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Chow Yun-fat
Chow Yun-fat SBS (born 18 May 1955), previously known as Donald Chow, is a Hong Kong actor and filmmaker. In a film career spanning more than forty-five years, Chow has appeared in over 100 television drama series and films. Known for his versatility, encompassing action and melodrama, comedy and historical drama, his accolades include three Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Actor and two Golden Horse Awards for Best Actor.
Chow was propelled to fame by TVB dramas such as The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1979) and The Bund (1980). His first acclaimed film was the Hong Kong political drama The Story of Woo Viet (1981), in which he played a Vietnamese refugee struggling to reach the United States. He is known for his collaborations with filmmaker John Woo in five Hong Kong action films: A Better Tomorrow (1986), which made Chow a box-office superstar in Asia, A Better Tomorrow II (1987), The Killer (1989), Once a Thief (1991), and Hard Boiled (1992). He also starred in the video game Stranglehold (2007), produced by Woo. Chow also made several popular action films with Hong Kong director Ringo Lam, including City on Fire (1987), Prison on Fire (1987), and Full Contact (1992). Chow is credited for bringing Hong Kong gangster films to world prominence.
His other notable Hong Kong and Chinese films include An Autumn's Tale (1987), God of Gamblers (1989), All About Ah-Long (1990), Curse of the Golden Flower (2006), Let the Bullets Fly (2010), From Vegas to Macau (2014), and Project Gutenberg (2018). Chow made his Hollywood debut in The Replacement Killers (1998). He is also known in the West for The Corruptor (1999), Anna and the King (1999), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Bulletproof Monk (2003), and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007).
Chow was born in Lamma Island, Hong Kong, to Chow Yung-wan, who worked on a Shell Oil Company tanker, and Chan Lai-fong, who was a cleaning lady and vegetable farmer. Chow grew up in a farming community on Lamma Island, in a house with no electricity. He woke up at dawn each morning to help his mother sell herbal jelly and Hakka tea-pudding on the streets; in the afternoons, he went to work in the fields. His family moved to Kowloon when he was ten. At 17, Chow left school to help support the family by doing odd jobs including a bellboy, postman, camera salesman, and taxi driver.
In 1973, the 18-year-old Chow responded to a newspaper advertisement for TVB's actor training program. After a one-year training, he signed a three-year contract with the TV station and made his acting debut in soap operas. He gained recognition in such dramas as The Killer (1976) and Hotel (1976). He had his breakout role in The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1979), followed by The Bund, a series about the gangsters in 1930s Shanghai. The latter made Chow a star across Asia.
Although Chow continued his TV success, his goal was to become a film actor. He made his film debut in 1976 after signing an exclusive contract with Goldig Films, then the third largest film company in Hong Kong. Goldig Films, founded and solely-funded by Indonesian Chinese businessman Gouw Hiap Kian, produced and distributed over 100 movies from 1972 to 1982. However, Chow's occasional ventures into low-budget films in the 1980s after ones by Goldig were disastrous. Most of Chow's movies with Goldig Films in the 1970s achieved high gross revenues of over HK$1 million per movie, which is a better box office performance than his movies in early 1980s, such as Modern Heroes (江湖檔案), Soul Ash (灰靈), The Bund (上海灘), The Bund Part 2 (上海灘續集).
Success came when he teamed up with film director John Woo in the 1986 gangster action-melodrama A Better Tomorrow, which swept the box offices in Asia and established Chow and Woo as megastars. A Better Tomorrow won him his first Best Actor award at the Hong Kong Film Awards. It was the highest-grossing film in Hong Kong history at the time, and set a new standard for Hong Kong gangster films. Taking the opportunity, Chow quit TV entirely. With his new image from A Better Tomorrow, he made many more 'gun fu' or 'heroic bloodshed' films, such as A Better Tomorrow II (1987), Prison on Fire (1987), Prison on Fire II (1991), The Killer (1989), A Better Tomorrow 3 (1990), Hard Boiled (1992) and City on Fire (1987), an inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs.
Chow may be best known for playing honorable tough guys, whether cops or criminals, but he has also starred in comedies like Diary of a Big Man (1988) and Now You See Love, Now You Don't (1992) and romantic blockbusters such as Love in a Fallen City (1984) and An Autumn's Tale (1987), for which he was named Best Actor at the Golden Horse Awards. He brought together his disparate personae in the 1989 film God of Gamblers, directed by the prolific Wong Jing, in which he was by turns a suave charmer, a broad comedian, and an action hero. The film surprised many, became immensely popular, broke Hong Kong's all-time box office record, and spawned a series of gambling films as well as several comic sequels starring Andy Lau and Stephen Chow. The often tough demeanour and youthful appearance of Chow's characters has earned him the nickname "Babyface Killer".
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Chow Yun-fat
Chow Yun-fat SBS (born 18 May 1955), previously known as Donald Chow, is a Hong Kong actor and filmmaker. In a film career spanning more than forty-five years, Chow has appeared in over 100 television drama series and films. Known for his versatility, encompassing action and melodrama, comedy and historical drama, his accolades include three Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Actor and two Golden Horse Awards for Best Actor.
Chow was propelled to fame by TVB dramas such as The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1979) and The Bund (1980). His first acclaimed film was the Hong Kong political drama The Story of Woo Viet (1981), in which he played a Vietnamese refugee struggling to reach the United States. He is known for his collaborations with filmmaker John Woo in five Hong Kong action films: A Better Tomorrow (1986), which made Chow a box-office superstar in Asia, A Better Tomorrow II (1987), The Killer (1989), Once a Thief (1991), and Hard Boiled (1992). He also starred in the video game Stranglehold (2007), produced by Woo. Chow also made several popular action films with Hong Kong director Ringo Lam, including City on Fire (1987), Prison on Fire (1987), and Full Contact (1992). Chow is credited for bringing Hong Kong gangster films to world prominence.
His other notable Hong Kong and Chinese films include An Autumn's Tale (1987), God of Gamblers (1989), All About Ah-Long (1990), Curse of the Golden Flower (2006), Let the Bullets Fly (2010), From Vegas to Macau (2014), and Project Gutenberg (2018). Chow made his Hollywood debut in The Replacement Killers (1998). He is also known in the West for The Corruptor (1999), Anna and the King (1999), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Bulletproof Monk (2003), and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007).
Chow was born in Lamma Island, Hong Kong, to Chow Yung-wan, who worked on a Shell Oil Company tanker, and Chan Lai-fong, who was a cleaning lady and vegetable farmer. Chow grew up in a farming community on Lamma Island, in a house with no electricity. He woke up at dawn each morning to help his mother sell herbal jelly and Hakka tea-pudding on the streets; in the afternoons, he went to work in the fields. His family moved to Kowloon when he was ten. At 17, Chow left school to help support the family by doing odd jobs including a bellboy, postman, camera salesman, and taxi driver.
In 1973, the 18-year-old Chow responded to a newspaper advertisement for TVB's actor training program. After a one-year training, he signed a three-year contract with the TV station and made his acting debut in soap operas. He gained recognition in such dramas as The Killer (1976) and Hotel (1976). He had his breakout role in The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1979), followed by The Bund, a series about the gangsters in 1930s Shanghai. The latter made Chow a star across Asia.
Although Chow continued his TV success, his goal was to become a film actor. He made his film debut in 1976 after signing an exclusive contract with Goldig Films, then the third largest film company in Hong Kong. Goldig Films, founded and solely-funded by Indonesian Chinese businessman Gouw Hiap Kian, produced and distributed over 100 movies from 1972 to 1982. However, Chow's occasional ventures into low-budget films in the 1980s after ones by Goldig were disastrous. Most of Chow's movies with Goldig Films in the 1970s achieved high gross revenues of over HK$1 million per movie, which is a better box office performance than his movies in early 1980s, such as Modern Heroes (江湖檔案), Soul Ash (灰靈), The Bund (上海灘), The Bund Part 2 (上海灘續集).
Success came when he teamed up with film director John Woo in the 1986 gangster action-melodrama A Better Tomorrow, which swept the box offices in Asia and established Chow and Woo as megastars. A Better Tomorrow won him his first Best Actor award at the Hong Kong Film Awards. It was the highest-grossing film in Hong Kong history at the time, and set a new standard for Hong Kong gangster films. Taking the opportunity, Chow quit TV entirely. With his new image from A Better Tomorrow, he made many more 'gun fu' or 'heroic bloodshed' films, such as A Better Tomorrow II (1987), Prison on Fire (1987), Prison on Fire II (1991), The Killer (1989), A Better Tomorrow 3 (1990), Hard Boiled (1992) and City on Fire (1987), an inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs.
Chow may be best known for playing honorable tough guys, whether cops or criminals, but he has also starred in comedies like Diary of a Big Man (1988) and Now You See Love, Now You Don't (1992) and romantic blockbusters such as Love in a Fallen City (1984) and An Autumn's Tale (1987), for which he was named Best Actor at the Golden Horse Awards. He brought together his disparate personae in the 1989 film God of Gamblers, directed by the prolific Wong Jing, in which he was by turns a suave charmer, a broad comedian, and an action hero. The film surprised many, became immensely popular, broke Hong Kong's all-time box office record, and spawned a series of gambling films as well as several comic sequels starring Andy Lau and Stephen Chow. The often tough demeanour and youthful appearance of Chow's characters has earned him the nickname "Babyface Killer".