Comic actor Stephen Chow is writer, director and star of Kung Fu Hustle

Stephen Chow:
Kung Fu's Jim Carrey

f Jim Carrey were asked to name the actor who comes closest to possessing his comedic reflexes — and were told not to be modest — he would probably pick Stephen Chow. Fans of the Hong Kong actor would protest that the comparison doesn't do Chow justice.

     The monster box-office success of Shaolin Soccer (2001) throughout Asia forced the media to acknowledge what many film buffs had been suspecting for years: Stephen Chow has overtaken Jackie Chan and Jet Li in appeal among Asian audiences. In 2002 Chow was named Asia's Most Beloved Entertainer. The tribute went beyond the popularity he had built up through appearances in over 50 films. It was really a recognition of the inevitability of Stephen Chow's rise to the top of filmdom — as Shaolin Soccer's writer, director and star, Chow had single-handedly created a hip new sensibility that was badly needed to keep kung-fu flicks kicking into the new millennium.

Top Hong Kong comic actor Stephen Chow realizes a lifelong ambition to play a kung fu master in the Bruce Lee tradition in Kung Fu Hustle.

     With Kung Fu Hustle Stephen Chow hopes to validate the high regard. Not only is it a Hollywood-budgeted (Columbia/Sony) production which he writes, directs and stars in, it attempts the kind of contemporary wit and tone that reaches beyond hardcore kung-fu devotees to appeal to mainstream audiences. It's also Stephen Chow's tribute to Bruce Lee, especially The Chinese Connection.

     “Of course, it's too late for me to become a real kung fu master,” says Chow, now in his early 40s, “but at least I can be a Kung Fu expert in a movie — a martial arts hero, just like Bruce Lee.”

     Stephen Chow is by nature reserved, even shy, but his eyes sparkle at the memory of Bruce Lee. He sees Kung Fu Hustle as a labor of love that fulfills the dreams of a poor Hong Kong boy who grew up under Bruce Lee's spell. The film was inspired by memories of his first movie.

     “I remember it as clearly as if it were yesterday,” Chow says. “We were in a very run-down theater, but I didn't mind it at all. I was simply overwhelmed by the movie experience. Watching this film in the darkness, I felt as if my heart was going to burst, and I had tears in my eyes. Bruce Lee was so incredible, not only because of his martial arts expertise, but also because of his furious spirit. He just filled the screen. He became everything to me. I decided then that I wanted to be him — I wanted to be Bruce Lee.”

     “Being a martial arts expert was really my first choice; being an actor was the second.”



     At the age of nine Stephen Chow began studying martial arts. He found a teacher, but his family couldn't afford his lessons. Chow practiced on his own, teaching himself techniques from various schools of martial arts. He was especially fond of acting out the scene in The Chinese Connection in which Bruce Lee destroys a sign outside a park reading “No Dogs or Chinamen Allowed.” At school he wowed other students by kicking down a sign posted on a door.

     The enthusiastic response he got to such kung fu stunts made Chow set his heart on becoming a performer. PAGE 2

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