Review | Busan 2023: The Movie Emperor review – Andy Lau sends himself up in Chinese celebrity culture parody directed by Ning Hao
- Andy Lau stars as a narcissistic Hong Kong actor in Ning Hao’s The Movie Emperor, which sees his character cancelled over the course of several misadventures
- The film industry is a popular target for satire and both Lau and Ning – who also stars as a director – are unafraid to lampoon themselves in The Movie Emperor
4/5 stars
His character’s increasingly desperate efforts to garner praise and critical credibility result in a series of escalating misadventures that instead get the out-of-touch celebrity cancelled.
Ning is equally game to lampoon himself, taking on the role of the art house drama’s auteur, a man obsessed with crafting a film that panders specifically to the tastes of prestigious international festivals.
In recent years, Lau has shown how effective a screen presence he can be when playing flawed or downright unlikeable characters.
His role here, as Hong Kong movie icon Dany Lau, falls squarely into this category, his character a self-obsessed and painfully insecure performer whose marriage has collapsed and who, as we meet him, loses out on yet another Hong Kong Film Award to Jackie Chan.