The Unknown Genius of Stephen Chow Quiz

Answer: From Beijing With Love

In "Gwok chaan Ling Ling Chat" or "From Beijing With Love", Chow is a street vendor who doubles as a secret agent with luck, a lot like Inspector Clouseau of the "Pink Panther" series. When he is sent to find "The Man With The Golden Gun", insanity ensues.

Answer: Shaolin Soccer

In "Siu lam juk kau" or "Shaolin Soccer", Stephen Chow answers the question, "How do you make a living when you are an invincible master of kung fu?" The answer is, you get a job picking up garbage. To bring kung fu to a broader audience, Chow and his fellow, under-employed and unemployed monks come together to play soccer for a million dollar prize.

They play against Team Dragon, a team of kung fu women with beards and mustaches and against Team Evil, a team injected with an "American" serum that gives them superhuman soccer playing ability.

Answer: Monkey

"Sai yau gei" is one weird series of movies. For the first two films, Chow plays the Monkey King, a god who tries to eat his master because he talks too much; as a result, he is sentenced to live his life as a mortal. He is reincarnated as the Joker, and there are too many twists and turns to explain anymore, but the ride is very, very enjoyable.

Answer: God of Cookery

"Sik San" or "God of Cookery" is Stephen Chow's first true masterwork. He plays a TV chef, known as the God of Cookery, who can't cook, but knows how to sell everything related to cooking. When he is revealed as a fraud, he hits the skids until he ends up in a Shaolin temple where they teach him what he must know to regain his title.

Answer: A Box Office Superstar

In "Hei kek ji wong" or "The King of Comedy", Chow is an actor dedicated to his craft but very unlucky. Accidents seem to follow him on every job. He makes a living teaching acting on the side, until a prostitute comes to him for acting lessons. Through her, a real movie star spots him and offers him an important part in one of his movies.

Answer: He heals very quickly.

This is funny stuff. It turns out that Chow has several X-men powers in this movie; super speed, telepathy, and flight just to name a few. He plays a wannabe gangster with a blocked chi. He doesn't know why, but major injuries heal very quickly (like Wolverine). According to a bum on the street, he has the bone structure of a Kung Fu genius. Is he a Kung Fu genius? Only time will tell, but I can't remember laughing as often or as hard during any movie of recent memory.

Answer: He hated children.

"Space Shuttle 430" was a children's show much like Sesame Street in America. Chow was very rude to the children in the show, and had very little patience with them. The audience could sense his dislike for the little ones, but because of that, the show became a hit, running for five years and launching his career in the movies.

Answer: False

The two were childhood friends and auditioned together for TVB training classes, but only Leung was accepted. But because of Leung's talent and good looks, he managed to get Chow into the evening classes. Later, they were both went on to star in "Space Shuttle 430".

Answer: True

Chow's comedy style is very distinct, but he is a master of the "mo lei tau" or "nonsense" style of humor that started in Hong Kong in the late Twentieth Century. Although many filmmakers attempt the style, very few are as successful as often as Chow, and his films are are known worldwide as the most common example of the technique.
According to Kevin B. Lee of the Chicago Reader's article "How to Translate Nonsense,"
"mo lei tau refers to (Chow's) ability to dismantle the logic of a situation using visual and verbal inversions and non sequiturs. In this regard his closest Western corollary may be Bugs Bunny or the Marx Brothers. Chow's kineticism and range of comic technique invite comparisons with martial arts films and encourage viewers to let go of the conventions of storytelling, and even physics."
There are virtually no biographical references to Stephen Chow without mention of "mo lei tau" but my favorite thing about his films is there's always a part that will make you cry if you don't look out.

Answer: Justice, My Foot

"Sam sei goon" is the movie that made the world realize that Stephen Chow was very talented. In this film, he plays a very unethical lawyer whose wife convinces him that his practices are the reason they do not have a child. He changes his ways and his world comes tumbling down. He won the Asia-Pacific Film Festival's award for best actor for this performance; the first of seven awards for his skills as a creator of fine comedy.

Check this guy out!