Summary
King of Comedy is a Hong Kong comedy title that was released for DVD in HK and is placed in the Comedy category to help identify the correct item within the Comedy genre. The film is directed by and stars Stephen Chiao who plays a movie extra who believes with absolute confidence that he is the greatest actor in the world. He is deeply in love with dramatic performance and with the stylized action style associated with John Woo and Chow Yun Fat. He practices heroic stances and gun duel postures as if his life depends on becoming a leading star. His strong devotion to his craft becomes so visible that it eventually attracts the attention of a famous actress named Cuckoo played by Karen Mok. She sees something unusual in his commitment and his misplaced self confidence and invites him to star in her next major film. The plot then follows the question of whether this self appointed leading man can truly win the role he has always dreamed of and whether his fantasy of stardom can survive contact with the real film business.
Highlights
The movie is a broad and affectionate parody of the flashy Hong Kong action cinema that built its heroes on slick choreography slow motion shooting dramatic gun fights and overinflated self importance. It laughs at the idea that an extra can mistake posing for performance and treats ordinary ambition as if it were epic destiny. Stephen Chiao leads the film with a big and exaggerated performance that balances absurdity with a strange sense of sincerity. Karen Mok brings star authority to the character of Cuckoo and gives the story a clear bridge between the little extra world and the big studio spotlight. The comedy comes from the gap between his private beliefs and the public realities of acting jobs film sets fame and professional judgment. The setting within Hong Kong movie production gives the picture a local identity and a specific mood of behind the scenes industry farce. The title works as a light hearted celebration of delusion and a gentle joke about who actually gets to be called a star.
This item was originally classified as Comedy and kept inside the Comedy genre so it would be easier to find among DVD movies from HK. The entry was added to iOctavio on 2002 11 18. It is described here as a Comedy DVD release and not as a different type of media.