| |
is
Leading Man in "Anna and the King"
Click
for Highlights of AC Team's Interview
with Chow Yun-Fat
 |
 |
|
|
Photo:
Andrew Cooper -
20th Century Fox
|
|
|
A winner of numerous acting awards, Chow Yun Fat (King Mongkut) has
made a career of versatility, being equally at home in action thrillers,
slapstick comedies and tragic dramas.
In the late 1950s, Chow spent his childhood in a fishing
village on Lamma Island in Hong Kong. He moved to the city
when he was ten years old, and at the age of 17 quit school to work
at odd jobs. At the urging of a friend, he enrolled in an actor's
training course at TVB - Hong Kong's most powerful television station.
A year later, he graduated and signed with TVB as a contract player.
Chow's charisma and acting ability propelled him to leading
man status in just a few short years. In 1976, Chow starred in the
128-episode drama series "Hotel," which made him a top
television star and a household name in his native Hong Kong. In
1981, Chow created another craze with the series, "The Bund,"
in which he played a gangster in 1930s Shanghai. This time he became
a household name in every Southeast Asian country.
Chow started making feature films in 1977, and has starred
in over seventy films. His big break came in 1981 when "new
wave" director Ann Hui teamed with him in "The Story of
Woo Viet." At that time, cheap kung-fu pictures were flooding
and destroying the market. "The Story of Woo Viet" became
a milestone in Hong Kong's cinema history because it was the first
"serious" film to be both a critical and commercial success.
|
Chinese
Name:
|
|
Chow
Yun Fat
|
|
Mandarin
Name:
|
|
Zhou
Run Fa
|
|
Birthday:
|
|
May
18, 1955
|
|
Place
of Birth:
|
|
Hong
Kong (Lamma Island)
|
|
Chinese
Zodiac:
|
|
Sheep
|
|
Astrology
Sign:
|
|
Taurus
|
|
Height:
|
|
---
|
In
1984, Chow starred in Pochih Leong's "Hong Kong 1941," for
which he won best actor awards in the Asia Pacific Film Festival in
Tokyo as well as the Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan.
In 1986 he made twelve pictures, a record for a leading actor.
One of these was John Woo's "A Better Tomorrow," which
made cinema history: It not only broke all box-office records in
Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, South
Korea and Chinatowns all over the world, it also made a superstar
out of Chow. It garnered him his first Best Actor Award at the Hong
Kong Academy Awards, but more importantly, he created a phenomenon
unseen before in Asia. Audiences everywhere cheered whenever Chow
appeared on the screen. Young men began wearing the same dark glasses
and long overcoats as his character did in the film. To them, Chow
was a hero, and also their pal.
 |
|
Photo:
Andrew Cooper -
20th Century Fox
|
|
|
Other major films in which Chow starred in the years immediately following
include Stanley Kwan's "Love Unto Waste," Tony Au's "Dream
Lovers," Mabel Cheung's "An Autumn's Tale," Ringo Lam's
"City on Fire" (Best Actor Award at Hong Kong Oscars) and
"Full Contact," Johnny Tu's "All About Ah Long,"
Tsui Hark's "Love & Death in Saigon," John Woo's "The
Killer," "Once A Thief" and "hard-boiled,"
and many more. Chow won two additional Best Actor awards at the Hong
Kong Academy Awards for "City on Fire" and "All About
Ah Long."
In February 1990, the Art Institute of Chicago mounted a
Chow Yun-Fat retrospective, at which he also made a personal appearance.
The same retrospective was also picked up by the Asia Society in
New York and the American Film Institute in Washington, D.C. It
was the first time Chow received recognition outside of Asia.
Other Chow hits include Wong Jing's "God of Gamblers,"
"Rain Man" (and its sequel), "Witch From Nepal,"
"The Eighth Happiness," "Tiger on Beat" and
"Treasure Hunt," which has been announced for a Hollywood
remake starring Chow himself.
In 1993, Chow allowed his last long-term contract in the
Hong Kong film industry to lapse. His last Chinese-language film
to date was 1995's "Peace Hotel," produced by John Woo
and underwritten by the government of Mainland China.
For the American cinema, Chow starred in "The Corrupter"
with Mark Wahlberg, and "The Replacement Killers" with
Mira Sorvino.
Chow will next be seen in Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon."
-- 20th
Century Fox
--------------------
Chow Yun-Fat leaves his
hand prints in LA's Chinatown
More
on the film at http://www.foxmovies.com
|
