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Chow Yun Fat
 Firstname:
Yun-Fat
Lastname: Chow
AKA: Zhou ,Runfa
Nationality: Chinese
Religion: Buddhism
Astrology Asian: Sheep
Western: Leo
Bloodtype: A
Eyes color: Black
Hair color: Black
Language: Chinese
Country: Hong kong
Currently Living In Hong kong
Chow Yun Fat was born in Lama Island in 1955. He left the island at 16
for the Kowloon Peninsula, where he drifted from from job to job - bell
boy, waiter and many others before landing work as an extra at Hong Kong´s
largest TV company, TVB. Then he enrolled in the actor´s training
programme, which was to lead him to appear in over 300 hours of television.
The most successful of these shows was a series called Shanghai Town which
was to make him a household name throughout South East Asia.
In 1977 and 1978 Chow starred in two unexceptional "gigolo style"
movies for Golddig Films whilst remaining a major TV star. After churning
out endless hours of comedy, drama and swordplay appearances for television,
Chow was approached by critically acclaimed director Ann Hui to star in
The story of Wu-Viet. It was not only a great critical success but also
remains one of Chow´s own favourite pictures.
Despite featuring roles in numerous movies which followed, the mass acclaim
which he had gained from his television appear- ances continued to elude
him in the cinema until 1986, when Tsui Hark and emerging director John
Woo enlisted Chow for A Better Tomorrow. It was intended to relaunch the
career of Chow brother´s veteran actor Ti Lung as well as to introduce
pop idol Leslie Cheung to Hong Kong´s cinema audiences.
Although not first choise for the role of Mark, Tsui and Woo insisted,and
Chow Yun Fat took the lead in what was to become one of the biggest box
office hit in Hong Kong film history. His future, as well as that of John
Woo, was established. The image that Chow projected - long black coat,
Ray Bans, matchstick caught in a selfdeprecating killer´s grin -
was cool, charismatic and captured the audience´s imagination. This
was also the birth of the classic Chow two-gun-toting outlaw stance. Despite
very healthy box office receipts, the sequel did not please John Woo,
and the subsequent Proquel was directed by Tsui Hark. Chow had, by this
time, been exploiting his gangster persona for other directors. He received
Taiwan´s Golden Horse Award for best actor in Ringo Lam´s
seminal City On Fire (1987)
He became one of the East's hardest working actors, starring in many excellent
films including Hong Kong 1941 (1987), Love Unto Waster for director Standley
Kwan, Triads: the Inside Story for Taylor Wong (1988) and his own Favourite,
Autumn Tale for Cheung Wun Ting. In all these films Chow´s extra
ordinary dramatic range was made abundantly clear. In 1989, reunited with
John Woo , Chow´s international reputation was finally secured with
The Killer, an astonishing parable of violence, betrayal, vengeance and
redemption which relied heavily upon the chemistry between director and
leading man. Following this he took the role of idiot savant in Wong Jing´s
God of Gamblers, which spawned a host of imitations. He then returned
to work with Woo on Once A Thief, a dynamic action comedy, before the
pair spent almost a year between 1991 and 1992 making the high-calibre
shootout flick Hard Boiled, which has brought the director long overdue
international recognition.
While Woo relocated to Hollywood to make Hard Target, Chow rejoined Ringo
Lam to make Full Contact, a grittily violent film which showed him in
leaner, meaner form. The colourdrenched shootouts and explicit yet stylised
violence once again rejuvenated the stagnant gangster genre. Since then
Chow has starred in Treasure Hunt (1994), an odd hybrid of comedy and
crime story which does see him briefly exhibit his cool, charismatic style
on the right side of the law for once; and he after that completed the
official sequel to God of Gamblers, directed by Wong Jing, and in 1995
he starred in the Woo produced gangster movie Peace Hotel. He made his
American debut with The Replacement Killers (1997), and was in The Corruptor,
and Anna and the King.
Being one of the hottest screen commodities in Hong Kong, Chow was called
upon by Hollywood in an attempt to duplicate his success on an international
scale. His first two films Replacement Killers (1998) and The Corruptor
(1999) were box-office sleepers. His next film Anna and the King (1999)
did better, but the success was mostly credited to actress Jodie Foster.
He stared in the (2000) film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , and it became
a winner at both the box office and the Oscars.
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