Have Your Say: What's Your Favourite Chow Yun Fat Performance?

James Marsh, Asian Editor

Today is Chow Yun Fat's birthday, and as the Hong Kong superstar turns 57, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to look back over the actor's career and highlight a few of his favourites. Since starting out in the mid-1970s, Chow has featured in over 100 films and TV series, and worked with many of the industry's most talented and influential actors and filmmakers. He has tried his hand at action, comedy, romance and fantasy - and portrayed cops, killers, gamblers, warriors, military tacticians and yes, even bulletproof monks.

Perhaps it is a little predictable, but my personal favourite Chow performance is from my all-time favourite Hong Kong movie: as rogue cop Tequila Yuen in John Woo's Hard Boiled. One minute he's mercilessly emptying his pistol into a thug's face at point blank range, the next he's heroically rescuing babies from an exploding hospital. He's charming, funny, ruthless, dangerous and iconically cool in a way I had never encountered up to this point in my film-watching career.

While recent years may have seen Chow, like many of his peers before him, struggle to score any meaningful roles over in Hollywood, he has proved with his performances in films like The Postmodern Life Of My Aunt, Confucius and Let The Bullets Fly that he is far from past his prime.

So, what is your favourite Chow Yun Fat performance? And help us spread a little love for the big man on his special day.

Around the Internet:

Dodo Dayao

The Ringo Lam stuff: FULL CONTACT, WILD SEARCH and RESERVO , , umm, CITY ON FIRE.

Sevket Erhat

I love all the movies he is in. Hard-Boiled, The Killer , A Better Tomorrow and even Once a Thief

CashBailey

ONCE A THIEF wasn't a very good movie but Chow, Leslie and Cherie looked amazing in it. Woo shot them to look every inch the iconic movie stars that they are.

Alan

WILD SEARCH and AN AUTUMN'S TALE are some of my top favorites as well. Good call on TIGER ON THE BEAT, Brad! That movie is one of those where he handles the abrupt tonal shifts from goony comedy to hardcore vengeance and violence with great confidence and aplomb.

jkoob13

It was 1996, and it had been 3 or 4 years since I had caught the HK cinema bug. I was living in Boston at the time and the MFA decided to run a whole series of films featuring who they titled "The Coolest Actor in the World". (No lie I still have he flyer)

Included was A Better Tomorrow, which I had never seen on screen and only on a very poor vhs copy from the local Chinese market. I bought my ticket immediately only to find out later that Chow Yun Fat himself would be there to speak after the film!

The theater was sold out and after a resoundingly satisfying viewing Chow came out to speak to the crowd.While his English was somewhat limited, he was incredible charming,humble and personable. He even sang in Cantonese briefly. He took questions from the crowd and eventually I was able to sneak one in at the end. I asked who he thought was the coolest actor in the world. It seemed to amuse him, and he took a second to think. "Clint Eastwood" was his response. I was smiling ear to ear.

I don't really admire actors the way i used to, but all the expectations and perceptions I had of Chow Yun Fat were confirmed 100% that night. So A Better Tomorrow would be my favorite because his performance was a star making turn and iconic as hell. One of the all time great movie stars.

Brad

One performance is unfair, so in no particular order, here are my favorites:

-Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - My wife finally fell in love with Chow because of his words to Michelle Yeoh at the end. It was a great romantic moment, and my wife has loved him (almost) as much as I have since that theatrical experience.

-The Corruptor - Chow was great in this movie. The attitude he displayed walking into the restaurant with the pigs' heads was so cool!

-God of Gamblers - Chow's full range in one movie! I think I actually preferred him as Chocolate. This was the first time we saw him outside of "cool" mode, and my wife and I looked at each other at the same time in WTF mode. Classic movie, classic performance, and classic moment in our CYF experience.

-The Killer - like so many others, the movie that introduced me to Chow, the real John Woo, and Hong Kong cinema.

-An Autumn's Tale - Chow has never been better (probaby my favorite performance if I HAD to make a decision, maybe God of Gambers, oh I can't decide).

-Tiger on Beat - Chow could be the "coolest actor in the world" but in this movie he proved he could also be the biggest dork. The great thing about Chow is that I learned to like either persona equally. The scene where he pees his pants is classic, but by the end he's doing tricks with shotguns and string. Awesome!

There are many more, but I have work to do and need to get on with it. Happy Birthday, Chow, and thanks for the great times!

ah_choung

All great, but dude as "The God Of Gamblers" never gets the props he needs. "Chocolate!"

https://www.google.com/account

I'd say 'A Better Tomorrow' but recently rewatched 'Wild Search' which plays out like Witness a great film with Chow Yun Fat

www.easternfilmfans.co.uk

DooK

A tie between A Better Tomorrow and City On Fire.

https://www.google.com/account

Fractured Follies

I don't think I ever laughed as hard as I did when I saw Chow Yun Fat in drag (this after only seeing him in movies like The Killer, Hard Boiled, A Better Tomorrow, Peace Hotel, etc.)

Francesca

In the last 4 months I have seen more than thirty films by Chow Yun Fat. I didn't know him before because in Italy we don't have many of his movies. He is always amazing. In "An Autum's Tale" He is fantastic, and I loved his interpretation. But he is amazing in all his movies, in Anna and the King, in all action movies; he can play very dramatic parts and he can also be very funny, and this is not easy to do, he is a great actor and a very nice person......and...Happy birthday!

stkarene

Ko Chow in City on Fire. Everything is out of control. He's desperate and in a constant point of panic. A painful film overall that feels relentlessy brutal to our main protagonist.

Justin

HARD BOILED!!! Not just because of Chow, but because it's probably the greatest action film ever made. Timeless, is a hard feat to accomplish.

CashBailey

Gotta give some love to Chow in Ringo Lam's classic FULL CONTACT. In it Chow plays a bit of a bastard; a street thug rocking a fierce bandanna and a butterfly knife. Awesome movie.

CHUD

Glad you brought this one up-- I was hoping someone would. He perfectly personifies the charismatic bad-ass in this movie.

Ard Vijn

Two films I need to mention: THE SEVENTH CURSE, in which he basically calms everybody with his appearance all the time. No matter how dire the circumstances or impossible the odds, Chow shows up and everything is fine. He steals the whole movie and it just takes him, like, two minutes.

The other one is CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER as someone who has to act evil by default (comes with his job) and will not be held accountable by anyone. When something does manage to move him, o-u-c-h, you wish it hadn't. Chow turns his charisma into anti-charisma and does it wonderfully.

Hugo Ozman

Happy Birthday, Fat Gor! My favorite of his performance is as 'Boat-head' in An Autumn's Tale. Even Chow himself was surprised that he didn't win the HK Film Award for that performance (he 'lost' to himself for his portrayal of 'Ko Chow' in Ringo Lam's City on Fire).

Annemieke

'Autumn's Tale'! It shows how he can turn a simple role into something special. Like Alan Lawrence says: he brings out the best in his romantic partners as well. It's the charisma but also being a very versatile and dedicated actor.

James Dennis

It's got to be Hard Boiled - the guy's called Tequila!

Cuttermaran

A Better Tomorrow Part1 & Diary of a Big Man.

And yes in Corrupter he had his best english performance.

Ashley

The Killer is my favourite movie of his, but I think the character and performance I like best is All About Ah-Long.

Qinlong

To me, perhaps THE KILLER. And I know people will disagree, but I also like his performance in THE CORRUPTOR a lot.

Alan

I recently saw THE FUN, THE LUCK AND THE TYCOON, and I thought he was so very much fun in it. I never really got Chow the comedian--and I think to understand what he's meant to people in Hong Kong through the years, you have to understand that side of him--until I saw that picture. He walks through the whole movie with this insouciant air that clashes so aggressively with the workaday mentality of every other cast member. He handles the romance deftly, in the tiny amount of time allotted for that purpose. The picture wouldn't have worked with somebody else in his role--like Andy Lau, perhaps, as the tycoon. Think what a slog that would have been, with the Andy from that era. Or the Andy from this era?

Chow acted well in a "realistic" mode in CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER--though that isn't a movie I like much at all. I think it's one thing to say Chow's an actor with some clear limits to his technical range, but it's unfair to call him a "limited" actor. There's so much more an actor can do--a big star, especially--by contributing his particular investment to a movie. And Chow has moved through his career as if he had no limits (except for the painful American period--coming back to Hong Kong he went straight for the unexpected with a vengeance and an unrestrained joy). One of the remarkable things about Chow is how well he works as both a serious dramatic player and as a particularly Hong-Kong-style comedian. He was exceptionally good with a series of often inarticulate or ungiving actresses. Sylvia Chang, who could often seem awkward in romantic roles, blossomed with Chow as her partner. Cherie Chung actually seemed to smolder a bit--a trick she didn't usually pull off with other romantic players. And still, when John Woo called upon him to play a salt-of-the-earth character with a tragic destiny, he moved adroitly into that mode. I think Westerners in general know him first from the bloodshed movies. When I'd only seen The Killer and Hard Boiled, I used to be surprised to hear that he did comedy. But seeing the range of different genres he played in, all so many different tones for an actor to capture, you have to acknowledge that he has approached a huge range of subjects and styles for so big a movie star, and he's given character and purpose to so many different films.

marcwalkow

THE SEVENTH CURSE. He shows up at the end, and blows up the monster with a rocket launcher. 'nuff said.

Niels Matthijs

Let The Bullets Fly. I think it's the first time that I've really seen him act. I liked some of his older films, but never liked the fact that he was in it. He used to be a very limited actor that got by on just a few ounces of charisma.

Qinlong

While I agree Chow has often coasted on charisma alone, I think it's safe to say that charisma weighed more than just "a few ounces". When you're neither a singer (at least not primarily) nor a martial artist, suffice it to say you need some ironclad charisma to achieve that kind of success.

2Bit

Hard Boiled & The Killer are givens, but I'll go with A Better Tomorrow II. "For you rice is nothing, But for us rice just like my father and mother. Don't fuck with my family!"

Zaphod Rowsdowr

This is my vote too, but on my copy of the movie it was "Don't fuck ON my family!"

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