An in-depth exploration of the stardom and authorship of Stephen Chow Sing-chi, one of Hong Kong cinema's most enduringly popular stars and among its most commercially successful directors.
In the West, Stephen Chow is renowned as the ground-breaking director and star of global blockbusters such as
Kung Fu Hustle
(2004) and
Shaolin Soccer
(2001). Among Hong Kong audiences, Chow is celebrated as the leading purveyor of local comedy, popularising the so-called
mo-lei-tau
(“gibberish”) brand of Cantonese vernacular humour, and cultivating a style of madcap comedy that often masks a trenchant social commentary.
This volume approaches Chow from a diverse range of critical perspectives. Each of the essays, written by a host of renowned international scholars, offers compelling new interpretations of familiar hits such as
From Beijing with Love
(1994) and
Jourbaney to the West
(2013). The detailed case studies of seminal local and global movies provide overdue critical attention to Chow's filmmaking, highlighting the aesthetic power, economic significance, and cultural impact of his films in both domestic and global markets.