"I dare you to EVER see Fat in a script where he isn't brandishing a weapon (or at least doing some sort of martial arts - monks may not use weapons, hell if I know). "
WTF are you talking about? Do you know ANYTHING about his career? Obviously you don't, so I will enlighten you. He started out as an actor and made his break in Chinese TV drama. He acted on TV for a long time, and in some of his earlier movies you'll occasionally see references to that. He repeatedly tried to break into movies... Mostly with no success. The earliest movie of his you're likely to see is Killers Two, which is unrelated to Killers - it was retitled that (ala Hong Kong Corruptor, which is Return Engagement with two unrelated scenes from another movie with chow yun-fat spliced in). He plays a villain in it opposite to Danny Lee - a NASTY villain. Terrible movie though..
The first two movies he's in that are of real note are the Postman Fights Back (he is a side character, in a plot reminiscent of Costner's the Postman, though it is better then that one). Yes, it is a kung fu movie. And if you see ANY of his movies before Crouching Tiger his kung fu is not good. He had no real training in fighting up til recently, and he looked almost clumsy in hand to hand fight scenes. Postman Fights Back is choreographed by Yuen Woo Ping, the godlike master from movies such as Drunken Master II, the Matrix, and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It's a mediocre movie though, with a few decent fight scenes..
In that same year, The Story of Wu Viet was released. There's a smattering of fighting in it, but it is mostly a story about a Vietnam (if I remember right, been a long time) and his trying to lead a fairly normal life after the war. Mostly dramatic, and very sad and depressing.
He continued to act in mostly forgetable movies, most of which bombed.. In 1984, Hong Kong 1941 came out. It is about the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong and how it affects people. This won Chow Yun-fat his first Golden Horse. There is war scenes and a brief fight, but it is all in context - this is a straight drama, and it is a very good one. Often bleak, but has a message of hope - one of his first "great" films.
He continued acting, but because of his long string of bombs, he was known as box office poison. That is, until 1986 and A Better Tomorrow. A film starring a washed up kung fu star (Ti Lung), a pop singer (Leslie Cheung, who just killed himself a couple weeks ago) and a man nicknamed box office poison. It became Hong Kong's largest grossing film, and started a new fashion trend of people imitating Chow Yun-fat's character, Mark Gor/Lee. While this is a John Woo movie, the action is relatively sparse in comparison to Hard-Boiled, the Killer, or Face/Off. You can call it an action movie, but Chow Yun-Fat's performance here is one of the best *EVER*. Chow Yun-Fat got his first Hong Kong oscar for this one.
His other major awards: from An Autum's Tale (Chow Yun-Fat has said this is his favorite of his nearly 100 films, and is a simple low budget romance), and All About Ah Long (which is basically a Chinese Kramer VS Kramer, and is excellent). He's been nominated like a dozen other times.
Recently, he has just been typecast as an action star - much as I love his action movies, I'd love to see him do more silly comedies (The Fun, The Luck the Tycoon) or serious dramas (like Prison on Fire, or All About Ah Long). Maybe after the Nicolas Cage/Woo/Chow Yun-Fat colloboration he can go back to his ROOTS - drama.
" For contemporary "fine actors", please check under Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Daniel Day Lewis, and Brad Pitt"
Brad Pitt? Yeesh.. He's a decent actor, but he has yet to do anything truely fantastic - not even close to CYF.. Same thing with Malkovich. Hopkins and Day Lewis... Well, they're definetly at least as good as CYF. I find it hard to compare them. Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York and My Left Foot, Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs and a dozen other roles.. Well, they're amongst the best actors living today, easily. I consider Chow Yun-Fat to be in that same league, but I can't really consider him better. If you look at what they have done in the last 9 or 10 years, both Hopkins and Daniel Day Lewis are better though.. Maybe CYF's best days are behind him, but I sure hope not.
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