Citizen King (2008)

• 69%
• 2008
• Comedy
• Johnson Lee Sze-Chit
• Johnson Lee Sze-Chit
• Farini Cheung Yui-Ling
• Gordon Liu Chia-Hui

The title of this Hong Kong drama is an obvious take-off of Citizen Cane. Our Citizen King (Johnson Lee) is a down-and-out Chinese actor with the dream of make it in Hollywood because Hong Kong just doesn't get him. King meets a sleazy American producer who promises that if King can make an audition tape he will get him set up in Hollywood. King enlists martial arts legend Gordon Liu (Kill Bill) to help him create the performance of his lifetime. Part romance and part black comedy, Citizen King was shot in black and white and in English, which are highly atypical for Hong Kong movies. The filmmakers Johnson Lee and Ching Long pull together a mix bag of melodrama, black comedy, mocumentary and cinematic homage to an ironically compelling feature. Citizen King is truly a hyperbole of Hong Kong's identity crisis-a Chinese movie shot in English, and a good film about a bad actor. The romance between King and his biggest fan (Farini Chan) is particularly moving. Citizen King is undeniably a fascinating and unique item of Hong Kong cinema.