Stephen Chow

Stephen Chow
Chinese name	Chau Sing Chi
Chinese name	周星馳 (Traditional)
Chinese name	周星驰 (Simplified)
Pinyin	Zhōu Xīngchí (Mandarin)
Jyutping	zau1 sing1 ci4 (Cantonese)
Ancestry	Ningbo, Zhejiang[1]
Born	22 June 1962 (1962-06-22) (age 48)[2] Hong Kong
Other name(s)	星爺 (lit. Grandmaster Sing)
Occupation	actor, screenwriter, director, producer
Years active	1981 – present
Parents	Lin Bo Yee ( Mother )
Influences	Bruce Lee
Awards Hong Kong Film Awards Best Actor 2002 Shaolin Soccer Best Director 2002 Shaolin Soccer Golden Bauhinia Awards Best Actor 1996 A Chinese Odyssey Best Director 2002 Shaolin Soccer Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards Best Actor 1996 A Chinese Odyssey Golden Horse Awards Best Director 2005 Kung Fu Hustle Best Supporting Actor 1988 Final Justice TVB Anniversary Awards Jade Lifetime Achievement Award 1999 Other Awards Asia Pacific Film Festival Best Actor 1992 Justice, My Foot Blue Ribbon Awards Best Foreign Language Film 2003 Shaolin Soccer Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival Silver Scream Award 2005 Kung Fu Hustle

Stephen Chow Sing-Chi (traditional Chinese: 周星馳, born 22 June 1962 in Hong Kong) is a Hong Kong actor, comedian, screenwriter, film director and producer.

Professional career

Stephen Chow began as a temporary actor for TVB.^[3][4] He entered TVB in early 1980s, and was trained there, although he had few opportunities to appear in films.^[3] Chow graduated from TVB's acting classes in 1982. [6] Chow began to find some success with the children programme 430 Space Shuttle [7], which he co-hosted with Tony Leung Chiu-Wai.[8]

In 1987, Chow entered into the movie industry through the film Final Justice, which won him the Taiwan Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actor.[9][10]

While Chow became quite well known on TVB for his comedies (especially 1989's The Final Combat), he shot to stardom in 1990's All for the Winner. This film made him and his sidekick Ng Man-Tat two of the most sought-after stars in the Hong Kong film industry. [11] Chow would collaborate with Ng on many of his more successful comedies, including Shaolin Soccer. Chow became Hong Kong's undisputed No. 1 comedian, taking over the mantle of Michael Hui. Unlike Hui, Chow's comedies are of the mo lei tau genre. With his expert comic timing and "rubber-faced mannerisms" [12], Chow ranked alongside Andy Lau, Chow Yun-fat and Jackie Chan as the major box office draws of the 1990s. [13]

In 1994 Chow began directing films, starting with From Beijing with Love, which he co-directed with Lee Lik-Chi. In the later half of the 1990s, mainland China began to warm to Stephen Chow movies. His film duology A Chinese Odyssey (1994) became (and remains) a cult classic in mainland China, baffling many Hong Kong observers, as the duology did only moderately well in Hong Kong. Nonetheless, on the mainland Chow rapidly became one of Hong Kong's most iconic film stars. [14]

In 2001 his film Shaolin Soccer grossed over 60 million HK dollars^[5]. The film won Best picture, and Chow won Best Actor and Best Director at the 2002 Hong Kong Film Awards, receiving a total of seven wins from 2001–2003, including the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Golden Bauhinia Award for Best Picture and Best Director.^[6] It was his first international hit and established his reputation in the West. In 2004 he directed the film Kung Fu Hustle winning 18 awards including BAFTA Best Film not in the English Language, five Golden Horse Awards and six Hong Kong Film Awards.^[7]

Chow's film CJ7 began filming in July 2006 in the eastern Chinese port of Ningbo.^[8] In August 2007 the film was given the title CJ7 (长江七号 Chang Jiang qi hao), a play on China's successful Shenzhou manned space missions—Shenzhou 5 and Shenzhou 6.^[9] This film introduced newcomer Kitty Zhang as his romantic lead.

Influence

Chow often casts relatively new young actresses to play opposite him, especially as romantic leads, and many of these actresses have gone on to have successful film or music careers of their own. These actresses are collectively called the "Sing girls", and include Karen Mok, Sharla Cheung, Athena Chu, Michelle Reis, Christy Chung, Gigi Leung, Cecilia Cheung, Huang Shengyi, and Zhang Yuqi.^[10]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	A Better Tomorrow	Taiwanese Triad
1988	Final Justice	Ah Wai
	Faithfully Yours yes	Puddin Lai
	He Who Chases After the Wind
	The Last Conflict	Lau Ting Kin
1989	Dragon Fight	Yau
	Tragic Heroes
	Thunder Cops II
	Final Combat
1990	Love Is Love
	My Hero
	Lung Fung Restaurant	Rubbish Pool	supporting roles
	The Unmatchable Match
	Curry and Pepper
	Sleazy Dizzy
	Look Out, Officer!
	All for the Winner	Sing
	When Fortune Smiles
	Triad Story
	Legend of the Dragon	Lung
1991	God of Gamblers II	Sing
	The Top Bet		cameo
	Fist of Fury 1991	Lau Jing
	Fight Back to School	Star Chow
	God of Gamblers III: Back to Shanghai	Sing
	Magnificent Scoundrels
	The Banquet
	The Gods Must Be Crazy III	Narrator
	Tricky Brains	Koo Jing/Che Man Jing
1992	Fist of Fury 1991 II	Lau Jing
	The Thief of Time
	All's Well, Ends Well	Foon
	Fight Back to School II	Star Chow
	Justice, My Foot	Sung Sai Kit
	Royal Tramp	Wei Siu Bo
	Royal Tramp II	Wei Siu Bo
	King of Beggars	So Chan
1993	Fight Back to School III	Star Chow
	My Hero 2		cameo
	Flirting Scholar	Tong Bak Fu
	The Mad Monk
1994	Love on Delivery	Ho Kam An
	Hail the Judge	Bao Sing
	From Beijing with Love	Ling Ling Tsat	also writer and director
	A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box	Joker/Sun Wukong
	A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella	Joker/Sun Wukong
1995	Out of the Dark
	Sixty Million Dollar Man	Lee Chak Sing
1996	Forbidden City Cop	Ling Ling Fat	also writer and director
	God of Cookery	Stephen Chow	also writer and director
1997	All's Well, Ends Well 1997	Lo Kung
	Lawyer Lawyer
1998	The Lucky Guy
1999	King of Comedy	Wan Tin-Sau	also writer and director
	Gorgeous	Cop	cameo
	The Tricky Master
2001	Shaolin Soccer	Sing	also writer and director
2004	Kung Fu Hustle	Sing	also writer and director
2008	CJ7	Chow Ti	also writer and director
	Shaolin Girl		Producer
2009	Dragonball Evolution		Producer
2010	CJ7: The Cartoon		Produce Presenter Screenwriter
2011	Tai Chi	an as-of-yet-unnamed character	Pre-Production also writer and director
TBA	Kung Fu Hustle 2	Sing	In production
	Journey to the West	Sun Wukong	Pre-Production

^{[11] [12]}

Awards

Chow promoting CJ7 in Malaysia

Awards won
Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival 2005: Silver Scream Award for Kung Fu Hustle
Asia Pacific Film Festival 1999: Best Actor for Justice, My Foot
Blue Ribbon Awards 2003: Best Foreign Language Film for Shaolin Soccer
Golden Bauhinia Awards 2002: Best Director for Shaolin Soccer
Golden Horse Awards 2005: Best Director for Kung Fu Hustle
Hong Kong Film Awards 2002: Best Actor, Best Director for Shaolin Soccer
Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards 1996: Best Actor for A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box

See also

• Cinema of Hong Kong
• Cinema of China

References

1. ↑ 周星馳“回家”尋根認祖 寧波再現“功夫”狂潮
2. ↑ http://www.movietome.com/people/277662/stephen-chow/index.html
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} "Stephen Chow - The star of Shaolin Soccer doesn't mind if the joke is on him". [1]. 2003-04-23. http://www.time.com/time/asia/2003/heroes/stephen_chow.html. 
4. ↑ "Lydia sums it up". [2]. 2004-09-04. http://www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=9834. 
5. ↑ "Shaolin soccer kicks an interantional goal". [3]. 2003-08-01. http://www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/030801/20030801_shaolinsoccer.html. 
6. ↑ "Siu lam juk kau (2001) awards". [4]. 2009-01-01. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286112/awards. 
7. ↑ "Kung Fu (2004) - Awards". [5]. 2009-01-01. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373074/awards. 
8. ↑ "Stephen Chow's Sci-fi/Comedy will give 'A Hope' to audiences". Twitch. 2006-09-29. http://www.twitchfilm.net/archives/007688.html. Retrieved 2008-09-19. 
9. ↑ "Stephen Chow's Movie 'A Hope' Changes Title". Asian Popcorn. 2007-08-17. http://www.asianpopcorn.com/default.asp?Display=919. Retrieved 2007-08-31. 
10. ↑ (Chinese) 邱致理 (Qiu Zhili). "张雨绮亲述一夜成名:30秒搞定周星驰 (Zhang Yuqi's overnight fame: 30 seconds to win over Stephen Chow". 南都周刊 date=10 December 2007. http://enjoy.eastday.com/e/20071012/u1a3160012.html. Retrieved 28 June 2009. 
11. ↑ "Stephen Chow". imdb.com. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0159507/. Retrieved April 8, 2010. 
12. ↑ "Stephen Chow". chinesemov.com. http://chinesemov.com/actors/Stephen.html. Retrieved April 8, 2010. 

External links

• Stephen Chow at the Internet Movie Database
• Stephen Chow at Allmovie
• Stephen Chow at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Leslie Cheung for Ashes of Time	Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards for Best Actor 1995 for A Chinese Odyssey	Succeeded by Francis Ng for Once Upon a Time in Triad Society
Preceded by None	Golden Bauhinia Awards for Best Actor 1996 for A Chinese Odyssey	Succeeded by Kent Cheng for The Log
Preceded by Ang Lee for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon	Golden Bauhinia Awards for Best Director 2002 for Shaolin Soccer	Succeeded by Andrew Lau, Alan Mak for Infernal Affairs
Preceded by Ang Lee for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon	Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Director 2002 for Shaolin Soccer	Succeeded by Andrew Lau, Alan Mak for Infernal Affairs
Preceded by Tony Leung Chiu-Wai for In the Mood for Love	Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Actor 2002 for Shaolin Soccer	Succeeded by Tony Leung Chiu-Wai for Infernal Affairs

Films directed by Stephen Chow Directed alone Shaolin Soccer (2001) · Kung Fu Hustle (2004) · CJ7 (2008) Directed with Vincent Kok Forbidden City Cop (1996) Directed with Lee Lik-Chi From Beijing with Love (1994) · The God of Cookery (1996) · King of Comedy (1999)

Hong Kong Film Award for Best Director Allen Fong (1982) · Ann Hui (1983) · Allen Fong (1984) · Yim Ho (1985) · Mabel Cheung (1986) · Allen Fong (1987) · Ringo Lam (1988) · Stanley Kwan (1989) · John Woo (1990) · Wong Kar-wai (1991) · Tsui Hark (1992) · Jacob Cheung (1993) · Derek Yee (1994) · Wong Kar-wai (1995) · Ann Hui (1996) · Peter Chan (1997) · Fruit Chan (1998) · Gordon Chan & Dante Lam (1999) · Johnnie To (2000) · Ang Lee (2001) · Stephen Chow (2002) · Andrew Lau & Alan Mak (2003) · Johnnie To (2004) · Derek Yee (2005) · Johnnie To (2006) · Patrick Tam Kar-Ming (2007) · Peter Chan (2008) · Ann Hui (2009) · Teddy Chan (2010)  · Film · Director ·  · Leading Actor · Leading Actress · Supporting Actor · Supporting Actress · New Performer ·  ·  ·  ·  · Action Choreography ·

Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor Michael Hui (1982) • Karl Maka & Sammo Hung (1983) • Tony Leung Ka-Fai (1984) • Danny Lee (1985) • Kent Cheng (1986) • Chow Yun-Fat (1987) • Chow Yun-Fat (1988) • Sammo Hung (1989) • Chow Yun-Fat (1990) • Leslie Cheung (1991) • Eric Tsang (1992) • Tony Leung Ka-Fai (1993) • Anthony Wong Chau Sang (1994) • Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (1995) • Roy Chiao (1996) • Kent Cheng (1997) • Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (1998) • Anthony Wong Chau Sang (1999) • Andy Lau (2000) • Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (2001) • Stephen Chow (2002) • Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (2003) • Andy Lau (2004) • Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (2005) • Tony Leung Ka-Fai (2006) • Lau Ching-Wan (2007) • Jet Li (2008) • Nick Cheung (2009) • Simon Yam (2010) • Film • Director • • Leading Actor • Leading Actress • Supporting Actor • Supporting Actress • New Performer • • • • • Action Choreography •

TVB Anniversary Awards for Lifetime Achievement Stephen Chow (1999) · Kwan Hoi San (2001) · Law Lan (2002) · Wu Fung (2003) · Leung Sun Yin (2004) · Teresa Ha (2005) · Chung King Fai (2006) · Lydia Shum (2007) · Paul Chun (2008) · Lee Tim Shing (2009) · Louise Lee (2010)