How Netflix’s Ballad of a Small Player with Colin Farrell was inspired by Macau, Hong Kong

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.”