Hong Kong filmmaker Stephen Chow burst onto the American film scene in 2001, directing and starring in the smash-hit sports comedy Shaolin Soccer. But his acting career began way back in 1988, appearing in more than 40 films in the ’90s, and he directed his first film in 1994, From Beijing with Love. His debut film appearance as an actor was in Final Justice, a Hong Kong action film in which he played a car thief. He won Best Supporting Actor at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, and a glittering career was launched, starring in blockbuster hits like Fight Back to School in 1991. To date, Chow has directed 10 films, and acted in seven of those. Let’s rank them!
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10 From Beijing with Love (1994)
Orange Sky Golden Harvest
Chow’s inaugural directing effort was a James Bond spoof. A man called Golden Gun steals China’s only fossilized dinosaur skull, and Chow stars as 007, the agent tasked by the government with getting it back. But when he finds out that Golden Gun was actually hired by the very same government to steal the skull, well, shenanigans ensue. While being a parody of James Bond films, the movie also cleverly riffs on other contemporary films, including Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express and Days of Being Wild. It’s goofy, it’s slapstick, and it set the scene beautifully for all that was to come next from Stephen Chow.
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9 Forbidden City Cop (1996)
Star China Media
The true translation of Chow’s next film’s Chinese title was “Imperial Secret Agent 008”, so you know it won’t be straying too far from the themes of his first film. The twist is that rather than a simple action comedy, this is a wuxia comedy set in ancient China. Chow plays Ling Ling-Fat, one of the emperor’s cadre of personal bodyguards, who is also really into inventing gadgets, to the chagrin of his fellow bodyguards, who are more focused on their martial arts skills. Like in From Beijing with Love, there are a lot of hidden identities to be revealed and misunderstandings to be cleared up. Ling Ling-Fat’s inventions, much maligned by his co-bodyguards, end up saving the day, and even giving his martial arts skills a boost as well.
8 CJ7 (2008)
Columbia Pictures
Chow is a wizard when it comes to blending just about any genre with comedy, and here he does it with science fiction. Chow plays Chow Ti, a down-on-his-luck single father unable to afford the robot toy his young son, Dicky, begs him for. Instead, Ti finds a mysterious green orb at a junkyard and gives it to Dicky in lieu of the robot. The orb gets Dicky bullied at school, and chastised by his father, but when it transforms into a cuddly dog and heals a rotten apple, it becomes clear that the orb is actually an alien with the power to cure. Dicky is delighted and names it CJ7. Despite his best efforts to get CJ7 to do his bidding, though, it is clear that the alien has a mind of its own, and although it can’t fix Dicky’s bully problem, it does save Ti’s life after a fall at work. It’s a strange and charming film, but ultimately a box office disappointment after the successes of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle.
7 Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (2013)
Huayi Brothers
Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons ushered in a new era of Chow’s films, where he focused solely on directing and did not appear in the film himself. The big budget blockbuster was based on a classic 16th century Chinese novel entitled Journey to the West, and featured a colorful cast of demons from Chinese folklore. It starred well-known actress Shu Qi as Duan, a demon hunter trying to save a small village from Sha Wujing, a terrible river monster. The film combines folklore and comedy, action and Buddhism with aplomb. The film smashed a number of Chinese box office records, and Chow co-wrote and co-produced the 2013 sequel, Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back.
6 King of Comedy (1999)
Newport Entertainment
This is one of the outliers in Chow’s filmography, in that it’s a straight comedy, without action blended in (although maybe a little bit of drama). It’s the bittersweet tale of Wan Tin-Sau, played sensitively by Chow, an acting teacher at a tiny community center who dreams of stardom, taking movie extra roles whenever he can, and going a little too hard at each one of them. Somewhat miraculously, he at last lands a starring role, and it seems like his days of hardship are over. Alas, he loses the part to someone more famous, but after a subplot which sees him saving the life of an undercover policeman, Wan finally achieves fame with a production of The Thunder Storm, a play which was later adapted into a Bruce Lee film. King of Comedy is based on Chow’s early struggles in show business, and features a cameo from Jackie Chan, who also started out as an extra.
5 The New King of Comedy (2019)
Lian Rui
Chow’s most recent film is a remake of his first, The King of Comedy, this time with a new cast and set in mainland China. He stays true to the original concept, and his lead actress had started out just like the original main character and Chow himself, struggling along as an extra. In consciously going back to his beginnings, it is thought that this is also the smallest budget that Chow has worked with as a director. It really is a mark of Chow as a director and a person that even with all his fame, he seeks out actors who may not have had a chance yet.
4 The God of Cookery (1999)
Universe Entertainment Limited
The 1996 comedy is typical Chow: silly, delightful, wacky, and not a little frenetic. Chow stars as a celebrity chef who actually knows nothing about cooking, but his corrupt ways have helped him launch an entire empire built around cooking. But when he’s unmasked as a fraud at his own restaurant’s anniversary ceremony, he ends up on the street, and his empire, and the moniker of ‘the god of cookery’ is taken over by another unscrupulous chef named Bull Tong. Chow’s road to redemption involves a food vendor named Turkey who falls in love with him; a dish called Pissing Beef Balls; enrollment in culinary school, an assassination attempt, and Chow’s disappearance. He resurfaces at a competition that’s a perfect lampoon of Iron Chef. Chaos ensues, and even an intervention from the gods. It’s fantastic.
3 The Mermaid (2016)
China Film Group Corporation
The ninth most successful Chinese film of all time, The Mermaid opens in the world of mermen, who have decided that something needs to be done about the dire state of pollution in their waters, which is sickening and killing them. A property tycoon named Liu Xuan has bought the area where they live, and plans to annihilate the area’s aquatic life. The merpeople choose Shan, a gorgeous mermaid also trained as an assassin, to take him out once and for all. What follows in a wild fantasy that sees, instead of Shan killing Xuan like she’s supposed to, the pair falling in love, after, of course, some hilarious misunderstandings. The scenes with Shan at home among her merpeople are particularly wild and wonderful.
2 Shaolin Soccer (2001)
Miramax
In the same way that Shaolin Soccer brought the delight of Stephen Chow films to the wider American public, the plot follows five former Shaolin brothers who reunite after years of estrangement, and bring Shaolin kung fu to the masses through soccer. Chow leads the cast as “Golden Leg” Fung, who had been a soccer star until suffering a cynical injury at the hands of a former teammate who is now a wealthy businessman. Fung gets together with a past-his-prime kung fu master with the goal of putting together an unbeatable team for an open competition in Hong Kong. Team Shaolin suffers a variety of setbacks along the way, most worryingly in that they don’t know how to play soccer. The key to the team ends up being Mui, a baker with unfortunate skin who uses tai chi to make Chinese steam buns, and she’s pulled into the competition last minute as goalkeeper when Team Shaolin must face off against Team Evil. It’s silly, ridiculous, and it’s one of the most fun movies you will ever see.
1 Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
If you thought Shaolin Soccer was the most out-there film you could imagine, hold onto your hats. Chow goes back to 1940s Shanghai as Sing, a pathetic thief who, along with his best friend Bone, longs to join the bloodthirsty yet stylish Axe Gang. There is a desperate slum that just happens to be populated by a number of kung fu masters; a pair of terrifying Chinese zither artists that can kill with sound, and a rumor of a kung fu technique called Buddhist Palm that doesn’t seem to work. Or does it? Dancing, besuited gangsters, a landlady that can yell your clothes off, and a candy-sweet love story, this film has everything you never knew you needed. And most of all, Chow’s brilliant directing and effervescent charm as an actor. Even Bill Murray gave it his seal of approval, calling it “the supreme achievement of the modern age in terms of comedy”.
