“It’s all about cotton padded jackets.”

Director Nao Hing and Hong Kong mega-star Andy Lau Tak-wah reunite after 18 years (when Lau produced Hing’s “Crazy Stone”) to bring to life a rather funny Hong Kong (and not only) film industry satire, with “The Movie Emperor”. Inappropriately labelled as a Chinese New Year movie and following its triumphant premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September and the Pingyao International Film Festival in October 2023, the film’s theatrical release during Chinese New Year 2024 proved unexpectedly disappointing, grossing just 83 million yuan, probably obscured by more classical and joke-filled comedies, as expected in those festivities.

Dany Lau (Andy Lau) is a veteran megastar with a large fan base, who has been around long enough to start thinking he needs and/or deserves a lifetime achievement award, something like an Oscar. Shortlisted for the Best Actor prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards, he loses it to a rival. Not just a rival, but none other than Jackie Chan, and – to add insult to injury – he is asked to collect the award on behalf of the winner who hasn’t even showed up at the ceremony. Suave and charming as usual, Dany faces the defeat with a façade of sense of humour, but deep down he is furious. Analysing the careers of his more awarded rivals, Dany gets to the conclusions that his mistake is not having done (like Jackie Chan did) more “serious work”, the sort of indie, arty movies that Western festival juries adore.

When the opportunity arises, he takes the leading role of a peasant (a pig farmer, of course!) in a Chinese art-house production and devotes himself to the success of the production, bringing in some sponsors and new-money investors who are not interested in the artistic value of the project but so arrogant to demand to re-write some scenes. Moreover, Dany’s fervour makes him embrace a sort of Stanislavski’s system – as the art of experiencing while training for the part – and he diligently scouts for poor people to observe, real pig farmers to imitate and modest (in his opinion) accommodations to live in. Things starts to backfire when, after adopting a pig as a pet, he also insists on doing his own stunts on a real horse (like Jackie Chan would do), unleashing a shitstorm of comments from the netizens.

The opening scene, with workers preparing kilometers of red carpet, setting up the Hong Kong Film Awards ceremony, and soon after complemented by the same workers taking the whole circus down, is a perfect way to summarize “The Movie Emperor”’s core remark about the fleeting nature of fame and success. Nao Hing pokes fun at the star system and his acute observations hit hard and comment several points. First of all, the aforementioned transience of fame underscores how fragile the professional achievements of a public figure can be in the public eye. A consummate showman with years of experience could still lose everything for a silly faux pas. This also goes hand in hand with a critique of the cancel culture and the generational inability of Dany to deal with it.

Another emerging topic is the airtight bubble in which celebrities are confined and defined by the fun base’s gaze. Dany is paranoid of being filmed and he fears every little red light indicating a camera, something that will generate many cringe-inducing situations; one above all, his clumsy attempt to court a much younger promo director (Rima Zeidan). Not least, a rather funny recurrent point of the film is the mocking of the stereotypical art movie and the great lengths to go to get festival recognition and validation. Some of the best gags of the film involve Dany trying to learn how and where poor people live, culminating with a villager guide apologising: “Oh, you mean poor people? Sorry, we haven’t been poor in years.”

Andy Lau is the beating heart of the movie, obviously, and he plays Dany – a sort of rather dystopian alter ego of himself – with a dedication and zeal that only Dany could match. It is very funny watching such a legend making fun of himself, his entourage, and the industry. However, what truly elevates the film to a higher level is the way it is elegantly filmed and cleverly directed. The comedic time, Nao Hing’s method of lingering on certain static expressions for a long time, the frequent surreal wide-frame camera angles, the crisp photography from Wang Boxue; all blends to a whole that indeed surpasses the sum of its parts. Good performances by actors like Kelly Lim and Pal Sinn, many cameos of HK celebrities like Tony Leung Ka-fai, Miriam Yeung and Wong Jing, and, finally, Nao Hing playing the director of the arthouse movie in the movie, contribute to the final entertaining result.

The Chinese title of “The Movie Emperor” translates “Mr. Red Carpet” which is a rather apt title for this clever meta-movie and sleek satire of the film industry and the shifting figure of the movie star in the age of social media.  

‘The Fall Guy’ movie showcases a storyline focused on a stunt man, played by Ryan Gosling, trying to get back his film director ex, played by Emily Blunt. Film Critic Felix Albuerne Jr. joins LiveNOW from FOX to talk about the latest.

Surely, Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir has had easier gigs.

Watching “The Fall Guy” — the big-screen take on the 1980s TV fave about a Hollywood stuntman who worked on the side as a bounty hunter that this week kicks off the summer movie season — you can’t help but think of its editor.

“The Fall Guy” is many things: an homage to the show; a romance; a vehicle for stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt; a large-scale action flick; and a love letter to stunt performers — those who do the dangerous work or, as the movie suggests early on, get to do “the cool stuff.”

It is big, and it is messy, but Ronaldsdóttir has helped mold it into something that, while lumpy and misshapen, is more entertaining than not.

This isn’t her first cinematic rodeo with director David Leitch, having collaborated with him on hit movies including such winners as 2017’s “Atomic Blonde” and 2018’s “Deadpool 2,” so she surely knew what she was signing up for.

It is, of course, entirely fitting that Leitch sat in the director’s chair for “The Fall Guy,” as he once was a stuntman himself. Famously, he was Brad Pitt’s stunt double on 1999’s “Fight Club.”

Here, the stuntman is Gosling’s Colt Seaver, the movie borrowing the name of Lee Majors’ hero from the TV series, which ran from 1981 to ’86.

When we meet Colt, he’s at the top of his game, specializing in being the stunt double for Hollywood megastar Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Leitch’s “Bullet Train”). On the set of a big movie — Leitch and another frequent collaborator, director of photography Jonathan Sela, appear to take great pleasure in showing off the scale of such a shoot with a couple of elaborate shots — Colt is about to perform a huge fall.

On the way up to his starting point, he flirts via walkie-talkie with camera operator Jody Moreno (Blunt), the two talking about how, after the movie wraps, they could grab a couple of swimsuits — or, as a Brit such as herself would say, “swimming costumes” — hit a beach somewhere and enjoy a few margaritas, as well as the bad decisions to which they lead.

The fall goes badly.

Eighteen months later, Colt, perhaps more psychologically damaged than physically so, is out of the stunt game, making a living by parking cars for a Mexican restaurant. And, having long ago pushed away a caring Jody, he is a walking pile of regret.

When old producer friend Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham of “Ted Lasso”) calls, asking him to be a last-minute fill-in on a set in Sydney, Australia, he declines. She then tells him it’s for Jody’s directorial debut and that his old flame requested him.

He says he’ll need an aisle seat.

Upon arriving at the shoot and set to do a car stunt known as a cannon roll, he complains about the sand on which he’ll be driving on — it’s, um, not dense enough — to another old pal, stunt coordinator Dan Tucker (Winston Duke of “Black Panther”), who coaxes him into the car.

The stunt goes well, save for Colt destroying a camera tracking his car, but Jody is shocked to learn he is behind the wheel. She did NOT, in fact, request him.

Unable to kick him off the project, she instead sets him on fire repeatedly for one scene. Between these hot takes, her frustration via bullhorn over what happened in their relationship under the thinly veiled guise of talking about the lead characters in her epic science-fiction romance flick, “Metalstorm.’

At the end of the day, Colt gets into a truck, cranks a Taylor Swift song, thinks about their time together and cries — at least until Jody catches him. They talk, and while it’s clear feelings still exist between them, they agree to keep things very “profesh.”

Colt soon has bigger problems than Jody, as Gail has secretly recruited him to find the movie’s missing star, the aforementioned Tom Ryder. She convinces Colt that to save Jodie’s movie, the cops must be kept out of it, and he agrees to take on the task.

From here, “The Fall Guy” keeps things really loose, Leitch and writer Drew Pearce (“Iron Man 3,” Leitch’s “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw”) prioritizing action and gags over clear storytelling. (Hey, it’s now summer at the movies — what did you expect?)

As Colt works to uncover the mystery of Tom’s disappearance, Gosling does a lot of the heavy lifting to keep “The Fall Guy” from falling apart. He brings some leftover “Ken”-ergy from the cultural event that was last year’s “Barbie,” for which he earned a well-deserved nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He nails every important line read with great Kenfidence, er, confidence.

One of the movie’s issues is that Jody becomes a glorified background player, not the best use of the talents of Blunt, a four-time Oscar nominee including for her work in the other half 2023’s “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, “Oppenheimer.” “The Fall Guy” would have benefited from a setup that gave more time with its leads together. (One of the movie’s many meta moments has them talking via split-screen as Jody talks about its potential use in her movie, Leitch deciding to educate us on that filmmaking choice and others.)

So, OK, “The Fall Guy” leaves you wanting a bit more, but it succeeds as a two-hour excuse to shove buttery popcorn into your mouth.

And those hoping for a nod to the show beyond the initial offering of closing credits, which feature the “Unknown Stuntman” theme song from the show, should stick around for an extra treat.

Yes, “The Fall Guy” makes a bit of a mess of things, but it sure has fun doing it.

“The Fall Guy” is rated PG-13 for action and violence, drug content and some strong language. Runtime: 2 hours, 6 minutes.