Lauded Hong Kong filmmaker Stephen Chow, creator of an unparalleled genre of tragicomedies in which he portrayed people’s lives with lowbrow humor, pratfalls and ambitious stunts, seems to be in a career slump amid a failure to bring more of his signature darkly comic classics to the big screen. From 1993 to 2005, he was widely acclaimed for his comic style with movies including Flirting Scholar, A Chinese Odyssey and King of Comedy, the last based on his own life. While transforming from a bit-part player to one of the best-known Chinese filmmakers, Chow, now 64, has a controversial personality which has led to deteriorating relations with investors and his movie and romantic partners. After the pinnacle of Kung Fu Hustle in 2005, his later films and recent micro-dramas made for streaming platforms have failed to reach similar heights.
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