Mr. Six

Movie started out well , then slowly went down hill until crashing horribly at the end.

This film has a big buildup but in the end it’s a huge disappointment.

Although Xiaogang is famous for being an excellent director, he is a fantastic actor in this movie. He and his son (Yifeng) brought out all the sweetness and bitterness in a very difficult father son relationship. They also depicted in details of the struggles for lower middle class. The movie reminds me much of Big Fish; both contained a sense of idealism inside a world fulfilled with realism.

The best of these genre, usually done with Gong Li in the lead have set a standard. This one misses on many levels. It's interesting because it is very Shanghai, including the unique dialect. It turns from a gangster film to a Japanese vs China film. Doesn't quite pull off its own ideas.