Ning Hao Talks Toronto Satire ‘The Movie Emperor’ and Persuading Andy Lau to Be Humiliated: ‘This Was Me Challenging Him’ (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comPatrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief That the Toronto world premiere of “The Movie Emperor” is sponsored by high-end home appliance manufacturer Dyson is deliciously and understatedly ironic.
In the movie, innocuous-seeming domestic equipment — from the humble suitcase to floor sweeping robots — run quietly amok. So, too, do other forms of supposedly convenient technology, from dashboard cameras to smartphone apps, which seem to conspire to crush the ego of the film’s protagonist, a major movie star trying to get into his role as an angry pig farmer.
That the analog pigs and their distracted human owners are just as much of a handful makes the film an inky, black-humored pastiche on modern high-tech society, our obsessions with self-image and the arrogance of the movie industry.
Chinese director Ning Hao, previously the purveyor of arty satire “Mongolian Ping Pong” and the more scattershot (and commercially successful) “Crazy Racer” and “Crazy Alien,” has always had a cruelly funny streak.
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