As part of the ongoing festival of Chinese cinema in Russia, he watched the crime drama “Mr. Six” on the big screen.
This is a picture from 2015, directed by Guan Hu, shown at the Venice Film Festival at the same time and received the award in the nomination “Best Director” of the National Directors Guild of China.
In the main role in the film starred Feng Xiaogang.
This film is a good crime drama, as well as a story about the eternal theme of the change of generations, the problem of fathers and children. For the East in general and China in particular, with its more than two thousand years of Confucian tradition, this topic is especially important. Now we move on to the film itself. Its main character is an elderly already firmly downed man nicknamed “Mr. Six” (probably still – Six), a modest authority of a district scale. He was once a tough street fighter and a local gang starter. But as the years passed, former militants left the streets for offices, shops and almshouses. The sixth modestly lives out his century, slowly “resolves” all sorts of small conflicts, eats noodles, feeds a bird in a cage, has a long-standing affair with a local “businesswoman” and also has a sick heart. And suddenly he learns that his son, with whom he has not spoken for a long time, is in serious trouble. And then he tries to help his son. And here we see familiar from many films the theme of the confrontation between criminals of the “old school”, for whom there are still some rules, and young brazen scumbags. For Six, the world is simple. Yeah, he's a commoner and almost an ex-bandit. But there are rules for him, too. Respect for seniors, proportionality of retaliation, etc. And finally, he has to start collecting his old friends.
It's a very curious movie. A mixture of a piece of good old Hong Kong criminal fighters, family drama, even parables. And this picture kind of reminds me of Takeshi Kitano's recent film about the old yakuza. You might also remember some of Aronofsky’s works and one of John Wayne’s last westerns.
Six is very colorful. And it goes all the way. It does not change in this changing world. That's his weakness and his strength. At the same time, closer to the end of the picture there is one very curious and correct moment. When an old criminal explains to a young boy why he did something very unexpected. It’s also a very beautiful movie in some places. That's how the Chinese like to shoot.
Overall, it’s a worthy film. I recommend it!