Hong tan xian sheng

This film attempts to convey grand ideas but ultimately remains confined within its own limitations. It appears as though an inexperienced director was granted a substantial budget to create a movie without adequately refining the final product.

Director Hao Ning, with the assistance of Andy Lau, places excessive emphasis on personal expression, thereby undermining the overall structural coherence of the film.

In comparison to its peers, the movie poses several pertinent questions regarding the film industry that merit consideration. Observers have pointed out that the primary theme revolves around satirizing our society's obsession with celebrity culture, which in turn fosters a pervasive sense of narcissism among public figures. This observation may indeed hold a significant degree of truth.

I respectfully disagree with the other reviewer who gave it paltry 3 stars.

The central theme of this film was to make fun of our celebrity obsessed society. How this in turn leads to near constant narcissistic behavior of the celebrities.

Meanwhile it also shows how an entire industry has developed around such people! We see it in real life in the US!! The spin masters, PR firms, promoters endless talking heads on TV especially for political leaders!!

Andy Lau is the central character who plays this conflict laden personality superbly in my humble opinion. Never seen any of his films before. (Shame on me!) Every single subtle move, expression is exquisitely executed. Again my humble opinion.

I congratulate TIFF snagging this film as their World Premiere. Kudos to them.

Photography and music score were superb. Some of the shots were almost picture frame perfect! Supporting cast were impressive.

Just as a disclosure I am not of Asian descent. So very little bias in this review!

This gets an easy 9 stars from me.

It's been highly promoted already, with super movie star Andy Lau playing an in-movie movie star that's modeled after himself. He finds himself successfully in his career peak but with insatiable ambition needing a well-recognised award to fill. His plan to make it big comes back to bite him, in contrast to what he thought. The complexity of the role network: stake-holding parties, his vanity-partially-driven ideal, his self-centred personality, broken relationships would all impress me. A nice insight into the scene of business and movies is offered to lay audiences, and online criticism caused by a tiny issue is definitely aligned with reality. Overall, Andy Lau's long-honed acting and the story's realism make this work an ticket-worthy one. Highly recommended.

So much of this film reminds me of Fellini's work. One could almost say it's sort of a tribute to his theme and style of existentialism. Could it have been too on the nose? No I would say as it sure does have its own original strokes to it where the story unfolds culturally within its own unique way. It's hard for one to empathize with Andy Lau's character unless one has been through an acceptable level of understanding of what it takes to make a film. It's tough walking a fine line trying to achieve something great while still being able to keep all parties satisfied without having to sacrifice the true integrity of an epic art piece. A balancing act that few people could ever comprehend. Some films are ahead of their time, this might just be one of those, just like Wong Kar-Wai's films, this piece might not find its true value and recognition within the audience until a future date.

I respectfully agree with the other reviewer who gave it 3 stars, but I chose to gave a 5 for some (but very few) highlights/funny bits in this movie. I understand that Ning was trying to be innovative and creating something new however this is not a fun or compelling story at all. The whole script is boring and dreadful and we very much indeed agree that we couldn't wait for this movie to end. Ning is one of my favorite director but this is just not a good piece of him.

My partner said it's a total waste of time and it feels like Ning merged lots of different story lines into one movie however he can't even tell one story right and just didn't finish any of them properly.

Andy Lau is great actor, as always, although this character isn't too difficult for him to play I guess.