Title: King Of Comedy

Year: 1999

Director: Stephen Chow Sing Chi

Reviewed By: Colin Odel and Mitch Le Blanc

Superstar comedy auteur Chow plays Wan Tin-Sau, an out of luck bit actor who starts his own drama school, whilst winning the affections of Lau Piu-Piu, a prostitute in need of �acting� lessons. Only her roles are, naturally, for a somewhat smaller audience. This doesn�t dissuade Tin-Sau in his quest for theatrical excellence and soon he has a whole brothel of actresses at his beck and call. Meanwhile director To Kuen-Yee is working on a big budget heroic bloodshed movie and ensures that Tin-Sau at least stays in a job despite his accident prone nature. But inevitably the continued activities attract the attention of the local Triads and before long there a war starts up...

Produced for Chinese New Year, King of Comedy is a riot from start to finish. While hugely uneven and with a blink-and-you�ll-miss-it ending, the gross comedic exploits of Chow put the recent spate of American crass comedies to shame. Chow�s wonderful pastiche of John Woo�s oeuvre has to be seen to be believed, all cod religious imagery, churches, doves and bullet ridden Triad hordes. There�s even the �hundred shots from a single gun only to have it empty for the main adversary� routine that escalates into non-firing bazookas! Playing it just the right side of camp you�ll roar with laughter as, with the gun smoke clearing, Chow stumbles along in his death throes amidst the carnage like a true luvvie. Then there�s the mucous gag as Chow shows some real Blair Witch style emotional acting. But when you start adding beatings, humiliation and business deals into the equation the result is an almost unfathomable concoction of genre style and tone. Puerile? Yes. Misogynist? Yes. Funny? 100%.

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