Stephen Chow

Stephen Chow
Background information
Chinese name	周星馳 (traditional)
Chinese name	周星驰 (simplified)
Pinyin	Zhōu Xīngchí (Mandarin)
Jyutping	Zau1 Sing1ci4 (Cantonese)
Born	(1962-06-22) 22 June 1962 British Hong Kong
Other name(s)	Sing Yeh (meaning "Master Sing") (星爺)
Occupation	Director producer playwright actor entrepreneur
Years active	1980–present
Awards Hong Kong Film Awards Best Director 2002 Shaolin Soccer Best Actor 2002 Shaolin Soccer Golden Bauhinia Awards Best Director 2002 Shaolin Soccer Best Actor 1996 A Chinese Odyssey Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards Best Director 2016 The Mermaid Best Actor 1996 A Chinese Odyssey Golden Horse Awards Best Director 2005 Kung Fu Hustle Best Supporting Actor 1988 Final Justice TVB Anniversary Awards Jade Lifetime Achievement Award 1999 Other awards Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival Silver Scream Award 2005 Kung Fu Hustle Asia Pacific Film Festival Best Actor 1992 Justice, My Foot Blue Ribbon Awards Best Foreign Language Film 2002 Shaolin Soccer Critics' Choice Awards Best Foreign Language Film 2005 Kung Fu Hustle

Stephen Chow Sing-chi (Chinese: 周星馳, born 22 June 1962) is a film director,^[1][2] actor,^[3] producer,^[4] playwright, and political adviser of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.^[5]

Film career

Chow began his career as a temporary actor on television.^[6] He graduated from TVB's acting classes in 1982. Chow began to find some success with the children's programme 430 Space Shuttle. In 1987, Chow entered into the movie industry through the film Final Justice, which won him the Taiwan Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actor.^[7]

Chow shot to stardom in The Final Combat (1989) and All for the Winner (1990). Fight Back to School (1991) became Hong Kong's top-grossing film of all time. In 1994, he began directing films, starting with From Beijing with Love. In the later half of the 1990s, China had begun to warm to Chow's films and he became a pop-culture phenomenon.^[8]

In 2001, his film Shaolin Soccer grossed over US$50 million worldwide.^{[9][10][11][12]} Chow won Best Director and Best Actor at the 2002 Hong Kong Film Awards, and the film went on to garner additional awards including a Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and the Golden Bauhinia Award for Best Picture and Best Director.^[13]

In 2004, his film Kung Fu Hustle grossed over US$106 million worldwide. Chow also won Best Director at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards and Best Picture of Imagine Film Festival as well as twenty international awards.^[14]

Chow's film CJ7 began filming in July 2006 in the eastern Chinese port of Ningbo.^[15] In August 2007 the film was given the title CJ7, a play on China's successful Shenzhou manned space missions—Shenzhou 5 and Shenzhou 6.^[16] CJ7 became the highest-grossing film of all time in Malaysia.^[17]

In 2013, Chow's film Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons became the highest-grossing China film of all time.^[18]

In 2016, his new film The Mermaid was breaking numerous box office records such as the biggest opening day and the biggest single day gross through its seventh day of release and having the biggest opening week of all time in China.^[19] On 19 February, it became the highest-grossing film of all time in China.^[2]

The Mermaid released in Vietnam on 10 February 2016. On 14 March, it became the 3rd highest-grossing film of all time in Vietnam. Now it gross over US$555 million worldwide and it is the All Time Highest Grossing Movie Asia.^[20]

Stephen Chow became the ninth top-grossing Hollywood Director of 2016.^[21]

Filmography

Awards

Influences

Chow often casts relatively new and/or young actresses to play opposite him, especially as romantic leads, and many of these actresses have gone on to have successful film or music careers of their own. These actresses are collectively called the "Sing girls", and include Karen Mok, Sharla Cheung, Athena Chu, Michelle Reis, Christy Chung, Gigi Leung, Cecilia Cheung, Huang Shengyi, Zhang Yuqi and Xu Jiao.^[24]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stephen Chow.

• Stephen Chow on IMDb
• Stephen Chow at AllMovie