Early life
Raised on the tiny offshore island of Lamma, Chow spent his childhood in poverty. His life started to change when his actor-trainee application was accepted by the local television station, TVB.
Career
It didn't take long for Chow to become a household name in Hong Kong following his role in the hit series The Bund ( Hanyu Pinyin: Shang Hai tan) in 1983.
Although Chow continued his TV success, his ultimate goal was to become a big screen actor. However, his occasional ventures onto the big screens with low-budget movies were disastrous. Success finally came when he teamed up with a then relatively unknown director John Woo in the 1986 gangster action-melodrama A Better Tomorrow, which swept the box offices in parts of Asia and established both Chow and Woo as megastars. Taking the opportunity, Chow quit TV entirely. With his new image from Better Tomorrow, he made many more 'gun fu' or 'heroic bloodshed' movies, especially those directed by Woo, such as The Killer (1989) and Hard Boiled (1992).
Chow may be best known, especially in the West, for playing honorable tough guys, whether cops or criminals, but he is a versatile performer. He has starred in comedies like Diary of a Big Man (1988) and Now You See Love... Now You Don't (1992) or romantic films such as Love in a Fallen City (1984) and An Autumn's Tale (1987). He brought together his disparate personas in the 1989 film God of Gamblers (Du shen), directed by the prolific Wong Jing, in which he was by turns suave charmer, broad comedian and action hero. The film surprised many and turned out immensly popular, broke Hong Kong's all-time box office record and spawned a series of gambling movies, as well as several more comic sequels starring Stephen Chow.
Being one of the hottest screen commodities in Hong Kong, Chow moved to Hollywood in the mid-'90s in an attempt to duplicate his success on an international scale. His first two films Replacement Killers (1998) and The Corruptor (1999) were box-office disappointments. His next film Anna and the King (1999) did better, but the success was mostly credited to actress Jodie Foster. He returned to Asia for the (2000) film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , and it became a winner at both the box office and the Oscars.
Chow is still waiting for the type of success he once enjoyed in Hong Kong. He once admitted to a Hong Kong reporter that his ultimate goal is to win an Oscar as an actor. When asked what if it never comes true, he replied "I would just have to laugh about it..."
Private life
Chow's favorite pastime is photography.
Filmography
Reincarnation (1977)
Heroic Cops (1977)
Hot Blood (1977)
Police Sir! (1980)
Postman Fight Back (1981)
Story of Wu Viet (1981)
Head Hunter aka Long Goodbye (1982)
Last Affair (1983)
Bloody Money (1983)
Love in a Fallen City (1984)
Hong Kong 1941 (1984)
The Occupant (1984))
Women (1985)
Witch from Nepal (1985)
Spiritual Love (1985)
Love Unto Waste (1986)
A Better Tomorrow (1986)
Seventh Curse (1986)
Rose (1986)
Lunatics (1986)
100 Ways to Murder Your Wife (1986)
Hearty Response (1986)
City on Fire (1987)
Scared Stiff (1987)
An Autumn's Tale (1987)
Tragic Hero (1987)
Code of Honor (1987)
Prison on Fire (1987)
My Will, I Will (1987)
Rich and Famous (1987)
A Better Tomorrow II (1987)
Romancing Star (1987)
The Eighth Happiness (1988)
Fractured Follies (1988)
Tiger on Beat (1988)
Greatest Lover (1988)
Cherry Blossoms (1988)
Diary of a Big Man (1988)
All About Ah-Long (1989)
The Fun, the Luck & the Tycoon (1989)
The Killer (1989)
A Better Tomorrow III (1989)
God of Gamblers (1989)
Wild Search (1990)
Once a Thief (1991)
Prison on Fire II (1991)
Hard Boiled (1992)
Full Contact (1992)
God of Gamblers Returns (1994)
Treasure Hunt (1994)
Peace Hotel (1995))
The Replacement Killers (1998)
The Corruptor (1999)
Anna and the King (1999)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Bulletproof Monk (2003)
The City of Golden Armor (2007)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The End of the World (2007)
Selected TV Series
The Bund (Hanyu Pinyin: Shang Hai tan; literally: Shanghai Beach) (1983) 25 episodes - a classic Shanghai godfather series [1]
The Smiling, Proud Wanderer (Siu Ngou Kong Wu) (1984) - Chow Yun Fat's first and only foray in wuxia TV series.
See also
Cinema of China
Cinema of Hong Kong
