History Creator / StephenChow

His first public appearance was as a host for TVB Jade children's program ''430 Space Shuttle'' from July 1983 to circa. March 1987[[note]]Other famous hosts of the show include Creator/TonyLeungChiuWai (1982-1983) and Ekin Cheng of Film/YoungAndDangerous fame (1987-1989).[[/note]].

* ''Film/ShaolinSoccer''

* ''Justice My Foot'' (The first of many Qing Dynasty period films by Chow, this one sees him take the role of ancient lawyer Song Shijie, taking on his many crises of character in the court with the usual RuleOfFunny thrown in. Won him his first Best Leading Actor award[[note]]37th Asia Pacific Film Festival in 1992[[/note]] )

* ''Justice My Foot'' (The first of many Qing Dynasty period films by Chow, this one sees him take the role of ancient lawyer Song Shijie, taking on his many crises of character in the court with the usual RuleOfFunny thrown in)

* ''The Mad Monk'' (co-starring Creator/MaggieCheung and Creator/AnthonyWong. This film allegedly so offended Creator/Danny Lee that he refused to speak to Stephen after its release.[[note]]The titular mad monk of the film was a historical character by the name of Lee Xu Yuen (Li Xiu Yuan in Hanyu Pinyin). In the movie, a vile curse was directed at Xu Yuen, and Danny took it as a slight by Stephen against him.[[/note]])

* %%''Film/ABetterTomorrow'': RetroactiveRecognition for the then 23-year-old Stephen, who plays one of the Taiwanese mob leader's thugs, and is the second mook killed by Mark in the restaurant shootout. (This was blanked out as Chan Chi-Fai, who took part in that particular scene, confirmed in an interview that Stephen did not take part in the filming of ''A Better Tomorrow''. But, it is true that Stephen liked the film and frequently paid homage to it in his films.%%

* ''The Mad Monk'' (co-starring Creator/MaggieCheung and Creator/AnthonyWong)

* ''Film/ABetterTomorrow'': RetroactiveRecognition for the then 23-year-old Stephen, who plays one of the Taiwanese mob leader's thugs, and is the second mook killed by Mark in the restaurant shootout.

As an actor, he has been known to be the lead actor in all of his movies [[note]]As noted below, ''Film/CJ7'' is, as of 2023, his last movie as the male lead.[[note]], as well as some lead roles in films such as the ''Film/GodOfGamblers'' sequels and ''Film/AChineseOdyssey''.

* ''Fist of Fury 1991'' (an AffectionateParody of Creator/BruceLee's ''Film/FistOfFury'', of course. There's even an ActingForTwo moment in an IntercontinuityCrossover with ''All for the Winner''. It had a sequel: ''Fist of Fury 1991 II''. Another one of the few films in the 1990s where Ng Man-tat ''didn't'' collaborate with Stephen[[note]]Man-tat had a cameo in the first film and was absent in the second one.[[note]].)

* ''Fist of Fury 1991'' (an AffectionateParody of Creator/BruceLee's ''Film/FistOfFury'', of course. There's even an ActingForTwo moment in an IntercontinuityCrossover with ''All for the Winner''. It had a sequel: ''Fist of Fury 1991 II''. Another one of the few films in the 1990s where Ng Man-tat ''didn't'' collaborate with Stephen[[note]]Man-tat had a cameo in the first film and was absent in the second one.[[/note]].)

* ''New Fist of Fury'' (an AffectionateParody of Creator/BruceLee's ''Film/FistOfFury'', of course. There's even an ActingForTwo moment in an IntercontinuityCrossover with ''All for the Winner''.)

* ''Film/FlirtingScholar'' %%(AffectionateParody of the classic romance of Tang Bohu and Qiuxiang. Known for testing the waters for epic duels by pitting martial arts legends Cheng Peipei and Gordon Liu against each other.)%%(One of the few films in the 1990s where Ng Man-tat ''didn't'' collaborate with Stephen.)

* ''Film/FlirtingScholar'' %%(AffectionateParody of the classic romance of Tang Bohu and Qiuxiang. Known for testing the waters for epic duels by pitting martial arts legends Cheng Peipei and Gordon Liu against each other.)%%

* ''Film/AChineseOdyssey'' (based off ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest''; "Zixia Fairy" in the second movie was regarded as Athena Chu's best known role)

Most of his movies have segments which pay homage to Creator/BruceLee; Stephen was a big fan of his.

As an actor, he has been known to be the lead actor in all of his movies (up to ''Film/CJ7''), as well as some lead roles in films such as the ''Film/GodOfGamblers'' sequels and ''Film/AChineseOdyssey''.

* ''All for the Winner'' (originally a ''Film/GodOfGamblers'' parody, later gets [[CanonImmigrant promoted to canon]] when he appears in ''God of Gamblers III''; Stephen had also appeared in ''God Of Gamblers II''. ''Winner'' and ''GoG II'' were Sharla Cheung's first collaboration with Stephen.)

* ''All for the Winner'' (originally a ''Film/GodOfGamblers'' parody, later gets [[CanonImmigrant promoted to canon]] when he appears in ''God of Gamblers III'')

* ProductionPosse: The second best known hallmark of Chow's work. All the recurring actors in his movies can be divided into three categories - longtime friends (eg. Ng Man Tat, Sandra Ng and (before her retirement) Sharla Cheung[[note]]Sharla was a rather unique example of a "Sing girl", in that she remained fast friends with Stephen for decades and was ''not'' rumored to be his girlfriend despite having many collaborations with him. As a side note, Sharla's boyfriend at the time was rumored to be Jimmy Heung, brother of Charles Heung; both brothers had triad links as their father Heung Chin founded the Sun Yee On Triad.[[/note]]), [[MsFanservice hot young things getting a bump in popularity while falling victim to rumors of being his newest dalliance]], and classic big names going through a CareerResurrection.

* ''Film/AChineseOdyssey'' (based off ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'')

* ''The Mad Monk'' (co-starring Creator/MaggieCheung)

* PrimaDonnaDirector: As an independent director (with his own company), his laser focus on perfection at film making, at the expense of almost everything else, have made some swore never to work with him again. In particular, Creator/SammoHung was fired by him during the production of ''Film/KungFuHustle''. Even during the early days, while filming ''Sixty Million Dollar Man'', Ng Man-tat himself once refused to continue shooting, after having numbed his mouth due to shooting a tooth-brushing scene 50+ times.

* ''Fight Back to School'' ([[DieHardOnAnX Die Hard in a high school]])

* ''Film/KingOfComedy'' (last film he made in Hong Kong; his subsequent films were all mainland China productions. Also, Cecilia Cheung's first film)

* PrimaDonnaDirector: As an independent director (with his own company), his laser focus on perfection at film making, at the expense of almost everything else, have made some swore never to work with him again. In particular, Creator/SammoHung was fired by him during the production of ''Film/KungFuHustle''. Even during the early days, while filming ''SixtyMillionDollarMan'', Ng Man-tat himself once refused to continue shooting, after having numbed his mouth due to shooting a tooth-brushing scene 50+ times.

* PrimaDonnaDirector: As an independent director, his laser focus on perfection at film making, at the expense of almost everything else, have made some swore never to work with him again. In particular, Creator/SammoHung was fired by him during the production of ''Film/KungFuHustle''.

As an actor he has been known to be the lead actor in all of his movies (up to ''CJ7''), as well as some lead roles in films such as the ''Film/GodOfGamblers'' sequels and ''Film/AChineseOdyssey''.

As an actor he has been known to be the lead actor in all of his movies as well as some lead roles in films such as the ''Film/GodOfGamblers'' sequels and ''Film/AChineseOdyssey''.

* ''Film/KingOfComedy''