The Asian Sin City Guide is played by Colin Farrell Lord Doyle. An elegantly dressed man in gloves from Savile Row, who drinks Cristal champagne for breakfast, snacking on pancakes with caviar. The further into the forest, the more so we discover that the hero has little in common with noble originsand instead of walking on red carpets, they more often walk on the back staircases or emergency exits of hotels, casinos or restaurants.
Doyle is not only a gambling degenerate, but also a fraudfollowed by the specter of the past, represented by a mysterious woman in the flesh Tilda Swinton. She acts on behalf of a British client who was so charmed by the man’s charm that she inadvertently entrusted her savings to him. The only question is in which casino they were let go, because no one seems to have any doubts that this happened.
Thanks to the second important female character, the film also tries to be about gambling and trying to overcome addiction a story about spirituality. Doyle meets Dao Ming (played by Cheng Wave), or indeed, in a casino, when a woman offers him a loan to continue playing. This relationship, however, goes far beyond this point, and the heroine becomes a kind of moral compass for Doyle and a chance to correct his mistakes.
“The Ballad of a Small Card Player” after the rather frantic pace in the first part of the film, it noticeably slows down. The colors are also changing, becoming much more subdued. It’s a bit like getting a massage with Tibetan singing bowls after a techno party. Berger gives not only his hero, but also the viewer time for contemplation and reflection, only to find himself in the eye of the storm again.
“The Ballad of a Small Card Player” it works better as a dynamic, illustrative story what it really means to be in the grip of the addiction of gambling. Elaborate preparations before leaving, euphoria when crossing the threshold of the casino, wildness in the eyes at the gaming table, sounds of slot machines tempting with big winnings, inability to say “stop” and difficult mornings with a hangover, not only the moral one. It is a ritual repeated every day that pushes the hero into oblivion.
Sparkling with all the colors of the rainbow casino neon lights seem to be a promise of a better lifea new start, a chance for something more. In fact, they are a shell, leading to debts, loss of loved ones, and often even self-destruction. Berger, along with cinematographer James Friend and composer Volker Bertelmann, package it in a very attractive form, thanks to which you can understand why the world of gambling can be so tempting.
I’m definitely less convinced by the entire psychological component of the film. The use of Asian symbolism to illustrate, in fact, a very schematic, naive transformation of the hero. It’s not even about credibility, because that could be discussed, but about the fact that Doyle is becoming more and more predictable and therefore less interesting to the viewer. The curiosity and certain enigmaticity he built in the first part gradually evaporate. It doesn’t even help Colin Farrellwhich doubles and triples on the screen and is probably, next to Macau itself, the strongest point of the production.
“The Ballad of a Small Card Player” is an adaptation of the famous novel by Lawrence Osborne’and from 2014, recognized by The New York Times as one of the hundred most important books of the year. Berger’s film is unlikely to be placed on a similar list.
6/10
“The Ballad of a Small Card Player” (Ballad of a Small Player), dir. Edward Berger, Great Britain, Germany 2025, premiere: October 29, 2025 on Netflix.