t stop from thinking about some Korean romantic soap opera. The most
disappointing character is Bobby (is played by Li Yifeng), he should be a local
Beijinger, and talks with strong Beijing accent since he grows in hutong area
of Beijing, but he has strong accent of south China which is incompatible with
others.
About the music aspect, when Mr. Six is walking on the frozen
lake, the music is so inspiring. I can see everyone in the theatre wants him to
win or at least kill several “bad guys”. But he falls on the ice, and doesn’t wake
up.
As the lines, almost every two lines have some f-word, as well
as some local Beijing dialects which even the locals rarely use. It feels like
the director tries to stuff all the old street sayings into the lines, which
makes the whole movie very strange and not smooth enough. It’s just “too much”,
deliberately.
The director wants to tell the story of the former thugs, in
that generation, they experienced the Cultural Revolution, and they killed
people and went to the prison. When they were released, they found everything
changed. The rules of the world are no longer the same as before, so they are
confused, and start wandering. In their 50s, they don’t understand this world,
they don’t understand the young people, and they don’t understand anything but
holding with their former routines, i.e. walking with the bird, drinking
Erguotou (baijiu) at a dirty and small restaurant, never listen to doctors.
Based on the story, Mr. Six and his clan screw up everything—ruin the expensive
Ferrari, smash Kris’ place, indirectly cause his son ending up at the hospital
with cerebral concussion, and make himself dead by heart attack. At the
beginning, the police wants to arrest Mr. Six’s friend, because he breaks the
police car. And Mr. Six stands out and “settles the case”. But in reality, I
don’t think in any country a regular person has the right to settle it or beat
up the policeman. He ignores the law, despises modern medicine, and he doesn’t
want to keep up with the pace of the society. Mr. Six values his own
disciplines over law. Just like what John C. Maxwell says in his book Ethics
101, “Everyone has his own standards, which change from situation to
situation.” Kevin Rollins, president of the Dell Computer Corporation, was
asked about the role of ethics in business, he paraphrased Russian dissident
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who said, "I've lived my life in a society where
there was no rule of law. And that's a terrible existence. But a society where
the rule of law is the only standard of ethical behavior is equally bad."
Rollins asserts, "Solzhenitsyn said that if the United States only aspires
to a legal standard of moral excellence, we will have missed the point. Man can
do better. I thought that was a nice comment on the ethics of companies that
say, 'Well, legally, it was just fine.' We believe you have to aspire to
something higher than what's legal. Is what you're doing right?" In the
movie, Mr. Six thinks he is doing the “right thing”, but he is against the law,
let alone the modern rules.
I have to say the whole story is lack of logic, and the director
should expect the audience who doesn’t have Beijing complex to understand it. Just
as what Megginson L.C. said, “Change is the basic law of nature.” I just want
to say, Mr. Six, stand up and face the reality, you must change and fit the modern
society.
I understand that this movie arises some resonance of the
audiences who were born and raised in Beijing, i.e. “Xuanwu district doesn’t
exist anymore.” And “I don’t understand the new generation.” and Beijing is no
longer the same Beijing as before. Maybe the phenomenon of Mr. Six generation is
fading, as well as the traditional disciplines (the way to ask for direction,
you have to show respect and say Hello, Sir. The way to toast, you have to put
your cup lower than others when clinking). But still, it’s not a bad movie for
people to understand Beijing locals’ life, except for the fighting part.
To drink with this movie, I recommend Baijiu. Because no beer is
strong enough to balance the Mafia tone in the movie, not even Snake Venom
(which is 67.5% of ABV). With the strong aromas and high percentage of alcohol,
Baijiu fits the Beijing complex which the director Guan Hu wants to express. So
after watching the movie, my friend and I rushed to the nearest izakaya and had
a bottle of sake. Even though sake is too gentle and mild to match this movie,
the warmness of sake is still better than the cold beers in winter time.
More information about Lao Paoer, please check imdb,
*the numbers are from ent.com, more details,
http://ent.163.com/16/0105/07/BCI3R3BE000300B1.html
Pictures are from douban.com
