King of Comedy (1999)

Stephen Chow paradoxically portrays the life of an "extra" actor, who is quite committed to acting, yet never manages to land anything better than one-line scripts. Cecilia Cheung leads an equally gloomy life, in which her dreams have been shattered after her boyfriend ordered her to work in a night club to make a living. Cecilia's inability to lure customers results in her attending Stephen's bizarre neighborhood acting classrooms; from then on the movie will follow their fortunes and misfortunes.

The good: as usual, Stephen Chow's movies have hilarious moments and, at the same time, explore everything that can be squeezed out from the main role. While God of Cookery was about "cooking with a heart", here the director deals with the topic of "working hard, to act better" and shows that, somehow, we all are actors in the movie that is our life. Indeed, the movie does not need extravagant settings such as Shaolin monasteries or soccer stadiums, but we get to witness many problems of ordinary Chinese suburbs, including kids becoming triad members and people leading a poor life.

The bad: Considering King of Comedy's social involvement, I would have expected a more linear story. Instead, the narration flow is a roller-coaster of moods, in which every one, not just Stephen Chow, seems a bit loony and overdramatizes every aspect of his/her life. Imagine what A Beautiful Mind would be, if also Jennifer Connelly and the other actors were like John Nash! Extravagant, to say the least! 7/10

Fmovies: You'll never confuse Stephen Chow for Robert DeNiro. He's an actor who keeps fouling up takes in the movie he's in because he puts too much life into his dying. When Cecilia Cheung can't keep her job hustling drunks at a local bar because she can't act like she's interested, she hears that Chow is an acting teaching who gives lessons for free. Naturally they irritate each other enormously and...

If you're looking for one of Chow's cartoon/Shao Lin extravaganza, you'll be disappointed, but I found it a good change of pace about two losers who find each other and fall in love, with some very funny sequences and some very sad ones. Chow and his co-director Like-Chi Lee manage some nice shots about the movie business and the idiocy of actors, while maintaining some sympathy for the underdog in this one.

I don't know if the dvd I was watching was screwed up or something, or got mixed with some other film... but this movie starts out great and then takes a huge turn at the end in the wrong direction.

I don't know if its just these New Years films that have to get finished on time, so they hack up the story to finish it on time or what, but after starting so well, the end of this film is a big let down.

Cecilia is the best thing about this movie by far, this is one of her first big rolls and she handles it well, its a big departure from every other roll I've seen her in, which is what makes it so interesting, rather then just being the sweet good girl as in Help and Everyday is Valentines Day, etc, she plays a bitchy prostitute who learns to fall in love w/ Chow.

I recommend it to die hard Stephen Chow fans (like me) and die hard Cecilia fans (like I'm becoming).

King of Comedy fmovies. It's a breakthrough for Stephen Chow; finally a Stephen's movie with substance. Unexpectedly creative, it's like another version of Forrest Gump; you never know what you gonna get. You want action? You want romance? You want comedy? You want drama? The movie has it all.

Stephen Chow continues with a variation on a theme (guy who's good at one thing, but utterly incompetent in life), making him the closest Hong Kong replica to Hollywood auteur Adam Sandler (guy who's good at sports, but utterly incompetent in life). Still, the formula works just as well as Chow's other film goodies, such as "Fight Back to School", "Saint of Gamblers: Back to Shanghai", and "From Beijing with Love". Watch for the hilarious spoof of Hong Kong action films.

Stephen Chow is a popular star in Hong-Kong. And the most aggressive and rebel. In the past he attack many establishment , are very vulguar. A klind of Marx Brother on cocaine.

But with this movie, he finish what he begin with Forbidden City Cop. Inject some emotion and doing a self critic of himself and his work. In the past Chow never play the victim, always the clever guys who destroy everything on his way. But He show us fragility for the first time here.

Here is the story of social worker who want to be a real actor. He always squat the "plateau" of different movie.

We can see in various sketch, many perspective of Hong-Kong industry of cinema. John Woo's flick, horror movie, stardom... Chow are the guide. But in the same time he declare his love for his work. Actor! Not just the Actor for movie, but many kind of comedy (in the real sense of the word). And he have enough confident in himself for doing serious variation...

But dont be araid! Stephen Chow do not play Hamlet. He's always an absurd guys who do stupid and non-sensical thing.. Pragmatic people, dont like this movie.