Hong Kong Cinemagic
Version française English version
 Capsule Reviews   English Board   Facebook  
 People
 Movies
 Movie Studios
 Glossary
 Your Settings

HKCine Search
Switch to Google Search
>> Help

 Film directors
 Actors
 Technicians
 Producers

 Comedy
 Drama & Opera

 Shaw Brothers
 Film Industry
 Cultural & Societal

 DVD Tests
 HK Cinema Books
 Where to buy?

 OST & Music
 PDF & E-books
 VIP Guestbook

 Site Map
 Editos Archives
 Staff
 Site History
 Links
 Visitor guestbook
 Aknowledgement
 HKCinemagic 2

Statistics :
11630 Movies
19215 People
1448 Studios
29 Articles
73 Interviews
12 DVD Reviews
32452 Screenshots
3722 Videos
Stephen Chow, King of Cantonese comedy
Introduction to Chow phenomenon 1/1 - Page 1
Info
Author(s) : Jean-Louis Ogé
Laurent Henry
Thomas Podvin
Annabelle Coquant
Date : 1/11/2002
Type(s) : Food for thought
Information
 
 Intext Links  
People :
Lawrence Ah Mon
Stephen Chow Sing Chi
Michael Hui Kun Man
Jeff Lau Chun Wai
Bruce Lee
Danny Lee Sau Yin
Tony Leung Chiu Wai
Karl Maka
Alex Man Chi Leung
Richard Ng Yiu Hon
Wong Jing
Movies :
All For The Winner
Dragon Fight
Final Justice
Front Page
God Of Gamblers 2
He Who Chases After The Wind
Just Heroes
Shaolin Soccer
Lexic :
Golden Horse
Mo Lai To
T.V.B.
 
< Previous
Index
 
Next >
Page 2 : Chow & his tribe hit the box office
 
 Notes  
TV work:

Final Combat (1989)
The Last Conflict (1988)
My Father's Son (1988)
Happy Encounter(1987)
Power Eleven
The Nuts
On The Brink
The Justice Of Life
It Runs In The Family
The Vacation Of Life
Angels And Devils
The Price Of Growing Up
Mo Min Kap Sin Fung
Back To The Beyond
The Tribulation Of Life
Behind Silk Curtain


In the seventies and the eighties, stars of HK comedies were the Hui brothers (Michael, Sam & Ricky), Karl Maka (the bald Kadojac in the Aces Go Places saga), or Richard Ng (the guy with moustaches who strongly believed in his invisibility and his invincibility when wandering around naked in Mister Vampire 3, Winners and Sinners & My Lucky Stars). At this time and even nowadays, the Cantonese comedy genre has been actually ignored outside the HK borders, because this type of local humour may have appeared a bit too heavy or cynical. On the other hand, action stars from HK such as Chow Yun Fat, Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh or Jackie Chan have been internationally acclaimed.

Stephen Chow Sing Chi

With the release of Shaolin Soccer in 2001, the HK film industry revealed to the world his best comedian from the nineties: Stephen Chow Sing Chi. His is one of the most paid local actor and his is also know as the King of 'Moleitau', a Cantonese word to describe his non-sensical humour. It is a very special facet of the Cantonese sense of humour, which peculiar logic makes it difficult for a non-Chinese audience. Non-sense, Cantonese play on words and insults, local slang and below-the-belt jokes have discouraged distributors to export that kind of local wonder. Either you hate it, either you love it, but surely nobody can stay mute before such absurdity. Chow's talent and poetry have managed however to make this genre acclaimed all over Asia and eventually all over the rest of the world.

 

 

From Tragedy to comedy

Stephen Chow Sing Chi (sometimes Chiau Sing Chi) was born in 1962 in Hong-Kong. Chow's admiration for Bruce Lee started very early in his teen. He was influenced by Lee's philosophy and films and decided to take on martial art training and to try his luck in show business. Chow didn't manage to enter the local TV channel TVB drama classes where his mate Tony Leung Chiu Wai learnt his craft. As a matter of fact, he ended up hosting a child programme called 430 Space Shuttle for 5 years. He then got small roles in TV series. By the end of the eighties, he alternated TV series with small roles in movies. In 1988, he appeared for the first time in a feature film called He Who Chases After The Wind with Alex Man who gave him his first acting tips.

Chow's next role was more important, with Final Justice, a typical Danny Lee copper flick, his silver screen career could really get started. He even won the Best Supporting Role Award at the 25th Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan . Stephen Chow carried on a while with pure action movie genre, which was very popular at the time in HK. He appeared in Jet Li's The Defector and John Woo's Just Heroes. Funny enough, these three roles showed Stephen Chow as a youngster trapped by various series of life events and who couldn't control his fate. Young Chow wanted badly to achieve and to control his career in order to become a big and successful star.

In 1990, Chow has the good idea to team up with local acclaimed directors Wong Jing and Jeff Lau. That would be an understatement to say that the resulting films, respectively God Of Gamblers 2 and All For The Winner, were huge successes, grossing more than HK$ 40 million each at the local box office, a long way ahead of one of the last Hui Bros. film Front Page. Moleitau comedies became Chow's favourite film genre and the genre where he could evolved the best.

 


From serious crime movies...

...to God of Gamblers 2
 
Page :  1   2  3  4  Top
Previous :
Index
Next :
Page 2 : Chow & his tribe hit the box office

 Advertise with Google AdSense   Submit a review   Contact   FAQ   Terms of use   Disclaimer   Error Report  
copyright ©1998-2013 hkcinemagic.com