With his physical sense of humor, STEPHEN CHOW has been described as Asia’s answer to Jim Carrey. The Hong Kong actor/director also invites comparisons to Charlie Chaplin and the Farrelly Brothers. However, Chow’s comic skills put him in a class all his own. Almost a decade ago, Chow was hailed as the founder of a Hong Kong comedy genre known as “mo lei tau.” Often translated as “nonsense comedy,” this grab-bag style of film relies heavily on wafer-thin plots, slapstick antics, and toilet humor, and earned Chow legions of fans across Asia. In a “mo lei tau” picture, literally anything goes. A fake commercial or musical number could interrupt the plot at any time, and the story may veer off on a number of hysterical tangents. “My films have evolved over time but one thing remains constant, says Chow, people will never tire of good comedy.”
Born in 1962 to Shanghainese parents, Chow is the only son of four children. He grew up idolizing Bruce Lee, and after graduating from high school in 1982, applied for placement at the very same broadcast syndicate TVB where Lee got his start. Although Chow was turned down for not being handsome or talented enough, he persisted and was eventually accepted into TVB’s acting school. Chow graduated after a year in the program and made his first appearance on “430 Space Shuttle,” a popular children’s television program that he co-hosted with Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (“In the Mood for Love”). He hosted for four years until 1987, when he made his movie debut in “Final Justice,” earning him the Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Over the next few years, Chow alternated between television and movie roles. He starred mainly in action movies like “Thunder Cops 2” and “Dragon Fight” and was able to show his comedic side in Jacky Cheung’s “Faithfully Yours.” It wasn’t until 1990 that Chow changed Hong Kong cinema history with his film “All for the Winner.”
Co-directed by Jeff Lau (Wong Kar Wai’s partner at Jet Tone Productions), “All for the Winner” is a parody of the 1989 Chow Yun-Fat vehicle, “God of Gamblers.” It introduced audiences to Chow’s unique brand of “mo lei tau” comedy and out-grossed the movie it lampooned. It also spawned a rash of comedy-gambling movies, including two sequels to the original “God of Gamblers,” which starred the man who mocked them: Stephen Chow. And that wasn’t all Chow was doing in 1990. Chow starred in eleven movies that year, including “My Hero,” “Legend of the Dragon,” and “Curry & Pepper.”
In 1991, Chow made “Fist of Fury ’91,” a spoof of the Bruce Lee classic “Fists of Fury.” Adopting many of Lee’s facial expressions, Chow gave a comic twist to the legendary martial artist’s fighting style. In “Fist of Fury ’91,” Chow plays a martial artist with the strongest right arm in China . . . and the weakest left. The movie spawned a sequel the following year and encouraged Chow to develop his own special brand of action comedy. Widely imitated but never matched, Chow’s action comedies set the pace for Hong Kong movie making in the ’90s.
Chow continues to be one of the hardest-working actors in Hong Kong show business. He has starred in over 49 movies and won Best Actor awards for his roles in the films “King of Comedy” and “Final Justice.” He has played opposite Gong Li and Jackie Chan and is generally credited with discovering actresses Cecilia Cheung and Karen Mok (who make cameo appearances in “Shaolin Soccer” as dreadlocked, mustachioed villains). Chow’s films have repeatedly broken box office records in Hong Kong. It seems that nothing is above Chow’s powers of spoofing. He has even turned his razor-sharp wit on Luc Besson’s “Leon” (which he re-made as “Out of the Dark”), “James Bond” (“From Beijing with Love” features Chow as a pork butcher turned super spy), and himself (“Forbidden City Cop” re-casts his pork butcher spy in the Q’ing Dynasty Imperial Palace).
Despite his films being dubbed in dozens of languages, Chow’s comedy always remains funny. Like all great comic actors, his speech, movement, and attitude are universally enjoyed even though they are rooted in a specific culture.
After a brief hiatus from movie making, Chow made a record-breaking comeback with “Shaolin Soccer.” As befits such a brazenly physical comedian, Chow not only produced, directed, scripted and edited “Shaolin Soccer,” he also performed all his own stunts in the movie. “I trained 365 days for it,” he says, proudly. “I kick-boxed and jogged almost every single day. Of course, I sustained quite a few injuries as well since I spent half the time on wires.” The runaway success of “Shaolin Soccer” promises that this won’t be the last time Chow finds himself in such a gravity-defying position.
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