louloulou318 The film tried its best to give the audiences a good taste of real Beijing. Beijing was the Capital of the most powerful empire for about 500 to 600 years. The old China was invaded and then developed by the Party. Somehow something haven't been changed in this historical city -- people keep all their promises and strangers trust each other.Everyone behave morally so that regulation and laws were almost not useful. But culture changed in recent decades, the new generation learned a lot from the outside world and people become materialistic and greedy. The thing that is commonly appreciated today is love between lovers. While 2200 years ago Confucius educated every Chinese that people should always love each other. So that everyone is trusted, everyone's feeling is being considered. It is an idea towards an idea world.Mr Six is a man having warm heart to everyone, it is like love to everyone, he kept all his promises but still he got hurt by the current world. By having Mr Six dead, the film want us know that good things,especial trust between people, no matter it is about Beijing, about China, or even about western world, are dying.

bcheng93 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.

altersaege 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.

er-24005 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.