Let Me Entertain You

It is jarring to see Eric Tsang angry. The jovial actor, whose ubiquity in Hong Kong films—he's been in nearly 150—has made him a fixture on cable systems throughout Asia, is synonymous with lowbrow high jinks and slapstick physicality. Yet here he is, feet planted defiantly on a Kowloon street, ignoring an imprecating photographer who is losing a race with the setting sun to snap a natural-light portrait. Tsang's full-moon of a face, which is seen onscreen usually deployed in an overwrought double take or wide-eyed surprise, is now reddening as he barks in Cantonese into his cell phone. Even Tsang's...