Profession: Actor
Born: May 18, 1955
Birth Name: Chow Yun Fat
Career Summary:
Chow Yun Fat is the Cary Grant of action icons. With a charming smile and incredible screen presence, the guy is my favorite action icon and favorite actor of all time. No one does action like Chow. With nearly 800 on screen kills by his hand alone, Chow Yun is one of the most deadly killing machines in all of cinema. Chow's action performances usually revolve around stories of brotherhood and honor. He usually plays either a criminal with a moral code or a bad ass cop. Chow broke ground with his performance in A Better Tomorrow, the definitive heroic bloodshed film. Since than, Chow has starred in many action films and pumped out nearly 20 action films from 1986-1996.
Chow than came to America in an attempt at U.S. stardom. It was short lived, and Chow has since returned to Hong Kong and continues to star in films. He has yet to return to his glory days as an all out killing machine. However, he has instead assumed mentor, royalty, or comedic relief roles in his current action films. Chow made 5 films with John Woo, making them one of the greatest director/actor duos in all of cinema. I dream of the day when Chow Yun returns to a John Woo film. If I had to select the three films that best represent Chow Yun Fat as an action icon, I would select A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard Boiled. These three films are to me the template of what makes a perfect action film.
Personal Favorite: A Better Tomorrow (1986)
Note: I know Chow is in several other action films that don't even have reviews or pages online or DVD or VHS copies that are easy to track down. Therefore, the very beginning of his career, say pre-1984, is not a completely listed. Than again, anything before A Better Tomorrow is not really great or amazing material, so it's not a huge loss. But for the action completists out there, this is not a complete list.
Films:
Heroic Cops (1979)
The Story of Woo Viet (1981)
The Postman Strikes Back (1982)
The Head Hunter (1982)
Hong Kong 1941 (1984)
A Better Tomorrow (1986)
City on Fire (1987)
Flaming Brothers (1987)
Rich and Famous (1987)
Tragic Hero (1987)
Prison on Fire (1987)
A Better Tomorrow 2 (1987)
City War (1988)
Tiger on Beat (1988)
The Killer (1989)
A Better Tomorrow 3 (1989)
God of Gamblers (1989)
Once a Thief (1991)
Prison on Fire 2 (1991)
Hard Boiled (1992)
Full Contact (1993)
God of Gamblers Returns (1994)
Treasure Hunt (1994)
Peace Hotel (1995)
The Replacement Killers (1998)
The Corruptor (1999)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Bulletproof Monk (2003)
Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The World's End (2007)
Dragonball: Evolution (2009)
Confucius (2010)
Let the Bullets Fly (2010)
The Assassins (2012)
The Last Tycoon (2012)
From Vegas to Macau (2014)
The Monkey King (2014)
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