The Movie Emperor
Director: Hao Ning
Year: 2023
Rating: 7.5
One might wonder
if it is a stretch for Andy Lau to play Andy Lau or at least a version of
himself. To those not familiar with Hong Kong cinema, no one has been a bigger
star than Andy Lau for the past four decades. He has made close to 200 films
in that time span - in every genre you can think of. He is also a huge singing
star. But he has rarely been accused of being a great actor - he is just
charismatic, good looking, personable and well-loved. In all these years
he kept his personal life very private which in Hong Kong is not an easy
thing to do. For years people suspected that he had the secret to eternal
youth, but here he is beginning to finally show his age. He is 63. In this
lovely satirical look at himself and the Chinese film business, he gives
a fine performance and seems to have no issue poking fun at himself. The
film is helmed by Mainland director Hao Ning who had a huge hit with Crazy
Stone back in 2006. This one did not do so well but it should have. Perhaps
it is too low-key, too episodic but I found it quite slyly humorous and insightful.
Andy Lau plays Dany Lau Wai-chi (Dany being
an anagram of Andy) - or Brother Chi to all his fans. He is a giant star
and like most celebrities these days he has an entourage, is pampered left
and right, has people at his beck and call, is easily annoyed if anything
goes wrong. But not a bad person by any means - he has just found himself
in a personal bubble where he doesn't have to do anything. And as the film
progresses, we realize that he is not very good outside of that bubble. Forty
years of being a celebrity will do that. The film begins with a movie award
show. He is up for Best Actor along with Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-Fat and Tony
Leung Ka-fai (who makes a cameo). His name is called and he jumps up in excitement
only to be told that no, we were just asking how you were tonight. Instead,
the award goes to the absent Jackie and he has to accept the award on his
behalf and give the speech. All done with polish and class. The chances of
Jackie winning a Best Actor award in Hong Kong these days is as likely as
snow in Hong Kong in August. He is not well liked, so I might guess this
was an inside joke.
So, he tells his agent to find him a serious
role - one that will play film festivals around the world - and win him an
award. Let me play a peasant. He gets the role of a pig farmer who has to
save his daughter from money lenders. Everything begins to fall apart - he
decides that he has to understand what it is like to be a poor farmer and
to meet some (ala Sullivan's Travels). He is told that there are no poor
farmers in China anymore (I bet the censors liked that). But he finds a boisterous
pig farmer who gives him a butcher's knife that he immediately throws away
(it will come back to haunt him later) and a grown pig that he keeps. That
too comes back to hilariously haunt him. He decides to suffer by staying
at a mere three-star hotel with squeaky chairs and quickly has his staff
bring in things he likes.
He is told not to drive, he does and hits
another car in the garage and that begins a feud. He is told not to ride
the horse, he does and his fall with it begins a huge Internet backlash against
his cruelty to animals. In real life Andy fell off a horse in 2017 and had
a bad injury. The investors ask to be in the film and he accepts only to
have them keep telling the director (played by Hao Ning) what to do, finally
saying the film needs more action and the director has them badly beaten
up in the scene. He starts falling apart - his marriage is failing (Kelly
Lin plays his wife), sponsors desert him, investors leave - and he is helpless
without his usual protective wall. It is constantly amusing and Lau kind
of floats through it unable to grasp what life is like outside the bubble.
Definitely a film for Hong Kong film fans and probably no one else.
