‘Finally, I don’t need a gun to make a living’: Chow Yun-fat in America, and why The Killer star’s Hollywood hopes were dashed

American producers woke up to Chow Yun-fat’s potential after the success of Hong Kong action film The Killer, and he moved to Hollywood to try his luck there

After two so-so action films he had hopes for Anna and the King yet, ironically, Chinese-language Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was his lone US-produced hit

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Chow Yun-fat and Jodie Foster in a still from “Anna and the King”. The Hong Kong actor’s hope it would lead to him landing more leading roles in Hollywood and expand his range did not come to fruition. Photo: SCMP

Published: 11:15am, 22 Jan 2023Updated: 2:20pm, 23 Jan 2023

Hollywood was the place to be for Hong Kong filmmakers in the early 1990s.

John Woo Yu-sum, aided by his powerful manager Terence Chang, had blazed the way, making the actioner Hard Target in 1992 for Universal Studios. Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam and Jackie Chan were considering making the leap.

Prompted by Chang, who was also his manager, Chow Yun-fat, Hong Kong’s biggest movie star, also decided to try his luck in Tinseltown. But despite a contract with the top William Morris Agency, and a lot of media attention, it did not work out as well as expected.

Chow made a couple of substandard action pictures – The Replacement Killers and The Corruptor – and the big-budget Anna and the King, a non-musical version of the musical The King and I that was intended to establish him as a leading man outside the action genre.

Chow Yun-fat as Li Mu Bai and Zhang Ziyi as Jen in a still from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Photo: AP/Sony Picture Classics/Chan Kam Chuen

All failed or disappointed at the box office.

Ironically, it was the US-produced Chinese-language film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon that hit big for Chow in the US. But Hollywood producers regarded that as an anomaly, and it didn’t lead to the high-quality roles the actor desired.