The Netflix movie has raised many questions; there’s an official interpretation, but it can also be explained in a different way: let’s analyze Ballad of a Small Player.
Watching Ballad of a Small Player feels like observing a fascinating puzzle unfold before your eyes. The solution doesn’t seem impossible to find — if you pay close attention, the film offers several clues that lead toward a seemingly logical explanation, and you might think you’ve figured it all out halfway through. But when the movie reaches its ending, you realize that those clues are contradictory and can actually lead to two completely different interpretations of the story.
So, naturally, the first thing you think of doing is finding out what the film’s director has to say about it. And we’re in luck: Edward Berger has answered some key questions from Netflix Tudum about how Ballad of a Small Player can be explained. However, uncertainties remain — it’s not possible to be sure that Berger has covered the full range of possibilities, and there are several other details that can’t be ignored, which might lead to a very different interpretation of the film.
So today we’re diving into every detail. Follow along.
The plot of Ballad of a Small Player
In Ballad of a Small Player, we follow the turbulent story of Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell), a gambling addict who finds himself broke in Macau, hunted by creditors and a private investigator (Tilda Swinton) determined to report him to the British police for a major theft he committed some time ago. Lord Doyle believes he’s simply going through a temporary streak of bad luck and is desperately looking for a line of credit to rise from his downfall.
We see him enter a casino in the first part of the film, where he faces off against “Grandma,” a ruthless gambler who seems to have a guiding spirit helping her win. Doyle, in fact, loses his last remaining money to her — but in that same moment, he meets Dao Ming (Fala Chen), a mysterious figure who offers credit to gamblers like him. There’s an apparent connection between them: they’re both lost souls. Yet Dao Ming isn’t entirely sure she wants to grant Doyle the amount of credit he’s asking for.
The two spend the night getting to know each other. They end up sitting together on a beach across the coast of Macau. Lord Doyle wakes up alone, with a strange number written on his hand — Dao Ming has disappeared.
Meanwhile, deadlines are closing in, and Doyle is forced to go into hiding, running from both the law and his debts. At the peak of his crisis, he walks into a high-end restaurant, orders an absurd number of expensive dishes, and tries to run off before paying — but he fails. Out of nowhere, Dao Ming reappears and saves him. Doyle has a heart attack right there at the table. He wakes up a few days later on Dao Ming’s houseboat, and over the next few days, she shares her story with him.
Once again, Dao Ming disappears. Doyle notices a padlock securing a door outside the houseboat and tries the combination written on his hand. Behind that door, he finds an enormous stash of money that Dao Ming had saved over her lifetime. She had told him that the number on his hand was a test — but Doyle sees nothing more than his chance to rise again. He takes all the money, returns to Macau, and starts gambling once more. Miraculously, Lord Doyle can’t stop winning. He earns enough to pay off his debts and settle every outstanding account.
In the end, Doyle wants to return the money to Dao Ming — but he can’t find her. Instead, he runs into the grandma, who offers him one last side bet. He refuses, saying that the money belongs to Dao Ming. That’s when the grandma reveals a shocking truth: Dao Ming has been dead for several days. Doyle can’t understand how that’s possible, since he’s spent time with her several times in the past few days. Eventually, he accepts that Dao Ming no longer belongs to this world. He burns the money he owes her, symbolically returning it to her in the afterlife — and leaving the audience uncertain about what was real and what was imagined.
Now, let’s look at the two possible ways the plot of Ballad of a Small Player’s can be explained.
Explanation no. 1: the ghost of Dao Ming
The first possible explanation is the one supported by the film’s director, Edward Berger, in this article published on Netflix Tudum. According to this interpretation, the events can be explained in a linear way: yes, Dao Ming was indeed dead the night she spent with Lord Doyle. Before taking her own life, she leaves Doyle the combination to the lock that opens the door to her money.
Everything that happens afterward is the result of Dao Ming’s ghost guiding Lord Doyle’s life. It’s her ghost that shows him the way to her houseboat. It’s her ghost that tells him her story and gives him the opportunity to claim her money. And when Doyle returns to Macau, he truly has a protective ghost behind him — a presence that allows him to win every hand he plays.
The clues supporting this explanation are clear. The film actually shows another character with a similar story: the grandma, who continues to win because she is guided by spirits. The film’s structure holds up. Dao Ming’s ghost appears to save Lord Doyle at the restaurant. We see the scene where Doyle imagines talking to Dao Ming, but in reality, he is alone.
The heart attack is real. Doyle survives, but what happens next? He ends up on Dao Ming’s houseboat. It’s unclear how he got there from the hospital if Dao Ming is a ghost. It’s also not clear how he managed to leave the restaurant without paying the bill or being arrested.
Additionally, consider the significance of Dao Ming’s choices: she saves money her whole life, discovers she is still rejected by her mother, and concludes that the best use of that money is to give it to Doyle — another lost soul — guiding him to win and repay his debts.
These are all important elements that make us question the completeness of this explanation. And alongside these, there are other clues that support a different interpetation. Let’s examine them.
Explanation no. 2: Lord Doyle is dead
According to an alternative interpretation of Ballad of a Small Player, Lord Doyle is actually dead for most of the film. The heart attack remains the most obvious cause, following the excesses he indulged in during those days of crisis. He may have died at the restaurant table, but that would confirm Dao Ming’s suicide and her intention to guide him toward her money from the afterlife. Alternatively, he died in his sleep on the beach outside Macau, the night he spent with her. What we see after that night is a visualization of his death in sleep, and the moment his life comes to an end coincides with the imagined heart attack at the restaurant.
Everything that happens after the restaurant aligns perfectly with the “gamblers’ hell” described in the conversation between Lord Doyle and Lippett in the first part of the film. This is the strongest piece of evidence supporting this interpretation: the gamblers’ hell — or their purgatory — is an endless repetition of winnings after death.
This would teach Doyle the futility of what he pursued in life: in the end, he obtained all the money he needed, but what meaning did it have? What did it truly bring to his life? From this perspective, Doyle burns all the money once he realizes he is dead, showing the audience that he has learned the lesson.
So, how can Ballad of a Small Player be explained?
If you think about it, you have to admit that both versions hold up as explanations of Ballad of a Small Player, and it’s up to you to decide which one you believe more. The first is confirmed by the director but fails to explain certain events shown in the film, especially the transition from the restaurant to Dao Ming’s houseboat. The second successfully accounts for every step of Lord Doyle’s life (and death) but leaves Dao Ming’s fate outside the realm of real events.
At this point, it comes down to your own character and instincts: which version do you believe in more?
