Born: June 22, 1962 (Hong Kong)

Small resume

Stephen Chow was born in Hong Kong in 1962 and grew up in Shanghai, along with three sisters. He developed an early fascination with martial arts star Bruce Lee and while still in school took three months of Wing Chun classes under the tutelage of Master Wong Shun-leung, one of Lee's martial brothers. Though Chow's formal martial arts training was brief, combined with continued aerobic and flex training, he has ably integrated martial arts action into many of his comic film roles, for which he is best known.

Upon completion of high school in 1982, Chow auditioned for an acting school run by TVB, a local television station in Hong Kong. He was initially rejected, but through his friend Waise Lee Chi-hung (Tricky Brains), Chow was later allowed to take night courses. He graduated in 1983 and was hired as host of a children's television program entitled Space Shuttle 430. He was not particularly fond of children, but developed an offbeat rapport with his pint-sized co-stars that was popular with audiences and led to a successful five-year run that ended in 1988. The final year saw Chow break into dramatic roles in several television series before he was approached to star in his first feature film.

In 1988, Stephen Chow was approached by Danny Lee Sau-yin who cast him in Final Justice, for which Chow won Best Supporting Actor at the 25th Annual Taiwanese Film Awards. This led to a series of mostly dramatic film and television roles. Chow's humorous side finally broke out to great acclaim with the success of All For the Winner in 1990 which parodied God of Gamblers, starring Chow Yun Fat. The success of this film led to starring roles in two sequels to God of Gamblers and the favorable status of consistently dominating the box office. The only other actor who had compared in popularity and success is Jackie Chan and added up, Chow's films surpass Jackie's in revenue. All For the Winner also established an important trend in Hong Kong's pop culture begun by Chow, known as 'Mou Lei Tau,' translated as 'nonsense' or 'meaningless talk.' In most of his subsequent films, characters would frequently exchange seemingly incomprehensible dialogue loosely akin to 'Monty Python speak' where utter absurdity is traded for laughs, though mostly by local audiences better equipped to comprehend obscure references.

Parodies would become a popular premise Chow would revisit often, most notably in Fist of Fury 1991 (1991), a parody of Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury and From Beijing with Love (1994), a parody of James Bond films. In All's Well, Ends Well (1997), Chow went all out to satirize Pretty Woman, Ghost, Once Upon a Time in China, Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and even Terminator II. Chow tapped into other popular trends including the renaissance of period martial arts films in the early '90s. Chow began to parody this genre with Justice My Foot in 1992, for which he won Best Actor of Asia Pacific Film Festival. Other films would include Royal Tramp, Royal Tramp II, The Mad Monk, Hail the Judge, and Forbidden City Cop. Though King of Beggars is regarded as one of best period film offerings from Chow, A Chinese Odyssey Part 1 and 2 where he took on the role of the Chinese literary hero, the Monkey King, were the most ambitious and uniformly entertaining.

Chow's interest in working behind the camera began to grow in the mid-'90s and led to his directorial debut with From Beijing with Love. But it was The God of Cookery two years later that could be considered the first complete Stephen Chow movie. This enjoyable comedy spoof mixing God of Gamblers with the Iron Chef saw Chow acting as writer, producer, director, and star. It was one of his most commercially successful films to date and clearly exposed Chow as a creative genius who was quickly condensing his brand of comedy into a well-defined package that even Western audiences could digest. Hollywood finally took notice of Chow with this release and there was even brief talk of Chow directing Jim Carrey in a remake.

With Hollywood having seemingly lost its interest, growing competition from foreign films, and much of Hong Kong's film industry in turmoil following the handover of 1997, Chow was beginning to worry that he might be in a rut, rehashing his previous successes. But Shaolin Soccer changed all of that. After a two-year break, Chow returned with the idea of combining kung fu action with the world's most popular sport. A new twist was the incorporation of the latest digital effects technology that made much of the film's outrageous action scenes possible. Chow struck critical and commercial gold when the film was released and hit a new box office record of over HK$60 million, thus ranking as the highest-grossing film in Hong Kong history. Not surprisingly, Hollywood took a more serious look at Chow's work and Miramax purchased rights to redistribute Shaolin Soccer abroad in 2003.

Having ridden the success of this film, Chow shelved plans for a sequel and has since begun work on another martial arts-inspired project entitled Kung Fu Hustle, with financial backing from Columbia Tristar.

Stephen Chow Trivia

- A Wing Chun stylist, Chow began using it in combat scenes, starting with Fist of Fury 1991

Stephen Chow Links

www.chowsingchi.sphosting.com
www.chow-sing-chi.com

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