The only reason anyone ever wins any sort of
Best Actress award in a Chinese movie
is because Aaron Kwok's not a woman.
Hi! Welcome to The Silver Spleen.
My name is Rupert Pupkin
and this is my review of
The New King of Comedy.
My first visit to Hong Kong was in 2001.
I was lucky enough to watch Shaolin Soccer
in a cinema in Hong Kong,
and it's one of my favorite memories of that trip.
In 2005, I watched Kung Fu Hustle
in a cinema in America.
When international stardom
didn't call Stephen Chow back,
he looked north, to China.
By 2008, after I'd been living here for three years,
I got to watch CJ7 in a cinema in Hong Kong,
during Chinese New Year.
I tried to watch Journey to the West,
but I only made it through the first... scene,
y'know, the one with the fish monster.
Speaking of which, I haven't watched Mermaid...
...either,
mostly because I watched the trailer,
which is also the reason I never watched
Journey to the West 2.
Comedy is extremely contextual,
and by extension cultural.
Its kinda similar to, y'know, curse words.
If you tell someone in English,
"Go fall in the road!"
they'll look at you funny,
because that's not a bad thing to say in English.
It doesn't even work in Mandarin:
If you say [shuai dao],
they're gonna look at you like "What's wrong with you?!?"
Now in Cantonese, obviously it has meaning.
Which is usually me yelling at Aaron Kwok
for overacting, but that's not our story.
So comedy also has what we could call different
'cinematic styles.'
Some movies have jokes in them,
and the jokes just happen.
Some movies telegraph jokes:
The movie sort of lets you know
that a joke is about to happen.
Or is happening.
Some movies...
make sure that you know there's going to be a joke.
And then they show you the joke,
and they make sure you know it's a joke.
And then they make sure
that you know that there was a joke.
And then it happens... again.
It's just not my thing.
I'm not saying that its a bad,
or it's a wrong approach to comedy, or any of that.
It just... doesn't work for me,
I actually just find it kinda off-putting.
However, it should come as no surprise to you that
I'm not the intended audience
for Chinese comedy films.
And those films definitely work
for their intended audience:
When I sit in the cinema,
surrounded by people who the movie is intended for,
they laugh, they enjoy themselves,
they have a great time and they love all the jokes
no matter how many times they may have heard them before.
So I knew that The New King of Comedy
really wasn't made for me.
But I watched it anyway.
I wanted to see it in Mandarin,
the language that it obviously was originally filmed in.
But when I was in Foshan over the holiday,
there were no English subtitles in the any of the screenings.
So I watched it in Hong Kong,
where its dubbed into Cantonese,
which is the language that, y'know,
helped make Stephen Chow famous.
Now it's been a very long time since I watched
1999's King of Comedy,
and so I'm not going to mention
all the nods to that film in this new film.
But they're definitely there.
I don't want to talk about that aspect of the movie,
as much as I want to talk about the story in the movie,
and a little bit about the movie itself.
The New King of Comedy tells the story of a young
(but not getting any younger)
woman, played by newcomer E Jingwen,
who's harbored a decade-long dream
of becoming a real actress.
Shes worked as an extra for ten long, demeaning years,
getting nowhere and
testing the patience of friends and family alike.
The early part of the film makes clear just how difficult
and soul-destroying life can be as a
small potato in the film industry.
But she never seems to let it get to her
and always picks herself up and tries again.
The New King of Comedy was co-directed
by Herman Yau Lai To,
and to be honest,
if the humiliations heaped on this poor woman
made her snap and the movie suddenly turned into
The New Untold Story,
you probably would really be on her side,
I mean the people she deals with are awful.
And that sort of brings me to the central point of my review:
That as much as I did enjoy a lot of the comedy in the film,
what I really appreciated the most
was the serious side of it.
E Jingwen's performance
is really impressive for a number of reasons.
You might say its easy for her because in real life,
this is what she'd already been doing;
y'know, being an extra,
and working real hard to get into movies at all
for about the same amount of time as her character.
But it can also be pretty intimidating
to have your dreams come true.
Now she has to carry a major motion picture,
a sequel to an iconic film,
and be directed by not just one but two
legendary directors,
But she never let that stop her,
and her performance is really, really impressive.
She was believable, engaging,
and showed a degree of... dramatic maturity
that I wish was more common.
Wang Baoqiang's performance as Marco,
a washed-up has-been, is really fantastic.
The first time we see him, his expression,
which lasts just a few seconds,
says more than a ten-minute monologue.
It might also be the weirdest
Boogie Nights homage ever.
Wang Baoqiang handles this multi-faceted character
with remarkable skill,
being very, very funny one moment
and very, very serious the next.
Now, like so many other things in this movie,
its easy to see how Wang Baoqiang's character
is infused with the actor's own real-life history.
In fact, a lot of this film reminded me of Derek Yee's
I Am Somebody,
a film about people who make a living as extras
while chasing a dream in Hengdian Studio.
Like that film, in The New King of Comedy,
the line between the movie and the making of the movie
is just constantly being blurred.
Everyone you see in The New King of Comedy
who's playing an extra... is an extra.
Even that woman who was a contortionist.
She was terrifying!
For about one second I thought
"I wonder what it would look like if she was naked,"
but that scared me even more!
Speaking of which,
I'm going to be 53 this year,
and I think that may be
why my favorite performance in this film
is from Zhang Qi, who plays Ru Meng's father.
He's not in very much of the movie,
but he makes the absolute most out of
every second that he's onscreen,
and I was sincerely touched by his acting.
Like I said, I mean,
probably 'cause we're near the same age,
but that's not my point.
He plays the kind of father that we've all seen before in the movies,
but we rarely if ever have seen it played this well.
And I would be very happy to see him get
at least a nomination for this performance.
You'll have to watch the movie to see what I mean,
but of course that's what I want you to do anyway.
Chinese New Year movies are traditionally about family,
and The New King of Comedy is a great
Chinese New Year movie.
It's full of broad humor and familiar faces,
and at the heart of it is a
very sweet story about family
and not giving up on your dreams.
I enjoyed those aspects of the movie the most,
but the comedy, if you like that style of comedy,
is also very rewarding;
like I said, everyone around me seemed to laugh quite a bit.
I enjoyed the scene talking about how
Chinese New Year movies can't have bad language
because children are gonna be watching the film,
so you cant say words like
and
Well, the kids in the cinema
that were sittin' in the row in front of me
thought that entire scene was f@#$in' hilarious.
And if that's not enough for you,
there's a Chang Cheh reference in this movie!
The New King(s?) of Comedy even gets meta on itself.
E Jingwen is the protagonist of the movie,
arguably, she's the star of the film,
she's the center of it,
she's the person the story is built around, right?
But Wang Baoqiang gets top billing.
Because he's a star...
...she's not. It's...
...art reflecting life.
I think most of you would enjoy this movie,
and I think most of you should watch it.
It's a great Chinese New Year movie.
Quite frankly, from what a lot of people tell me,
it's the best Stephen Chow movie in quite a few years,
and it is!
It's a lot of fun to watch,
there's people to look for,
there's funny things in it,
there's good serious stuff in it,
there's great acting in it,
So definitely watch this movie.
But you know how you need to do it:
go to a cinema or pay for a streaming service.
Don't download this movie, don't steal it,
don't watch it on a phone, 'cause that stinks.
I'm not sayin' anything. It's just... it's just there.
I'm not gonna say it, okay?
But, y'know, hmmmm...
I think we understand each other.
If you enjoyed my review please let me know,
and if you didn't...
...please let me know.
If you enjoy the channel, please subscribe.
Thank you for watching, and I'll see you again soon.