The B-Side Ep. 181 – Chow Yun-Fat

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.  Today we celebrate an actor with an incredible range: Chow Yun-fat. Our B-Sides include 100 Ways to Murder Your Wife, City War, Peace Hotel, and The Corruptor.  We discuss Chow Yun-fat’s emergence in Hong Kong, his early work with John Woo, the breakout that was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000. Conor and I debate which Western star Chow Yun-fat reminds us of, before resolving that he’s quite a bit more dynamic than any one of them. There’s debate over the success of his move to Hollywood and his brief stint as a Western leading man (lest we never forget about Bulletproof Monk!), the City on Fire influence on Reservoir Dogs, the John Woo Hollywood run (and why Chow wasn’t in any of them!?), and the impossible influence of Asian action cinema on Hollywood action blockbusters to this day.We also discuss the difficult and narrow needle to thread when making a slapstick marital comedy, and why 100 Ways to Murder Your Wife fails where a few succeed.