Chow Yun-Fat (Chinese Hanyu Pinyin: Zhou Rùnfa)
(born May 18, 1955 on Lamma Island, Hong Kong) is among
a handful of internationally recognized screen actors
that Hong Kong has produced, along with Bruce Lee and
Jackie Chan. A charismatic actor, he has been likened
to a grittier, more intense version of Cary Grant.
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.
It didn't take long for Chow to become a household
name in Hong Kong following his role in the hit series
The Bund (Chinese 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 low-budget action movie
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
and dedicated himself to making more 'gun fu' movies.
His later films include heroic bloodshed movies The
Killer (1989) and Hard Boiled (1992), and the romantic
An Autumn's Tale (1987). He is, however, best known
for playing honorable tough guys, whether cops or
criminals. He starred, together with Andy Lau, in
the 1989 film God of Gamblers (Du shen), directed
by the prolific Wong Jing. 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 was called upon by Hollywood 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 sleepers.
His next film Anna and the King (1999) did better,
but the success was mostly credited to actress Jodie
Foster. He stared in 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..."
Selected 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)
Autumn Rememberance (2006)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The End of the World (2007)
Selected TV Series
The Bund (Chinese: ???; Hanyu Pinyin: Shàng
Hai tan; literally: Shanghai Beach) (1983) 25 episodes
- a classic Shanghai godfather series
The Smiling, Proud Wanderer (Siu Ngou Kong Wu) (1984)
- Chow Yun Fat's first and only foray in wuxia TV
series, it was his first failure in Asia.
source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
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