CHOW-YUN-FAT.de

After "Shanghai Bund" was such a resounding success, Chow Yun Fat's fame grew with each passing day. However, he couldn't jump from the small screen onto the silver screen. A famous TV star is not at all equivalent to a famous movie star; although both are actors, between the two it seems there is a sort of chasm...

In the minds of people at that time, filming a TV show and putting on a stage play were much the same, while making a film was an art. However, when Chow Yun Fat first became involved with the world of film-making in the seventies, he had been with an inferior film producer, and the whole affair remained a shadow in his memory which could not be erased, The label "Box Office Poison" is like a stain on white cotton, very difficult to wash clean so that it is as good as new.

During this first period when he was making movies, he really feared people bringing up those films. In his heart he felt they were in very bad taste. In spite of this, Chow Yun Fat was still searching for an opportunity. Based upon Chow Yun Fat's great ambition, he believed that one day he would be on the silver screen. His opportunity came at last. Before he made "Shanghai Bund" a director had begun to take notice of him. This was Heui On Waa [Ann Hui]. She was the foremost woman director in Hong Kong.

Ann Hui was born in 1947 in the Liaoning Province of China, and because she belonged to the "Waa" people, she was named On Waa. Her parents had fought during the War for Liberaton against Japan in the On Saan battalion, met there and fell in love. After they married they moved to Macau.
Ann Hui loved films from an early age - cartoons at first, then black and white films. When she was 2, the family had moved to Hong Kong. She was always a top student, and when she graduated from secondary school, she chose to go to Hong Kong University. She got a degree in literature and then a Masters, and was an eminent scholar. She then studied at the London International Film School, returning to Hong Kong when she graduated. She got a job in TV, and started to produce the "Foreign Film Guide" for English readers. She became assistant to the illustrious director Wu Gam Chyun.In 1978 Ann Hui made the first film in her Vietnamese Trilogy, "Boy from Vietnam" in 1978.

Ann Hui's work always revealed a beautiful poetic rhythm which people found very satisfying. Not only this, her character was very suited to being a famous film director; she inherited from her parents her courage and forthrightness. In order to make films which were true to life, she would personally go and watch autopsies. Moreover she relished the experience, and was not at all upset. She was constantly improving the quality of her work.

Hong Kong cinema had never before produced "art-house films". For several decades Hong Kong film-makers had experienced complete dependance upon distributers, on box office receipts; it was all about money. This had been the norm for a long time, as a general rule which was generally taken for granted. No matter how much society progressed, and whatever artistic ideas were there, it seemed that this age-old philosophy held good everywhere.......However the New Wave cinema in France and Germany eventually brought change to the Hong Kong film world.

New Wave cinema ideas were developed and utilized in traditional film-making, bring it into the contemporary era....
New Wave directors made the case to the money men that it was worth considering making such films, though progress was slow .........

Ann Hui's early thrillers were full of suspense and violence, were part of this movement. After she made "The Secret", she gradually broke away from formalism and the search for pure technique, and moved towards realism. Acting for the big screen, she confidently threw herself into subject matter about which she herself had a genuine interest. The first film to which she applied this new realism was "The Story of Wu Yuet".
When the time came for Ann Hui to choose a male lead for the film she took great pains, racking her brains, finally deciding to choose the best at that time - Chow Yun Fat.

There were people who with good intentions said to Ann Hui that Chow Yun Fat undoubtedly gave an outstanding performance in Shanghai Bund, but acting for the big screen was not his strong point. His films had performed badly at the box office, so much so that he had been labelled "Box Office Poison".
However, Ann Hui did not accept these views. "Directors often have the ability to develop qualities in others. An actor may not be famous when a director first sees him, the director may not know his name. A director may see in a newly established actor potential as yet un-developed in certain directions. He may be the star of tomorrow, and compared to the ordinary spectators the director will be a step ahead in spotting that latent talent. I am afraid to use an actor with an established image, [because] I will be asking him to act in a completely different role."

Ann Hui was truly equipped with the qualities of an outstanding director - she stuck to her own views, she had originality and insight, and of course this was also Chow Yun Fat's good fortune.
Chow Yun Fat didn't prove unworthy of director Ann Hui's vision; "The Story of Wu Yuet" finally succeeded in moulding a completely different character from Heui Man Keung. The film tells the story of a former soldier from the Vietnam War, an overseas Chinese Wu Yuet, played by Chow Yun Fat. He is a refugee who flees to Hong Kong, enters the refugee camp, but becomes the target of the Vietcong. In this kind of situation he has only one road to follow, and that is to kill his attackers and leave the camp. He has a pen-friend in Hong Kong who puts him in touch with people who can help him to get to America. By chance he meets a girl from Vietnam who is also hoping to get to America illegally, and they fall in love. However, the girl becomes the target of sex pedlars who snatch her at Manila Airport with the aim of selling her to a brothel. In order to rescue her Wu Yuet is prepared to help the gangster boss, and becomes involved in kidnapping and murder, working in partnership with another "employee". The gangster boss has no scruples, and when Wu Yuet learns from his partner that he himself is to be killed, they plan for to escape his clutches with the girl....

The plot of the film follows the male lead through this period of turmoil and comradeship in battle in a kind of "fervent song of sorrow" with deep meaning and provocative scenes of great intensity and violence. It was a break-through among films in the Hong Kong region.

In "The Story of Wu Yuet" Chow Yun Fat was cooperating with another up-and-coming star in the film world, later to become the sex idol of Hong Kong cinema, Cherie Chung.

Born in 1960 Chung Ching Hung was 19 years old when she entered the 7th Miss Hong Kong beautycontest, but lost out because she wouldn't wear high-heeled shoes. However, she was spotted by the perceptive Lau Chung Yan, and brought into the film industry. In 1981 with "The Story of Wu Yuet" she became a star............
Cherie Chung was quoted as saying: "I loathe stereotypical men who are thinking about making money all the time; I like creative people who are rich in ideas, when I am with this kind of person I as very happy; they will give me many things, they will broaden my horizons."
Chow Yun Fat was this kind of man. "It was very difficult to act love scenes with him. His eyes look too piercing, when he looks at you it doesn't seem as if you're acting....." Cherie Chung said.

The expression in his eyes - this was Chow Yun Fat's magic weapon - something which was without parallel in the film world. From the expression in his eyes you could see the emotions of the actors in the story: joy, anger, sorrow and delight; fear, love, hate and desire. From his eyes flowed feelings which could swiftly infect the audience, washing through their minds with great intensity. Against all reason it could make you totally trust him, obey him, be charmed by him, love him! Even if you were in the same business, there were times when the expression in Chow Yun Fat's eyes could make you take leave of your senses, forgetting that you yourself are acting, believing that this was real life.

Cherie Chung was the actress who worked together with Chow Yun Fat most often - it could be said that she was his "screen lover". Filming with Chow Yun Fat she could very easily find this kind of emotion. The first time they worked together was in "The Story of Wu Yuet".
Cherie Chung never forgot what it was like the first time she worked with Chow Yun Fat; two people new to the big screen, acting under the mercury lights, comparatively young and tender. Forgetting her lines was a common occurrence: this one time, Chow Yun Fat secretly gave her a wink/meaningful glance, allowing her to carry on straight away. Through starring in "The Story of Wu Yuet" Cherie Chung also became well known. Through co-starring with Chow Yun Fat, she gradually became a top film star, especially as a love interest, getting many roles, and her friendship with Chow Yun Fat deepened; he warmly called her "Hung Je".

"The Story of Wu Yuet" was Chow Yun Fat's most outstanding film up to that time, and the biggest box office hit, taking 3,800,000 Hong Kong dollars. Although this does not compare with his later movies, [Eighth Happiness took 36,000,000 HK dollars etc] but far exceeded the take from his previous films, which did much to change his image within the film world as "Box Office Poison". He himself gradually found new roads opening up and opportunities widening for him.

The 1980's were a time of great prosperity for Hong Kong cinema, and competition was fierce, which made it difficult to come out on top. Nevertheless, compared with the vast majority of films made in Hong Kong "The Story of Wu Yuet" was very different. Ann Hui's realism, the way her film drew attention to ordinary people's lives was unusual. In Ann Hui's hands "The Story of Wu Yuet" was like a magic wand, creating for the audience many good memories. Ann Hui's artistic pen combined the language of modern cinema with a story of complex and entangled human emotions, bringing together a way of expressing things in film, a technique and function, in a new achievement which was both bold and solid, having a unique and distinctive style." "One could regard this modern philosophy and technique as aiming a blow at the traditional ways of expressing feelings in film with the narration of a simple story from one point of view."

In 1982 the first Hong Kong Film Awards were held, with the last award being given for Best Movie and Best Screenplay, and Chow Yun Fat had nothing to do with the people in charge, but nonetheless, he heard his name being called out all over the place. Even more he found that people were staring at him.

At that time Ann Hui voiced her own feelings: "I always make films about social change in Hong Kong, but I hate and fear films about the subject of social change. After the Second World War, every year has a story about the character of Hong Kong at that time. I very much want to [tell these stories], but people don't take any notice of me; nobody wants films about the past, nobody makes films about the past so we have none."

Ann Hui's moving semi-autobiographical films look back at an unusual life wandering from place to place, reflecting the Hong Kong of that time, and considers the influence of world political affairs upon it's people. On the mainland, the "Fifth Dynasty" directors are the same; the Hong Kong New Wave had no manifesto or guiding principles, nor was there a common organization. Ann Hui spoke truly when she said: "The New Wave directors didn’t have an ideology. However, we can find in their films a kind of tearing away of today's Hong Kong's vain facade, presenting the undisguised reality in their field of vision. This kind of realistic visualization was not to be found in the past; the younger generation of film-makers are facing up to and criticizing war, and cultural change is suddenly growing in vigour; continuing to boldly give voice to the traditions of one's native country and powerfully bringing everyone's feelings out into the open. Ann Hui's "The Story of Wu Yuet" was an example, and it marked the beginning of her making this kind of film.

Having experienced working with Ann Hui on this occasion, Chow Yun Fat was deeply impressed by the director's artistic talent and character. In truth, Ann Hui virtually pushed him forward from being an actor trapped in a trough up and out, giving him back a new self-confidence.. From this time on, Chow Yun Fat liked film acting much more; his feelings towards Ann Hui were brimming with gratitude.
Ann Hui also felt that Chow Yun Fat's acting ability and hard-working spirit were admirable; the two of them hoped that they would be able to work together again in the future.