Chow Yun-Fat deserves respect.

There are certain times in life where you take a step back and simply look at things from a distance and gain a new appreciation or at the very least a new perspective on them. This can be true regardless of what said thing is whether it be part of the bigger picture of life or the subtle small aspects. Scouring through HK cinema and digging through as many details about it's stars as possible, I noticed something that stood out and deserved some attention. 

Chow Yun-Fat is no small fry when it comes to cinema. He's a well known figure when it comes to HK cinema and deservedly so. Perhaps he is most well known for his very successful collaborations with acclaimed filmmaker John Woo, which span 5 movies and a videogame. A lot of his fans will point to A Better Tomorrow and it's sequel, The Killer, Once a Thief and Hard Boiled as Chow and perhaps John Woo's greatest works. There's no denying how successful these movies where for the duo as they established them as megastars. A Better Tomorrow also saw Chow Yun-Fat win his first Best Actor award at the Hong Kong Film awards. The movie also set a new standard for HK gangster movies which helped improve the genre as a whole. What a lot of fans don't know is that Chow Yun-Fat had already established himself as something of a star before A Better Tomorrow had released as he had a great role in TV series, The Bund. He was floundering a bit before he teamed up with Woo though. 

Along with the success of his collaborations with John Woo, Chow Yun-Fat continued to shape a self image of a cool, honourable tough guy by making more gun-fu and heroic bloodshed movies. His collaborations with Ringo Lam where also a success with the movies Prison on Fire, it's sequel and City on Fire all becoming big hits. City on Fire also influenced Quentin Tarantino, especially during the process of making Reservoir Dogs. 

Despite his enviable status as a cool, smooth, tough guy which most actors would dream of having, Chow Yun-Fat wanted to prove that he was more than a mere one trick pony. He did so almost effortlessly in a slew of comedies and even romantic blockbusters. He even won another Best Actor award, this time at the Golden Horse Awards, for his performance in An Autumn's Tale. One of the most impressive displays of the vast range of his acting was displayed in the mega hit, God of Gamblers. Within the highly regarded 1989 movie, Chow Yun-Fat portrays all of his aforementioned type of roles within one. He's an action hero when necessary, abroad comedian ensuring there's never a dull moment, and a smooth talking, suave charmer that oozes charisma. God of Gamblers was directed by the prolific Wong Jing and broke Hong Kong's all time box office record. The Los Angeles Times had labelled Chow Yun-Fat as "The coolest actor in the world".  

Following his homeland success, Chow set his sights on Hollywood and began appearing in several Hollywood productions in the 90s. Unfortunately, Chow's success in Hong Kong did not carry over to America. His movies such as The Replacement Killers, The Corruptor and Anna and The King all underperformed at the box office. This is truly a shame as none of them are terrible movies by any stretch of the imagination even if they pale in comparison to his greatest works. It wasn't until Chow took the role of Liu Mu-bai in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon that he tasted success in Hollywood. The movie as I'm sure you're aware, achieved success internationally and even won Oscars. 

Following the success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Chow would once again experience failure with the fun but, not great, Bulletproof Monk. He then began appearing in a couple of mainland Chinese productions, Waiting Alone and the wuxia epic, Curse of The Golden Flower. The Curse of The Golden Flower was a success that saw Chow team up with brilliant director, Zhang Yimou and I highly recommend the movie as it's visually stunning much like a lot of Yimou's work. He returned once again to Hollywood with a role as Sao Feng, a Chinese pirate captain in Pirates of The Caribbean: At World's End. His role proved to be somewhat controversial as it was deemed to vilify and humiliate Chinese people according to Chinese government censors. As a result, Chow's performance was omitted from Chinese screenings. On the bright side, the movie was the highest grossing of 2007. 

Then Chow decided to take on the role of Master Roshi in Dragonball: Evolution. The poor live action anime adaptation was poorly received and deservedly so as it was a poor imitation that didn't capture the essence of Dragonball whatsoever. However, Chow's performance as Master Roshi is one of the very miniscule redeeming qualities of the movie as his charisma shines throughout. Following that disaster, Chow returned to Chinese cinema and starred in some great, underappreciated flicks such as Confucius, Let The Bullets Fly, The Assassins in which his acting range could once again be seen. He also starred in Hong Kong productions including The Last Tycoon, From Vegas to Macau, The Monkey King, Office and Cold War 2. 

Sadly, after starring in these aforementioned solid movies, Chow's work had begun to dry up. 2018's Project Guttenberg is his last big work for now. Why is this? Well, Chow Yun-Fat has stood up and supported the people of Hong Kong several times. He backed the protests that Hong Kong citizens and students to part in for free speech and independence from mainland China. When threatened and blacklisted by China, Chow simply stated that he'll "make less then". He went even further by joining the protests personally in 2019. His attitude and support for the freedom of Hong Kong is admirable and a pleasant contrast to the cowards like Jackie Chan whom back mainland China. What's fascinating is the fact that both Chow and Chan had become action stars in HK cinema in the 1980s and yet have wildly different views on Hong Kong's right to free speech and independence. Jackie Chan's attitude towards Hong Kong makes sense after he moved his main office from Hong Kong to Beijing, China and has even joined a Communist Party association. Jackie Chan also ridiculed democracy in Taiwan, proving himself to be a staunch ally of mainland China like the coward he truly is. In Chow's favour, he has also pledged to leave his fortune to charity upon his death. He also still lives a modest life despite all of his success and is frequently seen at food stalls and on public transportation. 

Chow's staunch defiance in the face of backlash from mainland China over his support of Hong Kong and the protests therein is something that deserves respect. We need more actors like him that will stand up for what's right regardless of what it costs.