Film | Mr Six closes Venice Film Festival with reflection on mainland’s transformations

The Venice International Film Festival ended at the Lido of Venice on Saturday with Chinese closing film Mr. Six (Lao Pao Er), directed by Guan Hu and with a talented cast led by Feng Xiaogang.
Mr. Six centers on a once notorious streetwise hoodlum named Mr Six, played by Feng Xiaogang, who lives a lonely existence in a Beijing hutong behind a small convenience store that he owns. Diagnosed with heart disease, he still reminisces about the good old days.
In an interview with Xinhua, Guan highlighted the reasons why he decided to tell this story of family, camaraderie and nostalgia, a tribute to the old values which China’s society used to uphold and that should be even more important in modern society.
“Every director has some good stories in his heart, and this is one of them. I was born in Beijing and this is a story that portrays the people and places that I grew up with,” Guan said.
In fact before turning 12, Guan lived in a traditional Beijing hutong without his parents around.
“The change undergone by China in the 30 years since I started high school until today is equivalent to the change undergone by Europe in 100 years,” Guan noted.
“Of course such a fast change bears some problems. In the course of development people have forgotten important things, and especially traditional values,” he added.
In Guan’s story, Mr Six’s son, played by Li Yifeng, never got along with his old father and moved out a long time ago. But one day, the young boy is taken by a group of rich kids after scratching one of their fancy cars. Their leader, played by Kris Wu, is the son of a powerful official.
On his son’s behalf, Mr Six tries to reason with them but gets humiliated instead. Enraged by the group’s lack of customary traditions, he finally erupts in a fury and strikes back with all his strength, defending not only his own dignity, but the dignity of a generation long past.
“I think the generation gap is one on the big problems brought by social change,” Guan stated. However, different generations can co-exist despite conflicting views and beliefs through the building of mutual understanding and dialogue explored by Guan in his story.
Mr Six was key to the entire production, and Feng, a respected director-turned-actor in the film, said he was gratified at being chosen to be part of the cast.
“I felt that this role was close to my real self, as I met many people like Mr Six in my life. I am not a professional actor, so that I could only give a personal interpretation to my role,” Feng explained to Xinhua. The work was demanding, he pointed out.
Feng also said he was helped in the filmmaking process by his young fellow actor, Li, who managed just fine with the role of a cynical kid who does not understand and rebels against his father, but deep down inside still considers him as his closest person in the world.
“I learnt a lot from the collaboration experience with these two great directors, which incites me into making more and more efforts in the future to become a good actor,” Li, a young singer and actor who achieved fame in 2007 on the popular My Hero TV talent show, told Xinhua.
Li also learnt something from his character.
“It is a good thing that young generation have their own ideas and dreams,” he said. “But at the same time we should treasure the good values passed down to us by our forefathers,” he underlined.
An actor, Li stressed, like any other professional has the social responsibility to make a positive influence and remind society of good values that everyone should embrace.
Talking about Mr Six in an interview with Xinhua, the Venice International Film Festival’s director Alberto Barbera explained the reasons why Mr Six was chosen to close the festival.
Among China’s commercial films, Barbera noted, there are also interesting artistic ones exploring new roads.
He said Mr Six was a commercial film but “with strong original elements” and “a capacity to reflect on the transformations of China’s society, both its old and contemporary values.” Marzia De Giuli and Ge Chen, Xinhua