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A sweaty, velvet-suited Colin Farrell runs panicked through humid, neon-lit Macau, stalked by Tilda Swinton disguised as a tacky tourist and yelled at in Cantonese by locals – such is the intense, somewhat surreal energy of Ballad of a Small Player, a new film that begins streaming on Netflix this week. Set and filmed in Macau, the fast-paced psychological thriller drags us from posh casino floors to dodgy back alleys through the eyes of Lord Doyle (Farrell), an aristocrat drinking expensive liquor and playing baccarat like there is no tomorrow – all while sporting a flashy wardrobe. As the story unravels, so does Doyle, who seems to be running from both his own demons and a troubled past. In an interview with the Post, Farrell described the character as “incredibly erratic, very deceitful and always looking over his shoulder”. “From the [moment] we meet him until the very last frame of the film, he is suffering under the weight of extraordinary stress, anxiety and a really profound, misguided sense of self and the world around him,” he said. “He doesn’t have any answers for the questions he doesn’t even know he’s asking, but he is asking. He’s looking for meaning in all the wrong places.” The production itself mirrored these high stakes. Many gambling scenes were shot guerrilla-style in live Macau casinos – including The Venetian, The Londoner and the Four Seasons – with extras surrounded by real patrons. When Doyle is not betting on cards – perhaps drinking, talking about gambling, or en route to another casino – we glimpse Macau’s grandiose facade and dazzling lights. But the film also peeks beneath the surface of obscene wealth as Doyle ventures into the old town around the fictional Rainbow Casino, visiting fishermen’s Taoist temples and run-down Portuguese colonial-era buildings. The visual concept was “very much inspired by Macau and its colourfulness, exoticness and humidity”, director Edward Berger said, explaining that it made the perfect setting for the unhinged protagonists to fall apart and put themselves together again. “But also the interior craziness that Lord Doyle goes through – the paranoia, the schizophrenia and his falling apart … I always take visual clues from the main character’s state of mind,” he added. For example, the cyberpunk-esque scene of Doyle’s first time entering Rainbow Casino represents “a descent into hell and a fear of entering this space”, captured with “trippy lights” and a slowly rotating camera. Berger often planned things with cinematographer James Friend to ensure the shots mirrored the character’s internal state. “To me, the main goal of these types of movies – or the movies I love – is to take me by the throat, take me by the lapel and drag me through the emotional state with our heroes,” Berger said. “That’s what I always enjoy. I want to have an experience in the movie theatre, and that’s what we try to achieve. “When he sweats, the audience has to sweat; when his heart goes quickly, the audience’s heart has to go quickly; when he is afraid, they have to be afraid. That dictates the visual language.” Berger, whose 2022 film All Quiet on the Western Front won four Oscars, including for best international feature film, adapted his latest film from Lawrence Osbourne’s 2014 novel of the same name. He first picked up a copy of the book from producer Mike Goodridge, with whom he had been developing the project for years, before principal photography began in mid-2024. While Berger “loved [the book] immediately” because “you’re really with the main character the whole time”, he also felt the need to depart from it, adding elements of danger and pressure. “We stayed true to the core and essence of the story, but the structure and plot are quite invented,” Berger said. “A book … can be much more internal, atmospheric, contemplative, philosophical; but this is a movie, so it has to be different [and] create tension.” For instance, Tilda Swinton’s Cynthia Blithe, a private investigator from England undercover as a lousy tourist, is new. Fala Chen’s Dao Ming, meanwhile, was given a new profession as a casino broker. Berger said that Blithe and Dao Ming represent different paths for Doyle: one to the past, and one to the future. Both have a moral streak and develop sympathy for Doyle as well as ambiguous romantic connections to him. Dao Ming is a woman from mainland China who moved to Macau and Hong Kong for a better life. Through her, we are shown the insides of the slums of Macau and a houseboat in Hong Kong, where Farrell’s character goes on the run from where he initially went on the run. “For the hour and 41 minutes of running time, the only moments of peace [Doyle] really finds are with Dao Ming and going back to the houseboat that she lives on sometimes,” Farrell said. “It was a kind of reprieve from his anxiety and the lies he’s been living within, and allowed him the grace of a moment’s honesty with her.” Shooting in Hong Kong, including on this houseboat near Lamma Island, took two and a half weeks in 2024. The scenes filmed capture Doyle going off the rails in locations ranging from a hotel overlooking Victoria Harbour to a desolate beach in the city’s New Territories, from where Shenzhen is visible across the mainland Chinese border. Filming in Macau and Hong Kong was “a great experience”, Berger said. He brought over crew members from All Quiet on the Western Front, but most of the newer ones were from Hong Kong. “We took great pains with the local crew and our collaborators to understand [the local life],” Berger said. “Obviously, I come from Germany and was brought up in a very different culture, so I try to understand and be truthful to what it feels like to live in Macau.” In the opening and closing credits, traditional Chinese translations of cast and crew names appear next to the English, reminiscent of old Hong Kong films. Asked if this pays tribute to Hong Kong cinema, Berger said the decision came naturally. “It sets us immediately into a world that we in the West don’t know as well and [puts] Colin Farrell immediately in a place where he’s out of his depth. “Also, I was heavily influenced by directors such as Johnnie To [Kei-fung], Hou Hsiao-hsien and Wong Kar-wai, so if any of that finds its way into the movie, then that makes me very happy.” Ballad of a Small Player will start streaming on Netflix on October 29. Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook
