User Reviews

I wanted to write a review just to let cinema goers know that this is a well made movie, with a lot to like about it - but action is not one of them - because quite simply there is none - ZERO. Now don't get me wrong, i love all sorted of Asian cinema, drama, action, martial arts and thriller, but i am sick & tired of being mislead. It shouldn't be in the category of action and whilst the trailers showed "glimpses and promises of knives, swords and a few sensational stare downs" thats where the action ends. It was actually very well paced for the first half, but there is a scene in which the movie comes to a grinding halt and never recovers. It is a movie about redemption, father & son relationships and Mr Six being a man of principle which is rarely found in today's society. It was beautifully shot and acted, but shame what started out promising so much at a decent pace ended up grinding to a halt and delivering none of the action it promises in description or in the trailer.

Not an action movie by any means but an interesting drama concerning traditional values versus new free-market attitudes seen from the perspective of an older criminal element trying to deal with the new-money, corruption-based variety.

The movie does a nice job of showing community life in the laid back old hutongs that still exist in Beijing and while the plot is a little slow it develops well. Since this film was designed to appeal to a domestic audience a lot of the nuance will be lost on foreigners. It emphasizes relationships, loyalty and honor in contrast to the quest for individual wealth, power and exaggerated regard of face. It also reinforces the notion that you can trust the Party to do the right thing but not the police.

Some ask "what's happened to Chinese cinema?" I guess the answer is that it is booming and delivering a wide variety of product. If you want a big budget action film with lots of CG you'll find it in Mo Jin - The Lost Legend. I enjoyed Lao Pao Er more though.

wow...the 2 hrs and change just flew by. i did'nt want this movie to end. this is a movie for people who love good movies. most of the people who dislike the movie were mislead into thinking it had some action in it. .......there is no action in this movie...not one iota.... it had suspenseful moments galore though. ex-gangsters and gangsters would totally dig this movie...hahaha...no joke. totally loved the scenes of normal Chinese life and there was a lot of that shown too. very very good suspense thriller movie with its own message to tell. old china clashes with new china head-on...who wins? watch the movie to find out...and people expecting any sort of action....stay away from this movie.

Chinese director Hu Guan joins my favourites list. In 'Mr Six' he created my favourite aging action character. A 60-year-old with respect in his community holds onto his strict principles as he tries to rescue his kidnapped son. That sounds as simple as 'Taken' but that would be like saying the moon is next to me. It's strong statement on the inequality of generations. It's flaw was the final scene needing to be shorter but otherwise an epic crime drama. It's disgusting that the New York Times gave it 4/10. I give it an 8, backed up by the 24 awards it won in Asia, including several festivals giving it Best Movie honour. It's appalling that it earned $1m in ticket sales in the USA versus $139m worldwide. The world has changed so much the past 5 years that I doubt that injustice would've happened if it had been released this year. I will seek his older 'Cow' and look forward to 'The Eight Hundred'later this year, coronavirus permitting.

This is a movie that has nostalgia written all over it. It utilizes elements of the traditional Chinese culture and combines it with modern issues. Essentially it is a tale of redemption between a neglectful father and a broken son, of how people we put down can have their own big story and of how modern society lacks the "rules" that define our actions.

The themes in the movie were intriguing (corruption, old gangs...), the premise of the story was promising but it just wasn't a well told story. The scenes dragged, the dialogue felt flat at times and all in all the movie easily lost the audience. This could be blamed on the unnatural pauses in the story telling, the weird cuts and mis-en-scene as well as the out of place soundtrack. It felt like the team behind this movie was pushing the 'artsy' tones a little too much and it all came out forced and fake.

A good film drags the audience in, makes the audience empathize and feel every raw emotion of the characters. In this film, the character I was moved by one character and it happens to be an unnamed ostrich. Jokes aside, the only female lead was played wonderfully by Xu Qing, the character worked because her actions felt real. The title character Mr. Six was played well by leading man Feng Xiaogang, but I couldn't help but feel he was 2D at times.

With cinematography of this standard, and this type of storyline the movie could not possibly attract the attention of the younger population. So, it decided to cast two of the hottest young actors, Wu Yifan and Li Yifeng. Voila! Teenage girls will go crazy! There's one down side though...they can't act! Wooden expressions, awkward delivery...sometimes the performances bordered ridiculous. Yes, there were a few shining moments but all in all the younger characters were a failure. Heck, they even got one of the most popular "teen idol" groups to make a cameo! What happened to movies being about acting...

The take-home message here is that this is a great idea squeezed inside a small container, it tried to be personal, but it wasn't, it tried to be epic, but it wasn't that either. It seemed like the ending of the film tried to be both...it ended up making me want to retreat into my seat and never come out again.

It's really difficult to review this film in a different language. In fact it's even tough to comprehend it for many Chinese who are distant from Peking for the reason that it entirely roots on the very local culture of Peking, of both yesterday and today.

The main theme, to me, is about the change of belief.

To many countries, the late half of the 20th century is a continuous of history. But in China, things are opposite. There was no much difference from North Korea till 1980s. But now it's more Capitalism than any genuine Capitalism countries. The old generation, including the Mr. Six, was born in the North Korea - like era. Although brainwashed by propaganda daily, what these former Peking boys value most are something traditional, the loyalty to friends and the courage to risk life for friends. They are really man, of great dignity, and will not bow down for money.

The young generation, born in 1990s or 2000s, grew up in a totally different era. Peking, along other major cities of China, spent the last 20 years to become metropolitans cannot be differentiated from New York by appearance. The lifestyle of many Peking youth is in close association with alcohol, pub, racing cars. Also ironically, a significant portion of these playboys are descendants of those high rank communists who intended to shape the country to the 2nd USSR. Consequently, the belief of the younger generation, the worship of money and power, is totally different from the former.

The film is of plenty vanishing features of old Peking, like the Peking alleys or so called Hu Tong, the parrot in the cage, and the last scene, a remarkable stamp of those heroic boys in 1970s who fight with Katanas (collections of high rank communist from Sino-japan war) and green woolen coats.

I didn't expect to like this movie. The premise sounded dull and Feng Xiaogang was always known as a director rather than an actor. So imagine my surprise when I thought to myself after the credits rolled that wow, this is definitely one of my favorites of 2015.

I love everything about it, I am familiar with Guan Hu as I have watched two of his films which I also liked and I thought this would be the first movie of his that I would hate. Turns out it'd be one of his best.

Mr Six is not meant to be a hero or a sympathetic character even. He's an old guy set in his ways and stubborn to a great fault. Which is why the ending was fitting in all its symbolic glory.

The character that really stayed with me was Xiao Fei, the spoiled brat turned sympathetic kid who looks up to the values of old and yearns for a father's attention. The interesting thing about this movie was that it also had the story of a father and son but the more compelling story was the one between a father and another man's son.

I would recommend this movie to anyone. Brilliant and well-executed filmmaking.

A so-so movie about some Chinese old farts who failed to adapt themselves into the ever changing, rapidly deteriorating environment and social structure in China, especially the horrible turn-out of Beijing. This film signed up the famous and controversial director as the leading character, an old fart that got nothing to do everyday, but hold and hanging a bird cage, walking around to deal with some injustice happened daily in that part of the Capital. An old fart who had a dark background and history when he was young, a widower with a rebellious son who didn't respect at all but despise him. The animosity and misunderstanding between father and son finally clashed and tested when the young one involved in a trouble, and his old fart father had tried to solve it with his old but die-hard rigid moral principles originated from his mobster time when he was young.

The whole movie was stretched too long just for the purpose of allowing these Beijing old farts to deliver some wise-cracking dialog that made the old Beijing people so self-important and so self-pompous, considering themselves a notch higher than the other people living outside of the Capital city. The wise-cracking dialog had stretched so thin that sometimes really needed your patience to sit tight to watch. The storyline and the scenarios involved lot of unnecessary sub-plots to patch up the whole somehow very hollow and weak story. It totally relied on this actor/director to deliver most of the pointless dialog. At first, the leading character gave you an impression that he indeed could talk the talk and walk the walk, but then, suddenly his obnoxious attitude and his toughness surrendered to his physical conditions, with heart disease. An old fart, tough with his mouth but scared to death to surgery and the small scalpels to be used in his surgery.

The storyline later turned out to be more ridiculous when he tried to meet the gangsters from the other side. So pretentious gestures in his preparation before the final encounter: shaving his hairs, putting up an old green military long coat, long boots and then, taking out a Japanese Katana, riding a bike through the Beijing streets, with an escaped ostrich aside all along.....These, are all parts of the prolonged to the extreme unnecessary scenes, so overly contrived to certain unbearable limit. And then, what we got is nothing but mucho thunders, not even thunderbolts, albeit rains.

This movie is just too Chinese to be appreciated by any other country's viewers. Even to the Chinese who did not grow up in Beijing would have a quite tough time to sit through the whole nine yards if the dialog in Chinese didn't keep interpreting with ( ) to make them understandable. A very contrite and pretentious, sometimes even quite shallow movie. Not too bad, but definitely not great either. Watchable, but need some patience to sit through.

The atmosphere of nostalgia is good, and the male performances are good. Unfortunately, the plot deviates from reality, the rhythm is protracted and loose, and there are no ups and downs. It is inevitable that such morality and rules will be eliminated by reality.

In "Mr Six", we see the urban life of modern day Beijing; we see how some of its older resident (Lao Bei Jing) are struggling to adjust to the rapidly changing city; we see strained father -son relationships put under even more stress by the accelerated generational transition. But most of all, we see an aging anti-hero, well past his prime and caged in by values deemed old- fashion and unsuited for the new world, trying to set himself free. The main characters are as much as Mr Six as the city of Beijing itself. And both the film's director and Mr Feng, the director-turned-actor who played the leading role, did a good job in portraying both.

This is wanna be Old Boy but is flawed on so many levels. Ridiculous plot, silly acting and completely hamfisted attempt at trying to convey old school honour vs the decaying corruption of youth in modern day China.

So bad...

Mr. Six was a Beijing crime boss who still has the respect of his hood despite being long retired, but he gets back into the game when his son gets into some trouble, owing rich privilege kids some money.

It's not as action packed as I thought it would be from the plot line, Yet it's still very appealing as if you are watching an action movie.

It's a lot like Unforgiven, as Mr. Six spends the film trying to reconnect with old ties in order to help his son. It was interesting seeing him handle himself ageist a foe that does not care about his past. The actor who played Mr. Six was very successful in his low key style of acting.

It was funny and charming and dramatic perfectly at the same time.

2 hours to tell Chinese people it's ok to snitch. Great.

Epic, of a slow burn kind of epic which does not rely on empty coolness. Unnecessary long, but which I did not regret having seen (while I would like to get back the time lost with the super cool, super empty, super onanistic exercise of style of Hateful Eight). It has does not excel in any aspect, it is no unforgettable masterpiece, but it touches all the right chords, with its imperfection, with its mah moments, but steadily, with no hurry, no noxious Hollywood bullying narcissistic superiority.

Do not let you fool by the synopsis. This is no "Taken" (thanks God!). It is not "if you will not let my son go I will find you and I will kill you". There is no trace of the typical American megalomaniac testosteronic super-cool hyper-heroism. There is just "an ordinary citizen", who totally ordinary is not. Because he can teach a few values, although he is an ex gangster.

And I am not old enough to complain about the society of "today". But I felt it very real, his complaints, the portrait he gives of our empty times...

I am having a hard time finding good movies. Stupid comedies, depressive drama, empty boom boom, hyper-sentimental moralistic bonbons, hyper-sadistic horrors, hyper-intellectual blabla... It seems that our society faces a severe lack of contents, and must put loads of extra sugar, extra salt, extra oil and energy, following the motto of Advertisings, "if you have nothing to say, say it loud".

Whatever I watch, it is boring. This was not.

I had no idea what this movie was about or seen any of the trailers before going into this film so it really was quite a pure experience. From the first scene I was looking forward to the story and the rest of the movie.

Unfortunately what I experienced instead was a terrible movie going experience that I don't think has been or will be bested. If I wasn't with others I would have walked out about halfway through.

What's wrong with this movie? Where do I begin? Scenes that should be short are drawn out for no reason at all. There are shots and plot elements they spend heaps of time on and turn into absolutely nothing. The story is so simple that you could write it in 2 sentences and yet they make you think its some great and amazing thing they have concocted.

I think it does appeal to Chinese people a lot though since it has many famous stars in it. But if you look past that and just try to see it as a movie it is truly a great disaster.

The worst part of all was the ending. No meaning behind it, extremely forced, no emotion. What happened to Chinese cinema? I cry every time when watching Hero and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Now I have to put up with movies like this. 2 hours felt like 2 weeks.

In reality it probably is a 3/10 but since there are obviously so many fake ratings and hype I wish I could give it a 0/10.

This movie is really a cultural thing and it's for the people that grew in Beijing. Gladly, I am. Even a lot of Chinese people can't understand it since it contains a lot of Beijing dialect. As a guy born in Beijing and lived there for 15 years. I can't understand all the dialect in the movie. So it is impossible for foreigners to have a perfect experience on this movie since the dialect is the part that makes it a good movie (unless you're really good at Chinese and actually lived in Beijing for many years).

Although I admit there is some bad acting choice or bad filming, but it is a realistic represent of those Beijing "Lao Pao er". It appeals a lot to Chinese. Right now, we're losing a lot of these dialect and culture, this movie is about help us to recollect those tradition.

My advise is: Don't watch it. If you are interested in it and going to watch it, take it easy, don't have any thoughts like "this movie is gonna be amazing" before you watch it. The target consumers is Chinese (and mainly some of the Chinese). Asking foreigners to truly understand this movie is like asking a man to use a sanitary napkin.

I have watch this repeatedly, storyline on point, I recommend this one

Another movie where a way of life adds just as much to the tale itself . Honour above all else for the main character , as simple as it is difficult for all to achieve . Great movie a must watch really . Recommended .

Surprised at the high ratings as that was a poorly written, vastly drawn out story, super slow and filled with overdone tropes.

It was shot cinematically beautiful in many scenes but this failed to add much to the film.

The story is bland and the acting is subpar. It felt like a lot of the movie was just flashing around expansive cars that doesn't do anything for the film.

This film tried really hard to be mimic movies like No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, but fails to do so as the plot/costume/acting just wasn't there.

I wouldn't waste time on this movie...there are much better films out there.

Starring one of the most well-known and bankable Chinese movie directors Feng Xiaogang, the sixth-generation film director Guan Hu's 8th feature MR. SIX is a modern-day "wuxia" fantasy, set in Beijing, Mr. Six (Feng) is a middle-aged widower from a hoodlum background, the film's Chinese title "lao pao er" is the patois of "an old gangster", a resident in one of the city's remaining hutong areas. When his only son Xiaobo (Li) is embroiled in the ruction with a local drag race gang of gilded youth, whose leader Xiaofei (Wu) holds Xiaobo as a hostage for scraping his Enzo Ferrari, it is up to Mr. Six to square up the score, but can he? considering his old-school rules of right and wrong is very much out of touch with the city's burgeoning modernity and the bumptious next generation (represented by both Li and Wu, as the emergent heartthrobs whose acting skills are constantly being questioned, but here they come off fine).

Obviously Mr. Six has a glorious past which he can wallow in, believes that there is honor among gangsters, and bemoans the declension of the younger generation, he can still hold sway among his friends and cohorts (a prologue and his intercession with a local police officer make clear that he still retains a certain degree....

continue reading my review on my blog: cinema omnivore

Pretty nice to watch, it mixes both the seriousness and the hardship of a local beijing person's life. The message is strong, the director skills are not bad.