Stephen Chow: biography, personal life, family, movies

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Stephen Chow is a Chinese actor, comedian, director, screenwriter, producer, action director and politician. He is best known outside of his homeland thanks to the action comedies Killer Football and Kung Fu Showdown. In recent years, he directed the blockbusters "Journey to the West" and "Mermaid", which set box office records for Chinese films.

Childhood and youth

Stephen Chow was born on June 22, 1962 in Hong Kong. His parents divorced when he was only seven. Stephen and his two sisters were raised by their mother. At the age of nine, the future actor saw the Bruce Lee film "Big Boss" and decided to study martial arts. However, the family could not afford to pay for the special school, so Chow learned kung fu on his own, through various TV shows and films.

After studying at several missionary Christian schools, Stephen Chow enrolled in an acting class for one of Hong Kong's two biggest broadcasters.

Career start

BIn 1982, after graduating from acting classes, Chow began working in television, appearing in small roles. Soon he had his first success when he became the host of a popular children's program.

In 1987, the first feature film with Stephen Chow in one of the roles was released. For the action movie "Final Justice", he received the prestigious Taiwan Golden Horse Award in the category "Best Supporting Actor".

In the next few years, the young actor starred in several successful comedies, his film "Resistance at School" and did become the highest grossing in the history of Hong Kong hire. In 1994, Stephen Chow directed the spy comedy From Beijing with Love, where he also played the title role. The picture performed well at the box office, and over the next few years, Stephen directed several more action comedies with himself in the central role.

Killer Football

In 2001, Stephen Chow's new project, the sports comedy Killer Football, was released. The film tells about former Shaolin monks who decide to use their incredible skills and abilities in order to win a football competition.

The film grossed over $60 million at the Hong Kong box office, becoming the highest-grossing film in the region's history. Rental in China was banned due to bureaucratic difficulties. Nevertheless, the film was an international success and earned rave reviews from critics. The film also received awards for "BestFilm" and "Best Director" at the annual Hong Kong Film Awards.

Kung Fu showdown

Stephen Chow's next project after the international success of "Shaolin Football" was developed in collaboration with the world famous company Columbia Pictures. This allowed the director's gangster comedy to enter the wide American box office and collect more than seventeen million dollars. This made it the highest-grossing foreign film of 2005 in the United States. In addition, "Kung Fu Showdown" has grossed over eighty million dollars in the rest of the world, and won many prestigious awards.

The picture is still ranked tenth in the ranking of the highest grossing foreign films in the history of American distribution. Also featured on many lists of the best action films of all time. The success of the comedy was so great that several video games and mobile applications based on the picture were launched.

Cash records

After the success of Kung Fu Showdown, Stephen Chow spent some time developing a female-centered sequel to the film, but his next directing project was the sci-fi project CJ7. The picture became the least profitable in the director's career and received mixed reviews from critics.

In 2013, Stephen Chow's fantasy film Journey to the West: Demon Conquest was released, based on a classic Chinese novel. From the very beginning of the filmbegan to break records, showing the best box office on the day of the premiere in the history of Chinese box office. As a result, the film collected more than two hundred million dollars in China and about ten more in other countries. Thus, "Journey to the West: Demon Conquest" became the highest-grossing Chinese-language film in history.

In the sequel to "Journey to the West" Stephen Chow acted only as a producer, losing the director's chair to another director. His next project was the film "Mermaid" - a mixture of fantasy and romantic comedy. For the first time in a long time, Chow did not play the main role in his project, concentrating only on the duties of the director, screenwriter and producer.

"Mermaid" has once again broken many Chinese box office records, including first-day box office and single-day box office. In just a few months in theaters, the film grossed over half a billion dollars, becoming the first film to gross over three billion yen at the box office. Since 2016, several other films have managed to match and surpass this figure, now "Mermaid" is the fourth highest-grossing film in the history of Chinese box office.

A television series based on the blockbuster and a sequel is planned for the coming years, but the director of the original film will again be limited to the role of producer. It is not yet known which project will be the next in the director's filmography of Stephen Chow.

Grades andreviews

Stephen's popularity in Hong Kong and China is so huge that many people since the late nineties began to imitate his manner of speech, using expressions that Chow's characters used in conversation. He is one of the most popular people in China.

He was also able to achieve international recognition, for example, the legendary director Quentin Tarantino called him his favorite actor in martial arts films. One of the few foreign directors whose films are successful in the North American box office. According to the results of 2016, he was recognized by Forbes magazine as the ninth in the list of the most profitable stage directors in the world.

Private life

The actor's personal life has always been discussed in the Chinese media. For many years he was considered the main bachelor of the country. For ten years, he met with a girl named Yu Wen Feng, but Stephen Chow, apparently, did not even begin to think about the family. In an interview, he claimed that he was already too old to get married.

After breaking up with Wen Feng, he began dating model Kama Lo, who is more than twenty years younger than the actor. Some time after the start of their relationship, rumors appeared in the media about the couple's engagement, and then there was information that the actor had secretly married Lo. The Chinese tabloids have not been able to get confirmation from Stephen Chow and his wife or just a girl.