The Movie Emperor directed by Ning Hao will close the Busan International Film Festival which will take place from October 4 – 13, 2023 in Busan, Korea.

Closing Ceremony:
October 13, 2023 | Friday | Busan Cinema Center BIFF Theater | 18:00 pm

The Movie Emperor by Ning Hao – China | 2023 – 125 minutes | Fiction
In 2006, Ning Hao delighted his fans in Busan with the closing film, Crazy Stone, at the Busan International Film Festival. This year, he returns after seventeen years with another closing film, The Movie Emperor, joined by the all-time legendary actor, Andy Lau. Hong Kong movie star Lau Weichi (Andy Lau) misses out on the Best Actor Award again at the Hong Kong Film Awards. Deciding that a more serious film might win him an award from a foreign film festival, Lau contacts director Lin Hao (Ning Hao). Lau is cast in the part of an ordinary villager, wearing the iconic cotton-padded jacket that is synonymous with Chinese cinema, but Lin criticizes his acting for lacking reality. The fastidious director is very demanding; the production budget is limited; and there is difficulty communicating with a foreign film festival programmer.

On top of this, Lau’s ex-wife and children grow distant from him, and he himself is about to be embroiled in a scandal. Ning Hao and Andy Lau, renowned director and actor starring in this self-reflexive film about filmmaking, skillfully navigate between reality and fiction, effectively portraying their respective characters. Through the predicaments faced by Hong Kong star Lau Weich in mainland China, Ning Hao deftly captures the fine line between the film industries in Hong Kong and mainland China, the delicate relationship between Western film festivals and Asian filmmakers, the internal conflicts within the capital-dominated film industry, and the tension in the new era of shifting morals where authenticity is no longer a virtue. The charm of Andy Lau, looking truly perplexed in the clash of exploding energies in a topsy-turvy world created by Ning Hao, adds to the reality of the film. (PARK Sun Young | BUSAN 2023)

Trailer:

About the director:
Ning Hao is a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy. He made his feature film debut with Incense (2003). Ning was invited to the Berlin Film Festival and Busan International Film Festival with Mongolian Ping Pong (2004), and again, to the Berlin Film Festival with No Man′s Land (2013). His low-budget film Crazy Stone earned around ten million CNY and achieved significant success at the box office. It was selected as the closing film for the 2006 Busan International Film Festival. Following this, he began work on his ′Crazy′ trilogy with Crazy Racer (2009) and Crazy Alien (2019). Director Ning’s unique cinematic language and dark comedies blend absurdity and narrative chaos.

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