The Cockfighters takes place in a small inland town, where people get by working for small businesses and find their entertainment where they can. The Euro Asia nightclub, run by Lao Jin, is the centre of nightlife in the town, and Lao Wei often drops in to meet his girlfriend, Xiao Hua, a musician in the club. Lao Wei, who separated from his wife years back, lives with his teenage daughter, Ai Er. He lives a quiet life, his main distraction being his passion for the cocks he breeds for fighting, another of the town’s diversions. The bets he wins accumulate him a small fortune that Lao Wei entrusts to the financial consultant, Lao Jin, his old pal from military school. When Xiao Mao, an arrogant and dominant teenager from a family whose riches were amassed from coal mining, loses against Leo Wei in a cock fight, the latter’s life takes an unexpected turn. Taking advantage of his family connections and protected by two brutish bodyguards, Xiao Mao raises hell in the town. Expecting respect and reverence for the fact that his family practically owns the town, his violence takes almost unseen forms, from biting the head of Lao Wei’s cockerel as a reaction to the humiliation of having lost the fight, to shooting a bullet into the leg of one of the spectators, from lynching to death someone who dared steal coal from the mine, to viciously attacking Xiao Hua. Cock fighting becomes his obsession, to the point where he buys killer Thai cocks, fully equipped with small blades attached to their claws. The following cock fights, which Lao Wei does not pull out of, brought to a new level by Xiao Mao, will be a massacre, with the reluctant approval of the participants, The “unjust” death in a game now robbed of all rules gives Lao Wei all the more reason not to give up. His financial situation also feels the heat, but that fortune he thought he had saved, invested by the good Lao Jin, has been notably reduced. Xiao Mao’s arrest, on suspicion of the death of a woman in the mine, will shortly be followed by Lao Wei being thrown into jail, accused of inciting immorality. The situation worsens when Xiao Mao gets out of prison unpunished and has to defend himself against the unfounded accusations, spread in the town by those who fear the boy’s powerful family. In the meantime, Xiao Mao, a ticking time bomb unable to redeem himself, continues his spiral of violence. And it is now aimed at Ai Er, guilty of refusing his attentions. Exasperated by the situation, Lao Wei once again turns to Lao Jin, but soon realises he is alone in his battle against Xiao Mao and his family; no one, not even Lao Jin, wishes to get on the wrong side of them. Lao Wei does not step back from the latest gauntlet thrown down by Xiao Mao: another cock fight. Lao Wei prepares for another massacre.
The Cockfighters is Jin Rui’s first feature film as director and screenwriter, and he converts the question “What are the rules of the game in this world we live in?” into a story. Behind the violence of cock fighting, Jin Rui explores the structure and dynamics of today’s society and how they regulate the balance between the rich and poor.
Maria Ruggieri