King of Comedy (1999) Movie Drinking Game
Down a Shot: each time Wan and Piu-Piu’s blossoming romance brings a tear to your eye
Down a Shot: each time the contemptuous caterer empties the contents of a lunch box onto the poor and hungry Wan.
Down a Shot: each time Piu-Piu refers to Wan as a damned extra, which obviously pisses the actor off to no end!
By: Vidal D’costa (A Toast) –
Not to be confused with the Robert De Niro starrer by the same name, King of Comedy follows Wan Tin-sau, an aspiring actor who embarks on a fruitless pursuit of fame. While the amateur thespian is well versed in the theory of acting and even tutors wannabe gang leaders in his neighbourhood on the art of emoting and body language, he can barely cling on to a role even as a background extra, either due to his own naivety or through hard luck. He is further pushed to his limits as an actor and forced to put his life on the line for his craft after he is offered the role of a lifetime by a rather sketchy and contemptuous man who runs the craft services on set.
A Toast
King of Comedy‘s strength lies in its riveting first half that focuses on the pure and wholesome nature of the romance brewing between its protagonist Wan (Stephen Chow) and Piu-Piu (Cecilia Cheung), an escort who seeks out his acting lessons to help her in attracting more clientele. This romance is further aided by Chow and Cheung sharing an endearing onscreen chemistry and some beautifully penned dialogue. My heart honestly skipped a beat when Wan accepted Piu-Piu’s career choices and promises to continue supporting her living, putting to rest the stigma that is often associated with sex work
The physical comedy gags ,too, are on par with what one might expect from a Stephen Chow outing and will leave you in splits, although there are quite a few that haven’t aged well and are best left in the 90s.
Another highlight of the movie is Chow’s performance. The script allows him to showcase both his comedic and dramatic sensibilities. Considering that this movie is a rather semi-autobiographical record of the actor and filmmaker’s own journey and struggles as a newcomer in the industry, Chow’s performance as the vulnerable Wan feels raw, real, and personal and the emotionally intense scene wherein he is forced to make peace with losing out on his first lead role is a true testament to his acting prowess and emotional range. The aforementioned scene itself also feels like a gut punch due to the build-up leading up to it. Special mention to the legendary Jackie Chan who drops in for an unexpected cameo and indulges in a very self deprecating and funny dig at his action hero persona.
An aspect that also captured my attention was the picturization of the dance number in this movie. While in most Stephen Chow ventures, the dance numbers are usually utilised for comedic effect, here, the dance sequence featuring Wan waltzing with a starlet at a party in a carefree manner after saying ‘yes’ to his breakthrough role is juxtaposed with a lovelorn Piu-Piu defending her right to say ‘no’ to a client at a brothel, resulting in harsh consequences and the client berating and beating her up. This jarring back and forth between a happy Wan twirling on the dance floor while a grievously wounded Piu-Piu bleeds out on the brothel floor further emphasises the unfair nature of life, a running theme in the movie.
Apart from this, the movie also works well as a biting satire on the unforgiving nature of an industry where even procuring a lunch box can be a daunting and demanding task!
Beer Two
I must admit that despite being a huge Stephen Chow stan, his early directorial ventures definitely left me with mixed feelings. Some of those feelings could be attributed to cringeworthy gags that haven’t aged well, but in case of King of Comedy, the problem lies moreso in a contrived second half.
The first half feels like a charming ode to art cinema, with the writing allowing you to care for its characters and leaving you emotionally invested in their fictional motivations, but the second half features an out-of-the-blue subplot involving Wan going undercover with the police force to infiltrate the mafia- a subplot that honestly fits better in Chow’s parodies such as the Fight Back to School trilogy, but feels out of place in a movie that up until its second half was a rather scathing and morose commentary on the ruthless nature of the film industry and simultaneously a heartfelt tale of an ambitious loser with big dreams.
While I can appreciate Chow for his ambitious vision of weaving various genres together in his later works, the effort comes across as underwhelming at best in King of Comedy and the original message of the movie is all but lost due to the shoddy and pointless second half. The execution shows potential, but Chow fails at creating a narrative that flows well and at striking a fine balance between his trademark over the top absurd gags, the subtle satirical overtones, and realistic drama- a feat that he accomplished in his more polished works such as Kung Fu Hustle and God of Cookery. There are still glimpses of his comedic genius, creativity, and passion which are easy to spot, such as in a scene towards the climax which is essentially a piss-take at product placement in cinema, but the rushed second half adds nothing to the movie and only ruins a movie that started out with great potential. The usually reliable Ng Man-tat, too, feels rather wasted in his role as the contemptuous caterer.
Verdict
King of Comedy is definitely one of those movies which would have worked better if it’d stuck to one genre and featured a more clear vision, instead of abruptly switching gears into espionage thriller mode towards the climax. Or maybe that was supposed to be some sort of absurd metaphor for the sad state of affairs with regards to modern mainstream cinema and filmmakers favouring style over substance that went over my head. Overall, it is still a breathtakingly moving experience, but it honestly could have been a modern day masterpiece had the second half not held it back.
