CHOW-YUN-FAT.de

Name: Chow Yun-Fat

Born: 18. Mai 1955 Lamma Island, Hong Kong

Family: married to Jasmine Tan (Chan Wui-Lin) since 1986

Chow Yun-Fat spent his childhood in the late fifties in a fishing village on Lamma Island in Hong Kong. At the age of 10 he moved to the city. He left school at 17 and got by with part-time jobs. On a friend’s advice, he enrolled on an acting course with TVB, Hong Kong’s biggest tv station. One year later he graduated and signed up as a contracted actor with TVB.

With his intelligence, good looks, diligence and acting ability, Chow made the leap in just a few years to becoming a leading actor. In 1976 the 128-part tv series "Hotel" made him into a top tv star. With the series "The Bund" in 1981 in which he plays a gangster in Shanghai in the thirties, he caused even more of a stir. This role made his name well-known throughout nearly all the south-east Asian countries.

Since 1977 Chow has also starred in feature films, although he himself admits, that his early works did not always amount to much. His breakthrough came in 1982 when the New-Wave director, Ann Hui, cast him in "The Story of Woo-Viet". At a time, when cheap kungfu films were dominating the market, Ann Hui’s drama became a mile-stone for Hong Kong films, because this was his first ‘serious‘ film which met with praise from the critics as well as from the public. From this point on, Chow was celebrated as a film star and all his new projects were eagerly awaited.

Moreover Chow was lucky enough to be blessed with a row of good roles in good quality films. One highlight was Leong Po-Chihs film ‘Hong Kong 1941’ for which he won the Best Actor Award at the Asia Pacific Film Festival in Tokyo in 1985, and the Golden Horse Award in Taiwan.

In 1986 he acted in twelve films - a record for a leading actor. The most important and most successful of these was John Woo’s "A Better Tomorrow" which made cinema history when it was released. This gangster ballad broke all box office records in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea and Chinatowns all over the world, and made Chow Yun-Fat into a superstar.

His versatility has allowed him to feel at home in all genres- from action thriller to slapstick comedy to tragedy. He is truly ‘a hero of a thousand faces’ who has been able to earn his popularity with millions of fans all over the world with a quite unique talent. : his ability to convey inner control and introversion even in the toughest of action roles. A critic once wrote: "Even when he is nailing one of his enemies to a table with a butcher’s knife, he radiates a certain vulnerability."

At the end of the nineties, Chow went to Hollywood to further his career. He made his first film there "The Replacement Killers" (1998). This was followed by "The Corruptor"(1999) , "Anna and the King" (1999) as well as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"(2000), "Bulletproof Monk" ( 2003) and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End"(2007) as Sao Feng.
In 2000 and 2001 he presented the Oscar Nominations for Sound Effects (2000) and Visual Effects (2001 - together with Michelle Yeoh)

He returned to Hong Kong and in 2006 he made the films "The Postmodern Life of My Aunt" and "Curse of the Golden Flower"
In 2007 he starred in "The Children of Huang Shi".

This information came from a variety of internet sources and from DVDs.

Translation by Mew