King of Comedy

King of Comedy (喜劇之王, 1999) is a Hong Kong comedy from Stephen Chow — watch online on iFILM. Chow wrote, directed and stars, playing Wan Tin-Sau, a man who teaches acting to anyone willing to show up at the local community centre while spending his days trying and failing to land speaking parts on film sets.

Wan is an extra. He will probably always be an extra. He does not seem to have registered this. The film follows his stubborn, slightly delusional pursuit of a proper role alongside a tentative romance with a nightclub hostess who is the first person to take his lessons seriously. Chow keeps the absurdist gag rate high but leaves room for quieter moments that keep the character from becoming a punchline.

Released in 1999 after the success of The God of Gamblers and Shaolin Soccer had turned Chow into a Hong Kong institution, King of Comedy is the most self-referential thing he made — a comic portrait of the working actor's particular brand of hopeful obsession. For anyone already familiar with his style, it lands differently than his broader hits; funnier in some ways, a little more melancholy in others. Stream King of Comedy (1999) online on iFILM.