King of Comedy

Buy This Item King of Comedy by Universe Italy  Available from Amazon  $15.98  on 11-27-2008     Chow is the true soul of the film. This is a touching, mature comedy that will have you rolling in laughter while making you fall in love with the characters. In here Wan Tin-Sau (Stephen Chow) is a dedicated and aspiring actor but he has the habit of screwing up even small parts he gets. In between that he also teaches the art of acting and tries to put on plays in his local town. It's through his teachings that he meets club hostess Lau Piu-Piu (the lovely Cecilia Cheung from "Legend Of Zu") who wants to learn some acting tricks in order to make more money from her male customers. She gets the desired effect and the two also fall in love along the way. If that wasn't good enough Wan Tin-Sau gets the opportunity to play a leading role in a film against megastar Sister Cuckoo (Karen Mok from "God Of Cookery"). Jackie Chan does appear on this film but only as a cameo. <br /> <br />Stephen Chow and Lee Lik-Chi work very well together as directors. Over the years with him by his side, Stephen has really fine-tuned his comedy and directing skills, which resulted in him handling the latter duties all by himself on "Shaolin Soccer." I can't swear that this is the truth but the ideal way of working between the two should be that Lee Lik-Chi focuses more on the style of filmmaking while Stephen does his own brand of crazy comedy. <br /> <br />After a strange opening shot by the sea the movie kicks into high gear almost immediately. Stephen's knowledge and great vision of comedy is quickly apparent in the scene where his character, as an extra, manages to screw up a long and demanding John Woo-esque shot (where Karen Mok also makes her first appearance). Big credit has to go to action choreographer Bruce Law though who fires on all cylinders in this scene. I first saw his work on Kirk Wong's Gunmen and it's clear that his contribution to a project can mean a lot. <br /> <br />Throughout "King Of Comedy" I found that, by this point in his career, Stephen had the ability to make any comedy work, no matter how absurd it was. That's not at all easy to do and not something Wong Jing could do in his movies for instance. The visual humor dominates "King Of Comedy" and there's only a few moments where the humor is more dialogue based. The 92 minutes fly by quite fast and the script manages to develop the things it should. Neither director seems to want to distinguish themselves stylistically, which of course is a good thing in a comedy. We do see some effective uses of dissolves to indicate time passing but even within those the directors can't resist to insert more silly humor. I can honestly say that "King Of Comedy" is very good. Stephen Chow breaks new ground for himself and he definitely is Hong Kong's King Of Comedy. <br /> Reader Reviews Stephen Chow plays a struggling actor who will do whatever he has to to get a role in a movie. After getting 2 chances at acting and failing both times he decides to teach acting for free. A prostitute played by Cecilia Cheung comes for acting lessons so she can be more convincing as a college girl for her customers. I didn't really get why Stephen Chow teaches acting for free, but he does help Triads act tougher and learns from the experiences they have doing Triad things. Karen Mok plays an actress and decides out of the blue that she wants Stephen Chow as her new screen partner, even though he screwed up the last 2 times he shot a scene with her. After falling in love with Cecilia Cheung, Chow forgets about her and focuses on Karen Mok. But it only seems like he forgot about Cheung. Even though Chow is about to become a big star, he still loves her. The relationship between these 2 is magical and I wish they had more time on screen together. One thing I didn't like about this movie is that the story shifts so abruptly. The last sudden change in the story has Stephen Chow becoming an undercover cop. Ng Man Tat shows him that the best actors are actually undercovers. It is a very odd ending. The comedy is good for the most part, but the story is not done very well. This is not one of Stephen Chow's worst movies, but definitely not one of his best. 2.5/5

King of Comedy Available from Amazon Price: $15.98 Updated on 11-27-2008.

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