So much of the fun of this film is that Andy Lau plays a fictionalized version of himself here along with copious references to other Hong Kong superstars and the industry itself. The premise of a cinema superstar who deliberately does an artistic film to bait for acting awards is both on point and funny. The execution goes well at first but then it seems to lose track, turns into an uninteresting lesson about arrogance and in the end just kind of falls apart. I really wanted this to be good so it’s especially disappointing that it’s not.
A veteran actor Dany Lau Wai-chi attends the Hong Kong Film Awards and is in contention for the Best Actor category. However it not only goes to his rival Jacky Chen, but as the other actor doesn’t even bother to attend, he obligingly goes on stage to accept the award on his behalf. Frustrated and feeling out of touch with the modern trends of short and cutesy TikTok-style videos, he considers retiring but first decides to appear in an independent arthouse film by a mainland director Lin Hao to win the award. His character is a salt-of-the-earth Chinese peasant and a father, which he reasons is pure bait for film festivals. But he has to find funding for the project and secures investment from a Chinese tech company that aims to produce electric vehicles. During the filming itself, Lin Hao is unsatisfied with Lau’s performance and thinks it is because his comfortable, luxurious lifestyle has made him unable to empathize with peasants. Feeling insecure, Lau decides to observe how real peasants live and stumbles upon a pig farm with his hapless manager.
Every detail here is a film industry in-joke: the name Lau Wai-chi is a composite from three luminaries of Hong Kong cinema, other celebrities make cameo appearances, the stars sign their names onto the backdrop of the awards ceremony with a flourish only for it to be thrown away without fuss, Dany Lau is so conscious of his public image that his entire marriage and subsequent divorce are kept a secret from his fans. What’s even better is that he’s also a film star who is past his prime, knows it and is disdainful about the things he has to do to stay relevant. He’s forced to do cutesy poses, learn the modern slang and work with armies of PR consultants and streamers who are basically kids to him. Meanwhile what he really wants is to be taken seriously as an actor with dignity, even if that paradoxically means having to schmooze with rich investors with plenty of money but no class, to get funding. Up to this point, it’s deliciously good fun.
The problem is that it then veers from being a cynical take on the film industry and awards-chasing stars to a much more personal story of one man’s arrogance and alienation from the people around him. Watching Lau cowering in a bus while a pig farmer is calling him out isn’t funny. It’s just sad and pathetic. It’s not surprising that a widely idolized star would become so disconnected but it’s also something that applies more generally to anyone rich and powerful. At some point, events escalate until it’s not really about making the film at all and that’s when the film loses me. Lau hasn’t been developed into a sympathetic enough of character to make me care about what happens to him personally or that his career might crash and burn. From the beginning, it’s the premise of someone like him trying to seriously make an arthouse film that is interesting.
It’s a real shame because it started out with so much promise. Director Ning Hao put himself in it as the director of the film that is being made, so it’s both meta and tongue-in-cheek. But the tone slowly gets darker until it becomes purely a tragedy towards the end. People talk about jumping the shark. Here there is a literal pig that plays the same role. I’d say the director took some risks that feel ill-judged, ruining what would otherwise be an excellent film.