King of Comedy (Hei kek ji wong) is a classic Stephen Chow movie that also launched the career of actress Cecilia Cheung. It tells the story of the trials and tribulations of an aspiring actor on his way to stardom, a kind of autobiography of Chow’s early career. As chance would have it, when Chow screened the movie in the Sai Kung District of Hong Kong, he found out that Jackie Chan was filming his new film at the same place. Consequently, Jackie Chan has a cameo role in King of Comedy.
"It is regarded as a classic by Chinese young men who cherish their dreams."
At the beginning of the movie, Wan Tin-Sau (Chow) is the head of his village’s community center and a carefree actor. He is planning to stage a classic Chinese tragedy named Thunderstorm (Lei yu), written by Chinese dramatist Cao Yu in 1933. It is about the complicated relationship between members of the Zhou family, who are upper class and wealthy, and the Lu family, who are low class and poor. Specifically, the plot centers on the Zhou family’s psychological and physical self-destruction as a result of incest, stemming from the actions of the morally depraved and corrupt patriarch, Zhou Puyuan.
In the movie, however, the actors found by Wan Tin-Sau are so uneducated, that almost all of them thought the casting call was for a Kung-fu movie by Bruce Lee. At last, Wan Tin-Sau decides to remake Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury for his community. During rehearsal, nightclub girl Lau Piu-Piu (Cecilia Cheung), who used to ask Wan Tin-Sau for acting advise, sees him acting as Bruce Lee. After rehearsal, they have a long conversation on the beach, Piu-Piu falls for Wan Tin-Sau, and they make love. However, Wan thinks she slept with him for money, since she’s a call girl, which infuriates Piu-Piu. Realizing he has made a mistake, Wan changes his mind and shouts out, “Wo yang ni ba” (I will take care of you for the rest of your life).
Eventually, and despite many setbacks, Wan gains a better understanding about the craft of acting through making his movie, and afterwards, he finally becomes famous through his performance in a staging of Thunderstorm. King of Comedy grossed HK $29,848,860 in Honk Kong, ranking 1 st at the local box office in 1999. It also became very popular in mainland China through VCD and DVD, and to this day, it is regarded as a classic by Chinese young men who cherish their dreams.
