Ballad of a Small Player ending explained: What happened to Lord Doyle?

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The new Netflix film, Ballad of a Small Player, features a twist ending that many viewers will likely anticipate. It also raises questions about what ultimately happens to Colin Farrell’s character, Lord Doyle.

We initially know him as Lord Doyle, but it quickly comes out that he’s actually Brendan Reilly, a man who stole almost £1 million from someone else and ran off to Macau. Even with that stolen money, he’s deeply in debt when we meet him and is facing a fast-approaching deadline to repay his casino debts.

Doyle is desperate to escape his debts, and help seems to arrive with Dao Ming, a loan shark who might even guide him towards a better life. However, the film Ballad of a Small Player reveals that Dao Ming isn’t entirely truthful about her motives, or who she is, throughout the story.

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Ballad of a Small Player ending explained: What happened to Dao Ming?

Dao Ming and Doyle connected during the Festival of the Hungry Ghosts and shared a night together. However, Dao Ming vanished the next morning, leaving Doyle with only a strange set of numbers marked on his hand. What Doyle didn’t know was that Dao Ming had tragically taken her own life that same night.

Okay, so after that night, whenever I think I’m seeing Dao Ming, it’s like she’s either a ghost or just Doyle imagining her – honestly, I kind of see it both ways. She shows up to help him after he has a really scary heart attack (I’ll get into that later!), and then she really tries to steer him away from becoming one of those ‘Hungry Ghosts’ – you know, the ones who are always chasing after things and can never be happy with what they have. It’s pretty heartbreaking, actually.

Director Edward Berger explained to TUDUM that viewers will likely have different interpretations of the film. He personally believes the female character dies during the story and acts as a guiding spirit for the protagonist, helping him find redemption. He sees her as a ghost who accompanies him through life.

Doyle notices numbers on Dao Ming’s hand and asks what they mean. Dao Ming mysteriously calls them a “test.” He quickly fails the test when he realizes the numbers are actually the combination to Dao Ming’s hidden money. He takes the money to the casino and surprisingly begins to win.

Okay, so the casino manager totally confronted me about how I kept winning. He said their security cameras showed I was somehow getting help – like a ‘ghost’ was influencing my plays! Because of this, they banned me from every casino. I begged him for just one more chance, a final game. I told him I’d bet everything I’d won on a single hand of baccarat. If I won, I’d walk away, no questions asked. But if I lost, it would prove there was no ghost and they were wrong to accuse me.

Doyle’s victory allows him to settle all his debts, and he even has enough left over to help Dao Ming with hers. However, when he goes to her casino to offer the money, he discovers she tragically passed away on the first night of the Festival of the Hungry Ghosts.

The shocking news left Doyle considering one last, profitable gamble, but he resisted the urge. Determined not to become consumed by greed, he decided to destroy his remaining winnings – a symbolic gesture, mirroring what Dao Ming had described as an offering to the spirits on the night they first met.

Is Doyle dead in Ballad of a Small Player?

After learning about Dao Ming’s experiences, it’s understandable if you’re questioning whether Doyle has been truly gone since his heart attack. It’s possible everything that happened after that moment was Doyle existing in a sort of limbo – a difficult afterlife called Naraka, or the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts, as Dao Ming describes it.

Doyle heard a story from another gambler, Adrian Lippett, that eerily foreshadowed his own experience after his heart attack. The story goes like this: a gambler finds himself in the afterlife, specifically a lavish casino filled with champagne and women. Amazingly, he wins every single game he plays – he just can’t lose.

He eventually turned to the person beside him and confessed, ‘I didn’t believe I’d get into heaven; I thought I was headed for hell.’ The other player simply looked around and replied, as Doyle finished the story, ‘This is hell.’

If Doyle only realizes his mistakes just before being trapped in the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts forever, it’s a rather depressing way to interpret the film. However, a more hopeful reading suggests that Dao Ming is the ‘miracle’ Doyle said would be needed to change him. This seems to align with how Berger likely wanted the movie to be understood.

Dao Ming supports Doyle in overcoming his struggles, marking the start of a journey toward healing. This process also helps him avoid falling into addiction, allowing him to move forward and find a sense of peace, with the hope of living a fulfilling life, as Berger explained to TUDUM.

Ultimately, he acts out of love for her. She rescued him from addiction, and in the afterlife, he finally gives her the thing she always longed for in life.

I loved the scene after the credits – Doyle dancing with Cynthia Blithe! Apparently, the director, Berger, originally planned to put it in the movie, but he decided to save it for the end. He wanted to leave us feeling a little happier after such a tense film, and also hinted that Doyle’s going to have some good things happen to him down the line. It was a perfect little moment!

This performance is a delightful treat for the audience, filled with joy and celebration. It’s a vibrant expression of life, specifically honoring the journey of these two characters and hinting at a fresh start for them.

Ballad of a Small Player is available to watch now on Netflix.

The latest issue of Living Legends is now available! You can purchase Ariana & Witches at newsstands or online for only £8.99.

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2025-10-30 00:21