Top 10 Best Stephen Chow Movies

Stephen Chow have appeared in more than 50 films so far. In recent years Chow only makes one film every four or five years, but each one makes audience in hysterics. Chow’s comedy films have numerous NGs, screenplay adjustments and modifications. He uses his talent, dedication and great passion for perfection to make each film elaborately. Now let us check the list of Stephen Chow’s top 10 best movies and review those happy memories that chow’s movies brought to us.

1. 大话西游之月光宝盒&仙履奇缘 A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora’s Box and Part Two: Cinderella (1995)

I always feel that “King of Comedy” is his peak work, but recently I start to think actually his 1995 film “A Chinese Odyssey” is already perfect enough. Whether its plot, lines or music and clothing, all these make it a fabulous film. The film consists of too many film elements: Kungfu, comedy, fantasy and tragedy. I want to use briefness words to sum that was classical, aftertaste, plaint and expectation. The part one makes people laugh and part two makes us burst into tears.

2. 喜剧之王 King of Comedy (1999)

The film is somewhat a autobiography of Chow’s early acting career. He started his acting as a temporary actor and experienced a lot of tough times before becoming a well-known comedy actor. The character Wan Tin-Sau has incredible love for acting and his dedication finally changes his life. The film presents audience many typical Chow style bizarre gags such as bleeding from nose and eyes.

3. 国产零零漆 From Beijing with Love (1994)

Many people say this movie is Stephen Chow’s peak film, I agree with it. More people think “A Chinese Odyssey” is the best, but that movie actually belongs to director Jeff Lau’s abstract style. As for Stephen Chow style films, I think “From Beijing with Love” is his most important work. The best drama should make people laugh in tears, though Stephen Chow’s work has not yet reached the height of Charlie Chaplin’s comedy masterpieces, starting from this one his later works almost contain deep emotional elements. Being both funny and touching is the real Stephen Chow style.

4. 食神 God of Cookery (1996)

The “God of Cookery” promotes Chow’s film to a new level. This is his first official directing work. It has completely got rid of Wong Jing style “hilariousness” and marks maturation of Stephen Chow style movie. Chow plays the character “Sik San” very well and Karen Mok perform extremely well as the ugly “Sister Turkey”. The film has a lot of the classic banters, every time when I see it, I will laugh outright.

5. 功夫 Kung Fu Hustle (2004)

After 4 years of hard work, The highly anticipated film “Kung Fu Hustle” proved to be another box office myth after “Shaolin Soccer“. After watching the movie I was not impressed by its “delicacy”, this word can never apply to Chow’s former movies, but in the film “Kung Fu Hustle” it actually makes me feel surprised. Whether its casting, plot arrangement, actor’s lines, scenery and others, all these can prove that the director paid a lot of attention to this movie. Actors’ performances are also very impressive. Although Eva Huang only has a short playing time, she did a very good job and gave all audience a surprise. The images of Landlady and Landlord also became well-known.

6. 大内密探零零发 Forbidden City Cop (1996)

Starting from this one, Chow’s film has something that can separate with his other films. There are still ridiculousness, nonsensical humor and witty repartee, but the emotional scenes interspersed in the drama really surprise us. The clearest memory is that Ling Ling Fat quarrels with his wife (Carina Lau) and asks her to never come back. Carina Lau runs out in a fit of pique, but soon comes back, the two hold together tightly. At that moment I even forget this is a comedy, but to watch a serious drama. But this precious scene is soon diluted by a lot of jokes.

7. 逃学威龙 Fight Back To School (1991)

This is the most perfect cooperation between Gordon Chan and Stephen Chow. And from this film, Chow obtained a well-name – Zhou Xingxing. The name has almost become a synonymous of Chow. Though this is a 1991 movie, it’s quality is far above his latter films “Hail the Judge” and “Flirting Scholar”. Think of the plot, a policeman, in order to ascertain facts of the crime, sneaks into the school to go undercover, this is really a exactly tailor-made image Chow. The film has two sequels and the quality is not as good as the first one; but the second piece is worth to bear in mind because it is Athena’s debut and her performance is wonderful in it.

8. 赌圣 All for the Winner (1990)

From the film “All for the Winner” Stephen Chow began to cooperate with director Jeffrey Lau, who played the most important role in Chow’s “star road”. Personally I think Jeffrey Lau has substantial influence on the formation of Stephen Chow’s comedy. It is starting from the film that Chow began to establish his signature performance style. His performance started to be adept and began to form a complete set of performance systems.

9. 九品芝麻官 Hail the Judge (1994)

If just for entertainment, “Hail the Judge” is definitely the best Chow style movie and also the most typical movie of director Wong Jing. Like the film “Flirting Scholar” this is a pure “hilarious” film which makes you laugh from the beginning to the end. The most funky stuff is that it changes serious trial court to a pure war of words, but still stick to the grievance and the case. Sharla Cheung’s remarkable performance is excellent, the scene of “Flying snow in June” makes people cannot help shedding tears. The verbal battle in the courtroom has become a classical scene often imitated by netizens.

10. 唐伯虎点秋香 Flirting Scholar (1993)

“Flirting Scholar” is a simple funny comedy. Regardless of how badly Stephen Chow spoof the talented scholar Tang Bohu, the film still firmly makes us believe that Tang Bohu equals to Chow in some ways. Some say that Gong Li‘s acting is like a doll, but I do not think so. I think Qiuxiang should be like this, she is not a femme fatale, but still enchanted. Although there is no real meaning, this film still make “hilariousness” to its fullest, one very typical example is that we call cockroach “Xiao Qiang” (meaning “Little Strong”) instead of its original name.