Hei kek ji wong

"As a prostitute knows no true love, so an actor knows no true feelings."
-Chinese saying

"King of Comedy" is less a coherent movie than it is a series of comedy sketches, half of which focus on an incompetent extra trying to sneak back onto a film set (which grants the opportunity to parody any number of Chinese action films), half of which focus on the acting lessons he gives to local gangsters and hookers. The comedy's pretty hit-or-miss, but it's funny enough often enough -- there's even some genuine (if mild) satire, as he takes perfectly nice, normal people and transforms them into incoherent lunatics with his "acting advice." But ultimately, there's exactly two things that make this movie worth seeing: Stephen Chow, and Stephen Chow.

The first is Stephen Chow the actor, and it's his appealing, wide-eyed naivete that sells most of the jokes. Over the course of the flick, he's repeatedly slapped in the face -- both literally and metaphorically -- and it's his refusal to indulge in self-pity that makes him a sympathetic character. The second is Stephen Chow the celebrity, and it's hard not to read the storyline as being at least pseudo-autobiographical. In particular, an early cameo by Jackie Chan manages to be both hilarious and somewhat moving.

In fact, the movie gets both surprisingly dark and surprisingly sentimental for a Cantonese comedy. And it's an impressive feat that the climax -- in which he is incapable of breaking character until a wounded police officer utters the word "cut" -- manages to be both absolutely ludicrous and surprisingly touching. It's no "Shaolin Soccer," but it's worth seeing, if only as a reminder to how Stephen Chow got where he is today -- by being a first-rate clown, whether he has a lot of expensive toys to play with or not.