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Mr Six aka Lao Pao Er [老炮儿] is a Chinese crime film starring Feng Xiaogang in the leading role, alongside Li Yifeng and Kris Wu Yifan as the younger counterparts within an otherwise strong cast. Here is a quick review.
Feng Xiaogang is "Mr Six", an ageing gangster who currently leads a quiet life in a small town, is respected amongst the locals and barely communicates with his only son due to an estranged relationship. Things change when word gets out that his son Xiao Bo (Li Yifeng) is in trouble and kidnapped by a gang of street car racers who happen spoilt youngsters who thrive from their parents' wealth. Pulling himself out of retirement, Mr Six throws himself into doing whatever it takes to save his son, finding whatever means to repay Xiao Fei (Wu Yifan) for the damage Xiao Bo caused.
In addition to reflecting on his old principles as a past fighter and pondering on whether violence is really the answer (alongside bribing), Mr Six is somebody who makes a strong observation on the generation gap, the difference in how the youngsters handle trouble and violence. Is this something that rings rather true in reality? Perhaps it does. Of course Mr Six is not a perfect human being by any means, not with his past troubles. There is a rawness with these characters that you don't really notice at first but as you go along you notice it, especially with the older cast. They make the bond of the Mr Six gang. You feel it with the actors.
What is also interesting is how you notice there are certain traits that pull back on a stereotyping of the youngsters here, which makes room for character development. That to me is what makes Mr Six work overall. You think they are one particular type of person though you find there is more to them. Wu Yifan managed to justify Xiao Fei and for a secondary antagonist role he does it well. He's so cold and calculating, smoking on his cigarette casually but there are moments where you would think, "what are you hiding?" Even Li Yifeng manages to make Xiao Bo flawed and we learn more about him over time. Right next to the old gang reflections, the theme of a restrained father and son relationship is also included.
There is slight empathy when I see how the older generation observe the younger ones with particular disdain because I do have similar ideals, even though I'm nowhere near the same age as the seniors. That being said, Mr Six is a journey into the mindset of a once fighter who tries to work out how the new youth function but also hold on to who he was back in the day. The trailers are perhaps rather misleading into making you believe this film will have nothing but violence, car races and sex. Upon watching the film in its entirety Mr Six thankfully is not over the top in these things and is in fact quite tame, appropriate for its 15 rating here in the UK. If the film were to have nothing but frolicking and extreme savagery through fist fighting, Mr Six would be plotless and dull. The last 'battle' scene will naturally require the viewers to use their imagination on what happened to everyone before the end credits rolling and the final scenes that follow, though they might be rather easy to work out.
Little, amusing things to notice while watching
- Mr Six's friendship with the bird and the ostrich
- Xiao Fei's hair colours
- Mr Six not being able to catch up with the times (regarding the car mention)
- The subtitles keep putting Wu Yifan's character as Kris rather than Xiao Fei. It's hard to take this seriously while watching the film
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