|
|
Viewed, 8789x, Last Updated
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.
Filmography: CJ7, Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer, The God of Cookery, The Green Hornet,
Latest Stephen Chow News, Opinion & Discussion:
Green Hornet Movie First Action Footage
Below you can checkout the footage from the set of The Green Hornet which comes to us via the fine people at TMZ. A few years ago at Comic Con we had ...
MoviesOnline sat down with Justin Chatwin to talk about his new movie, “Dragonball: Evolution,” the long-awaited, live-action motion pictu... Seth Rogen, Anna Faris Interview, Observe & Report
At the Forest Ridge Mall, head of security Ronnie Barnhardt (Seth Rogen) patrols his jurisdiction with an iron fist. The master of his domain, he comb... Stephen Chow Bows out of Green Hornet Movie
According to Variety Stephen Chow has bowed out of the directors seat of The Greent Hornet. But fear not he still will continue to play the role of Ka... Dragonball Movie Trailer
Today the trailer for Dragonball Evolution has hit the web and you can check it out below. I am still by no means sold on the idea of this movie but I... Dragonball Movie Gets A Subtitle
Today Comingsoon learned that 20th Century Fox were planning on altering the title of the film. Not a moment later did it become obvious that this was... Jaden Smith is The Karate Kid
The crazy rumor that Jaden Smith would play The Karate Kid that started circulating the web many months ago has been confirmed. VARIETY is reporting t... Possible Casting For The Green Hornet
Just a couple days ago we told you that Stephen Chow was going to direct and star in the upcoming The Green Hornet film. Seth Rogen who is busy workin... Stephen Chow Directing & Starring in Green Hornet
We have been following the evolution of the Green Hornet film for years here and finally it looks like they are moving ahead. At one point they h... Dragonball First Movie Clips
If you feel like going really blind you can checkout two new videos which are on the web. We found them through the fine folks at Cinemablend and we a... Jack Black Interview, Kung Fu Panda
We had the pleasure of sitting down with Jack Black and producer Melissa Cobb to discuss Kung Fu Panda! Enthusiastic, big and a little clumsy, Po... New Subtitled Trailer for Shaolin Girl
Before Stephen Chow hit screens here in the U.S. with Kung Fu Hustle he made another film called Shaolin Soccer. That film played small art theaters a... Dragonball Images Emerge
Today a couple of new scans of the cast in their roles were posted on DBtheMovie.com. Apparently all of the pictures from the film came from a Japanes... Box Office Report: 10,000 BC Rules
Dude here again. We did that time change thing last night, putting the clocks ahead an hour. I think it's pretty foolish to keep doing this back and f... Dragonball Pushed Back
Today it was revealed by SuperheroHype that the live action Dragonball movie will be pushed back from August 15th to April 3rd, 2009. I think the... Chow Interested in The Green Hornet
Stephen Chow is easily one of the top directors coming out of Asia in recent years. He had directed and acted in Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle and mo... New CJ7 Poster
The studio just sent over a first look at a brand new poster for Stephen Chows CJ7. From Stephen Chow, the director and star of Kung Fu Hustle, comes ... Stephen Chow's CJ7 Trailer
Stephen Chow is one of the best new directors coming out of China. I first saw his work in Shaolin Soccer and I thought that film was fantastic. So wh... Chow Yun Fat Joins Dragonball
Just yesterday I brought up the casting of Dragonball which I will admit I was a little behind on. Well today the Hollywood Reporter just recie... Dragonball Movie Is a Go!
When I was younger I got into this big Japanese craze where I wanted to watch all kinds of Japanese Anime like Dragonball, Pokemon and so on. W... Stephen Chow to Play Mr. Myiagi?
A few days ago PuppetMaster filled you in on the possible remake of The Karate Kid. At that time their were some production notes that have been going... SuperBad Cast Interview
MoviesOnline caught up at San Diego’s Comic-Con with the creative team behind "Superbad” and had a chance to sit down at the Sony press pa... Seth Rogan Talks Green Hornet
At Comic Con we had a chance to sit down and talk with Seth Rogan about Superbad. Look for our interview hopefully sometime this afternoon. During... Stephen Chow is Kato?
Hot off the heels that Seth Rogan is going to play the Green Hornet comes word that Stephen Chow is in talks to play Kato. Although Stephen Chow i... The Weinstein's Launch QI Martial Arts Label
The Weinstein Company, internationally acclaimed director Andrew Lau (“Infernal Affairs”) and prolific producer Tony Krantz (“24”, “M... Japanese Sequel to Shaolin Soccer
Before Stephen Chow made his breakout hit Kung Fu Hustle he directed Shaolin Soccer. It was another comedy that centered around a rag tag team of ... Bruce Lee TV Show in the Works
China's national broadcaster has just started filming a new 40 part mini-series titled "The Legend of Bruce Lee". The shooting began last weekend ... The Weinsteins start new Asian Films Label : Dragon Dynasty
Continuing their passionate dedication to bringing Asian films to American audiences, Bob and Harvey Weinstein are proud to announce the unveiling... Chow Delays Kung Fu Hustle 2 for Space Adventure
Chinese director Stephen Chow, who has wrote, acted and directed several films that have brought him fame on both sides of the Pacific Ocean has offic... DVD Releases August 9th 2005
There has been JACK on dvd lately and finally we get ourselves a good bunch of sexy dvd releases. A mix of everything but mainly we have a whack of lo... SONY testing PSP Movie Rentals in Japan
Interesting concept. Sony is going to be trying out UMD.. IE.. sony psp movie rentals in Japan. Starting 2 days ago if you live in Japan you have been... Kung Fu Hustle DVD release in August
Today i looked on Amazon to search for new movies i could need in my DVD library. And what did i see? Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle is coming to DVD o... Hakeem's Movie Guide Weekend of April 22nd
The Hakeeminator 4000 is back once again with his weekend movie guide on what you should be spending your hard earned wooden nickells on. So withoutb ... Contest : Kung Fu Hustle Collectible Cards!
Its time to get your Kung Fu Grip out Boys and Girls! We are very happy to have for you limited edition collectible trading cards for Kung Fu Hustle. ... Hakeems Movie Guide April 8th Weekend
Hakeem is back with his Guide to the April 8th Weekend. As you will recall last week his guide was late because he was captured by UFO's and used... Kung Fu Hustle Movie Review
I watched Shaolin Soccer for the first time last week, and I already fell in love with writer, director and star Stephen Chow. The movie was filled wi... Contest : Kung Fu Hustle, win a Car & More
Cause everyone was Kung Fu Fighting! You got a chance to win some sweet loot courtesy of our friend at Sony Classics. They are holding a contest ... KUNG FU HUSTLE - Poster and Trailer !
Our friends from SONY sent us the Poster and the Trailerlinks for Stephen Chow's movie "Kung Fu Hustle". The film is settled in the 1940s'. A Xing (St... Kung Fu Hustle American Trailer in Quicktime
Stephen Chows next film, Kung Fu Hustle, has released the trailer in Quicktime and has changed up the soundtrack. The story takes place in the 1940... New Kung Fu Hustle Japanese Trailer
Stephen Chows film "Kung Fu Hustle" has just released a Japanese trailer which has some extra scenes in it. Of course its all in Japanese but it still...
