Hong Kong director Stephen Chow (fifth from left) with the cast members of his upcoming film, The New King of Comedy, at a promotional event in Beijing. The film will be released on Feb 5, the first day of Lunar New Year. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Stephen Chow's latest film-semi-autobiographical in its telling-recounts his failures and successes in show business, Xu Fan reports.

While shooting for Hong Kong director Stephen Chow's latest film, The New King of Comedy, actress E Jingwen found most of the days "miserable".

Every night when she opened the script to prepare for the next day's job, she says she usually read descriptions of her character getting beaten or scolded or humiliated. During film-within-a-film situations, for example, her character, who plays a background role, is kicked around by some characters. In another movie, she spent nearly 40 minutes inside a water tank on set.

As the lead of the upcoming The New King of Comedy, E stars as an aspiring actress who leaves a small town to pursue her dreams but struggles for more than a decade to only land film-extra jobs. In the story, her parents urge her to return home for a more stable life, but the woman sticks to her passion and ultimately moves toward stardom.