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Stephen Chow Wikipedia

Stephen Chow (周星馳; Hanyu Pinyin: Zhōu Xīngch?; Cantonese Romanization: Chow Sing Chi) (born June 22 1962) is a Hong Kong actor and film director|director, and considered to be a king of comedy.

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Stephen Chow was born in Shanghai, China. Before he launched his career in film, he was a host of a popular children's programme in Hong Kong, 430 Space Shuttle.

He is famous for a brand of humour called "mo lei tau" (無厘頭), which approximately means "nonsense" or "no brained".

His movies often portray an underachiever (All of a Winner (賭聖), Fight Back to School, From China With Love (國產零零漆) and The God of Cookery (食神)). He also uses contemporary humour in a period setting (Flirting Scholar (唐伯虎點秋香); Justice, My Foot (審死官)).

He makes frequent use of euphemism and double entendres in the Cantonese (linguistics)|Cantonese language, and thus some of his earlier films may be less enjoyable to a non-Cantonese speaker. Recent films have begun to focus on comedic action and special effects sequences instead, to appeal to a wider international audience.

One of his more serious films is A Chinese Odyssey (大話西遊), loosely based on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. It was a box-office smash hit when it was shown in Hong Kong's cinema, it has developed a cult following in Mainland China.

One of his best-known films is Shaolin Soccer, which makes use of special effects and is directed by Chow himself. Kung Fu Hustle, released at the end of 2004, is also directed by Chow and in February 2005 surpassed Shaolin Soccer as the highest grossing Hong Kong-made movie in Hong Kong.

Last Modified:   2005-04-13