Course:ASIA325/2025/Forbidden City Cop: Criticism of Power, Tradition and Traditional gender role

Forbidden City Cop: Criticism of Power, Tradition and Traditional Gender Role

Group Members' Contributions

SK: Manager

VC: Questioner, Recorder

HL: Presenter, Strategy Analyst

Distribution of Contributions

	Contributor(s)
Introduction	VC(basic information of the film), HL (storyline), SK (agenda)
Stories Behind Film Production	HL
Reception of the Film	HL
Scholarly Literature Review	SK
Comparative Analysis	VC
An Alternate Interpretation	VC
Conclusion	VC, HL, SK

Introduction

Forbidden City Cop (Chinese: 大內密探零零發) directed and written by Stephen Chow (Chinese: 周星馳) and Vincent Kwok (Chinese: 谷德昭), is a 1990s Hong Kong wuxia parody. The film is produced by Wong Jing (Chinese: 王晶), starring director Stephen Chow (Chinese: 周星馳), Carina Lau (Chinese: 劉嘉玲), Carmen Lee (Chinese: 李若彤), and Tats Lau (Chinese: 劉以達). Forbidden City Cop was first premiered in Hong Kong on February 16, 1996, and later in Taiwan on March 23, 1996.

The movie focuses on one of the Emperor’s special agents who doesn’t possess any martial arts like his companions but a creative and scientific mind. The main character represents science and complex engineering in the old century. He saves the Emperor from exact scientific inventions that got him kicked out of the palace. After saving the Emperor, he also helped him plot and destroy King Faceless of the Kam Tribe.

In the following sections, first, we look at the details of the stories behind the creation of Forbidden City Cop. Secondly, we review the histories of the audience reception of Forbidden City Cop and how people react to this film locally and abroad. Thirdly, the literature review section highlights some of the critical arguments about the director Stephen Chow’s comedy style and how he adapted it into Forbidden City Cop from various scholars, including Daniel Eagan, Liao Ruiyun, Matthew Ming-tak Chew, Issac Ting-yan Hui and Shen Chen. Then, the analysis will compare with another film Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express (1994) with this film in various elements. Finally, we introduce the alternative interpretation analyzes and conclusion of our project.

Stories Behind the Film

The movie was released in 1996, produced by Win’s Entertainment Ltd and Samico Films Production. When it hit the theatres, the movie was distributed globally with distributors from Japan, Canada, and the US. The movie depicted James Bond's movie, as Ling Ling Fat acted as the emperor’s agent (Stykuc 2021). With his cool inventions, the movie mimicked the undercover weapons that James Bond possessed.

The movie’s gross revenue reached $36,000,000 HKD (Wikipedia Contributors), which was higher than King of Comedy (1999) at $29,800,000 HKD (Wikipedia Contributors) and slightly lower than From Beijing with Love (1994) at $37,500,000 HKD (Wikipedia Contributors).

The name of the movie suggested the setting inside the infamous Forbidden City. However, due to limited information regarding the production process, the location of the movie set was quite a mystery.

Histories of the Film’s Reception

Based on some of the movie reviews, here are some general themes that represent the audience’s opinion towards the movie. The reviewers keep mentioning the “make no sense” style of Stephen Chow being the anchor in their reviews. In fact, Stephen Chow is the pioneer of this so called “mo lei tau” style which will be studied deeply in the Literature Review.

For example, with Asian Movie Web, they think that Cantonese speakers will appreciate the movie more due to the word choice of the director (Selzer).In the same direction, MIB also agrees that his humour “can be hit or miss” due to the language barrier (ManInBlack 2025). The movie title is a direct translation of “Imperial Secret Agent 008” and “Ling Ling Fat” means 008 (ManInBlack 2025). This is an example to show that for non-Cantonese speakers might not get the full story behind the movie.

In general, there’s a positive view towards to movie being a comedy that also reflects a special style of a director. For generations, these types of movies are part of their childhood. Even though the movie was somewhat simple in terms of the movie set or costumes, it reflects the traditional values and culture of Chinese heritage. For example, Asian Movie Pulse rated the movie as one of Chow’s best comedies. They also reason that this movie is digestible for people who try Chow’s films for the first time without understanding his sense of humour (Stykuc 2021).

For references, Rotten Tomatoes rate this movie a 77% and IMDB rates it 6.9/10.. Comparing with other movies directed by Stephen Chow, Forbidden City Cop sits at a decent place. From Beijing With love is rated 87% with more than 5000 ratings on Rotten Tomatoes while Forbidden City Cop only receives more than 2500 reviews. IMDB also favours “From Beijing with Love” with a 7.1/10 rating. A higher rating on "From Beijing with Love" correlates with the gross revenue that it generates which is higher than Forbidden City Cop.

Scholarly Literature Review

Stephen Chow is known for his absurd, fast-paced comedic style that makes the audience laugh from the past to the present. Chow’s films combine slapstick humour, pop culture references, and parodies of traditional Chinese narratives are considered as one of the most influential figures in post-1990s Hong Kong cinema. His style is commonly referred to as mo lei tau or “nonsense” comedy. However, his work has also attracted scholarly interest for its reflection of deeper cultural, political, and cinematic trends in Hong Kong, as many critics have argued that Chow’s nonsense is not meaningless (Eagan 1).

By looking at key arguments in scholarly articles, this literature review explores how Chow uses mo lei tau to critique power, tradition and surveillance and how his film gets popularity locally and globally. In this study, we will analyze Forbidden City Cop (1996), which is a film that parodies martial arts heroism, blends historical and modern elements in unpredictable ways. Also, we will examine how Forbidden City Cop reveal about the identity shift in Hong Kong film by using playful cross-genre.

Chow's Comedy Style

Stephen Chow is a pioneer of the genre mo lei tau, nonsense comedy that focuses on sight gag, abrupt tonal shift, fast-talking absurdity and is unique to Hong Kong Cinema. In “Fu the Hustle!”, Eagan mentions that Chow is heavily influenced by Western non-verbal comedy, known as slapstick comedy, such as Buster Keaton and Jim Carrey. In earlier times, his jokes only targeted audiences in Hong Kong and China. His use of Western style helped his films gain popularity around the world. In Forbidden City Cop, Chow incorporates the style of James Bond set in an Imperial China version (Eagan 1). The James Bond style could be observed in the original Chinese title, 大內密探零零發, which translates as “Imperial Secret Agent 008” and the main theme song sounds similar to the iconic James Bond theme song, but in traditional Chinese style. Eagan also introduced Chow’s quote, “I tried to take out the slang, even a lot of the dialogue. If I can present my ideas with action, or something visual, it’s much easier for audiences to understand” (Eagan 1).

Shen Chen argues that effective comedy always consists of surprise and suspense to elicit laughs from the audience in the article “Laughter in Disguise / 'Seeing Beyond Believing”. Surprise comes from the unexpected, unusual events that challenge audiences’ expectations or mindsets, while suspense helps the audience to expect a good outcome. Chow’s comedy often abruptly surprises and kills the audience's suspense. (Chen 14-15).

Also, Chen states that Chow’s comedy style employs absurd humour not just for laughs, but as a tool to underline social critique. His film often parodies established cinematic genres like kung fu, romance, or historical narratives, but then turns them into absurdity, such as breaking the illusion of heroism or tradition. Chow questions the seriousness of cultural authority and exposes its contradictions (Chen 31-32).

Forbidden City Cop demonstrates these ideas clearly. Instead of the typical loyal depiction of legends of martial arts, Chow plays an ugly, clumsy imperial guard obsessed with modern gadgets and medical tools. The traditional idea of masculinity and loyalty are mocked, and the emperor is portrayed as naive and easily manipulated (Chen 72-73). These choices reflect what scholars identify as the significance of Chow’s comedy, undermining the sacred with the silly.

Chow’s signature mo lei tau style not only works as entertainment, but also it is a deliberate aesthetic choice that plays with genre expectations globally. Scholars interpret his comedy as a layered strategy that combines parody and critique. Forbidden City Cop is an example to understand his style and how his comedy becomes a way to question the values of tradition, power, and national identity.

Chow's Films and Politics

Although Chow’s comedic style may look nonsensical on the surface, scholars have paid attention to the underlying political view in his films. He uses mo lei tau to disorient the audience, but only on the surface. His political ideas are hidden underneath.  

In “Toward Hong Kong Eco-Comedy: Transformation From Kung Fu Movies to Eco-Cinema Through The Lens of Stephen Chow, Ruiyun Liao talks about the roots of mo lei tau comedy. This genre starts from the Hui brothers’ films in the 1970s and 1980s, but the label wasn’t applied at the time. Their absurd and often jokes do not make sense, making way for what would later become an iconic contemporary Hong Kong cinema. By the 1990s, his name had become nearly synonymous with the genre, and he brought this genre into a golden age (Liao 43).

Liao argues that the popularity of mo lei tau in the 1990s was not just about surface laughter; it came from the political mood of the time. As Hong Kong approached the 1997 Handover, many locals were dealing with the uncertainty, anxiety, and no promised future for them. Chow’s absurdist comedy, which embraces randomness and weakens power, becomes a way for Hong Kongers to live in the moment and laugh at systems that felt surreal or oppressive (Liao 42-43).

Forbidden City Cop uses this Mo lei tau style like a sudden genre shift, slapstick violence, nonsensical dialogue and exaggerated characters (Liao 47). In his films, director Chow often plays the main character by himself. His characters always seem completely unqualified or foolish, but they have one strangely specific talent. In Forbidden City Cop, this is seen in his role as a martial artist who prefers medicine and inventions over fighting, which challenges traditional ideals of loyalty, masculinity, and power in imperial narratives. This kind of character is central to Chow’s comedic world as Liao says “a bungler character with one outstanding skill” who navigates a chaotic world through luck, improvisation, and charm (Liao 43).

Liao emphasizes how mo lei tau isn’t just a style. It is made out of Hong Kong city’s pop culture, politics, and media industries. With this understanding, Forbidden City Cop becomes more than just a silly period parody. It reflects Hong Kong’s cultural identity shifts and demonstrates how humour can both mask and expose the absurdity of the changing authority system  (Liao 43).

Transborder Reception and Identity

While Stephen Chow’s films are heavily associated with Hong Kong culture, their popularity has gone beyond geographic borders. His comedy seems targeted only local audience and might seem difficult to export. Yet Chow’s films have also gained attention globally. His rising digital fandom in the 2010s highlights how audiences reinterpret his humour beyond its original Hong Kong context.

According to Matthew Ming-tak Chew in Discovering the digital Stephen Chow: The transborder influence of Chow’s films on the Chinese Internet in the 2010s, Chow’s popularity in mainland China significantly depends on the relationship with the digital world, especially through user-generated content like memes or catchphrases. Including Forbidden City Cop, his old films have been re-circulated as meme templates, nostalgic fan edits and even his parody parodies (Chew 135-136). These digital forms are often detached from the original meanings, like Hong Kong-specific political or linguistic meanings. This allows Chow’s style to be reinterpreted through a post-90s, often mainland Chinese perspective (Chew 126-127). Thanks to the digital reappropriation, Chow’s films expand his fame outside Hong Kong. However, at the same time, we have a problem of cultural dilution and reinterpretation.

Chew expands this discussion in his second article by challenging dominant frameworks of Hong Kong–China cultural relations. While Chew points out the risks of cultural dilution of Chow’s works in the digital world, Chew also talks about these complexities by looking at how Chow’s films are received across the border in another article, Rethinking the Cultural Relations between Hong Kong and China: An Analysis of the Chinese Reception of Stephen Chow’s Films. Chow introduced the term “sub-imperialism,” which assumes that after the 1997 handover, Hong Kong culture would either be suppressed or absorbed by China. But Chow’s popularity in China shows this isn’t true. Chew argues that Chow’s popularity among Chinese audiences, from casual fans to scholars, reveals that his comedy has not just been received as a silly genre or suppressed by dominant state ideologies. However, they have been embraced precisely for their counter-hegemonic qualities. His work suggests that Hong Kong culture is resilient and can influence Chinese culture in meaningful, non-dominant ways. People often think of Hong Kong and China relations as conflictual or top-down, driven by the state. But Chow’s continuous attraction to audiences became an example of how post-handover Hong Kong-China cultural relations can be dialogue-based and mutually transformative (Chew 806). In this way, the reception outside locals of Forbidden City Cop does not just show how meaning can shift, it demonstrates how cultural art can remain politically alive, even when it’s recontextualized.

Translation and Global Circulation

Chow’s film uses a lot of cultural references, heavy linguistic wordplay and a nonsense tone, and it sounds difficult to translate. Despite these challenges, his comedies have found enthusiastic audiences in non-Cantonese speaking communities. One of the key ways this global circulation has occurred is through subtitles, especially in English. According to Issac Ting-yan Hui in When Local goes global: English subtitles of two comedy films by Stephen Chow, the translation of Chow’s humour is not simply a matter of language differences. However, the difficulties arise from a form of creative nuance where translators often must reinterpret humour, tone, and even narrative structure to adjust the material to make it sense or be understandable, as well as funny to non-local audiences (Hui 4).

Forbidden City Cop is full of traditional language, complicated invention names and nonsensical dialogue. All of them heavily rely on rapid-fire Cantonese slang and context-specific humour. According to Hui, when translators are working on Chow’s films, they need to make a decision whether to remain original, culturally specific meaning or change to a broader understanding (Hui 13). For instance, in Forbidden City Cop, a joke built around a dialogue and traditional context-based languages might be replaced by a completely different joke in English that does not require knowing Cantonese in order to understand the translated joke. The translated jokes match the timing and absurd tone, but do not carry the original meanings. These creative equivalences allow the humour to adjust for an international audience, even as they reshape Chow’s initial intention (Hui 13).

Ultimately, Forbidden City Cop demonstrates how Chow’s Cantonese context-based mo lei tau style works as a way for both cultural critique and global entertainment.

Comparative Analysis

Chungking Express (1994) and Forbidden City Cop (1996)

In Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express (1994) and Stephen Chow’s Forbidden City Cop (1996), the directors explore the theme of alienation through vastly different genres and filmmaking styles. In Chungking Express (1994), the narrative is split between the stories of two policemen, Cop 223 and Cop 663. Set in contemporary Hong Kong, each narrative follows the policemen navigating their respective heartbreak from past relationships and their search for new connections, posing potential for a new beginning. In Forbidden City Cop (1996), imperial guard Ling Ling Fat (Chinese: 零零發) is kicked out of the Imperial Palace for his lack of martial skill and useless inventions. As the story progresses, he uses his inventions to save the Emperor, gaining back his position and further proving his worth when he completes a secret mission.

The two iconic pieces of 1990s Hong Kong cinema were released during a time of increasing anxiety over the impending 1997 handover. Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express (1994) is a melancholic urban romance, often described as art cinema by critics. On the other hand, Stephen Chow’s Forbidden City Cop (1996) is a wuxia parody, with elements of romance, comedy, and drama. While it may seem that these two films with such contrasting tones lack any similarities, they reflect many of the same attitudes and concerns of the time.

Themes of Isolation

In Chungking Express (1994), Cop 223 navigates his breakup with his girlfriend May and grapples with the feelings of isolation. He repeatedly checks his pager for messages from her. Each time he does, he confirms his identity with his password “love you for ten thousand years,” a painful reminder of their romance in the silence that follows. Wong Kar-wai strongly utilizes aesthetic style through interesting lighting to portray this feeling of loneliness throughout the film, and in this particular scene, Cop 223 is backlit by the giant neon sign, casting his entire figure in black (00:12:48). Through the use of this saturated colour with black composite, Cop 223 seems to be a person with no identity, experiencing existential confusion following the loss of his love.

In Forbidden City Cop (1996), Ling Ling Fat loses his post as an imperial guard and is banished from the palace on account of being too useless. The Emporer curses at Ling Ling Fat, and slaps him a couple times for good measure, before he is sent to walk out the palace surrounded by guards who avoid making eye contact with him (00:11:47 – 13:05). Stephen Chow utilizes a wide angle on a crane shot for this scene, where Ling Ling Fat is seen walking out into the world on his lonesome, similarly emphasizing the isolation and disconnection (13:12). However, in stark contrast with Chungking Express, Stephen Chow also incorporates many comedic aspects into this sequence. The conversation between the Emporer and Ling Ling Fat in contemporary and informal Cantonese adds absurdity to the situation, and even undermines authority in a sense. As Ling Ling Fat leaves the palace, Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky plays in the background, an out-of-context way to further subvert the expectations of a typical wuxia while still maintaining the melancholic feeling (13:12).

Exploring Ambiguous Identity

Another theme that both films explore in vastly different ways is identity through the lens of others. In Forbidden City Cop (1996), Ling Ling Fat loses his confidence in his genius and sense of self worth after continued rejection from the imperial officials (25:51). In a conversation that devolves into an argument with his wife, it is finally revealed that Ling Ling Fat is indeed very affected by his expulsion from the palace and the critique from those around him. Throughout the film, he is seen as an inadequate imperial guard, inventor, dissector, and imperial doctor through the eyes of others. An example of such a scene is when he first leaves the palace and becomes a doctor, where instead of prescribing medicine to his client, he gets prescribed medicine and pays her instead (00:14:40). This is a prime example of Stephen Chow’s use of mo lei tau humour, but also highlights the way how others perceive his different identities, and how they in turn affect his own self-perception.

This theme is explored in a very different way in Chungking Express (1994), where the two love interests, the blonde lady and Faye, have identities that at first seem straight forward, but become increasingly complex as the story progresses. With the first narrative surrounding Cop 223, the blonde lady is first introduced as someone who he fell for at first sight (00:02:03). However, we soon come to realize that she is a woman running a drug operation in Chungking Mansions, and murder several people in the span of a few days (;). In Cop 663’s story, Faye is a food stand worker who starts obsessing over him and sneaking into his apartment to clean and redecorate it when he is gone. When Cop 663 is finally ready to look for Faye, she leaves for California, a callback to her favourite song, and becomes a flight attendant. While the love interests seem to have dynamic and interesting identities, the two romance stories told in tandem with each other highlights the lack of connection between the couples. Rather, it seems that the “love” between them is rather surface level as neither couple really gets to know each other’s “real” identities. Whereas Stephen Chow uses mo lei tau humour, Wong Kar-wai’s use of blurred motion, low-angle shots and low lighting when following characters in motion further emphasizes the feeling of an ambiguous identity (00:20:35).

Romance in Film

In this sense, while Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express (1994) can be classified as a romance, the film does not build much narrative connection between the characters. It can be argued that neither couple necessarily matches with the other, but the strength of Kar-wai’s film style in creating a lonely atmosphere makes it seem as though the partner is the only other person in their sphere. The scene where Cop 223 is in the hotel room watching television, while the blonde lady sleeps on the bed next to him, does not necessarily establish a connection between the two (00:34:25). Rather, their ‘connection’ is mostly based on simply being a presence for the other in a sphere of shared loneliness and isolation.

In contrast, Forbidden City Cop (1996), while explicitly a comedy, has moments of romance that tell a more compelling story than Chungking Express (1994). Ling Ling Fat and his wife have a loving relationship built on mutual respect, and experience arguments and lover spats that they come out of stronger together. One such scene is where Ling Ling Fat starts an argument about his wife’s compliments to him, sparked by his own insecurities (00:25:51). In the end, his wife asks if he would like her to make a bowl of noodles for him, a phrase that she repeats in future arguments to appeal to him and stop the argument (00:27:31). The comedic nature of the movie also makes this relationship between the two light-hearted and fun despite serious relationship challenges.

Alternative Interpretation

From our analysis of Forbidden City Cop, along with other scholars' analysis of the film, we would agree that Stephen Chow’s uses mo lei tau humour to criticize power, authority, and traditional gender roles during a time of extreme anxiety in pre-handover Hong Kong. Our group argues that another major theme within the film is the exploration of individual identity during a time of cultural change, echoing a major concern of cultural identity in Hong Kong at the time. As Ling Ling Fat dons different identities throughout the film, he loses himself in the process, only to find his purpose and identity again. We also argue that by exploring different identities, a person can find one that resonates the most and become more aligned in the process.

At the scene where Ling Ling Fat starts his business as a doctor, prescribing medicine to women who are ill and seek his advice, he seems to lack passion and motivation to properly approach the job (00:13:05). The medicine bags are packed and hanging from the ceiling, and regardless of the client’s issue or illness, Ling Ling Fat utilizes a nonsense invention, where he pulls a lever and the medicine bag is dropped down below. At his third client, his client ends up prescribing medicine to him instead of the other way around, and in a classic mo lei tau comedy fashion, Ling Ling Fat pays his supposed client instead (00:14:40). The absurdity of the situation of the supposed doctor’s carelessness also highlights Ling Ling Fat’s lack of passion for such a job, where he does not get to express his creative and out-of-the-ordinary ideas through novel inventions. Following this attempt to conform to the identity of a doctor, Ling Ling Fat loses confidence in his genius and creativity. With the support of his wife, he is able to shift from this joyless occupation to putting his energy into making new inventions.

After he saves the Emperor and his other peers using his nonsense inventions, Ling Ling Fat gains his confidence in his genius once again. He is even able to create an elaborate plan to trap King of No Face, by creating a complicated play involving the Emperor, his advisors, his family members’. In the following fight sequence, Ling Ling Fat utilizes his inventions with varying success, but is able to defeat the enemy in the end using his inventions and his cleverness (1:23:13). This ending sequence further solidifies his identity as a genius inventor with mischievous qualities, capable of defending his family and Emperor, thus gaining him title and prestige.

Conclusion

Various scholars argue that Stephen Chow’s Forbidden City Cop reflects the core of mo lei tau comedy, which is interpreted as just entertainment. Stephen Chow's special style of directing his movies has left the audience a good show to enjoy. Even though, the movie will be better for Cantonese-speaking audience due to the translation barriers, people still perceive it as one of the legendary works of Hong Kong movies. Knowing that his comedic style could be interpreted differently, this movie acts as a bridge for the new audience to explore his legacy.

By looking at academic scholarly literature, the review explores how Chow uses absurd humour to critique tradition and authority through periodic parody and cultural references. We also examine how his films reflect the political shift and local uncertainty of pre- and post-1997 Hong Kong. His films suggest that mo lei tau can be both entertainment and resistance. Moreover, we state how Forbidden City Cop has been received by non-locals, especially through a reinterpretation digital form in mainland China. While the mo lei tau humour is used to criticize power, authority, and traditional gender roles, our group also argues that the film also uses this humour to explore the search for individual identity.