by ANGELA MATUSIK
1997

Hong Kong action hero Chow Yun-Fat shoots his way into America's heart.

Sitting on a plush sofa in a New York hotel room, Chow Yun-Fat is obviously pleased with himself. Dressed in a black Mao suit, his long legs crossed casually and his hair slicked back to perfection, the Hong Kong action hero looks as suave in person as he does onscreen. He tosses his head back and lets out a loud laugh that fills the nondescript room. "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!" Chow has told a joke in English, and this makes him very happy. "First interview, I was talking about 10 years; second one, nine years; the third one, five years," he says when asked how long he has been married to his wife, Jasmine. "Now I am single! Ha, ha, ha!"

Chow's jovial mood is well deserved. On the eve of the release of his first American film, The Replacement Killers, the 42-year-old actor is ready to conquer a new world. After making over 70 films (even he seems to have lost count after 69), he is a traffic-stopping superstar in his homeland, but here in the States his fame is mostly relegated to Tarantino devotees and Village East Cinema-goers who know him as John Woo's slow-mo muse, complete with billowing overcoat, dark sunglasses and his trademark mouthpiece: a toothpick. "Right now, Yun-Fat has a lot of cult followers," he says. The fact that he refers to himself in the third person is one of the English-speaking glitches he has yet to overcome, but it almost seems appropriate when discussing his huge public persona. "Yun-Fat is not a big-screen movie star. He's more underground. I'm going from in to out," he says.

In many ways, The Replacement Killers is the perfect vehicle to introduce Chow to American audiences. Produced by his old friend, John Woo, and starring Mira Sorvino, it will attract both his growing legion of fans and action junkies looking for a quick fix during the end-of-winter movie lull. Chow plays John Lee, a professional killer torn between executing an innocent victim (as opposed to those nasty drug dealers who deserve it) or putting his family in China at risk. He turns to Meg Coburn (Sorvino), an expert document forger, for help. Sound familiar? The quiet bad guy with a heart of gold is a role Chow can do in his sleep, except this time his well-chosen words are spoken in English, not Cantonese. "The first day on the set, one of my first lines had the word "condolences' in it. My hands and lips were shaking," he recalls. "Oddly, holding guns and physical things is not a problem for Yun-Fat. But my mouth is not appropriate for your language."

In addition to mastering a new language (don't let his modesty fool you: Chow speaks English better than any Spice Girl), he also had to relearn how to shoot a gun. "The set coordinator told me, "You are not carrying guns without training. You have to stick to the Hollywood style: you have to use two hands to hold the gun,'" explains Chow, who is known for his two-fisted shooting style. "So they put me in the [firing] range. Let me tell you, holding a real gun is a very different experience. It's not like a pop gun, and it reminded me that whether it's on the set or on the range, guns are used to kill people."

This is a strange realization for a man who has blasted his way out of burning hospitals (Hard-Boiled), candlelit churches (The Killer) and exploding shipyards (A Better Tomorrow). But in real life, Chow is a warm, generous and affectionate man, prone to kissing relative strangers on the cheek (including lucky journalists) and lending a hand whenever one is needed. Ask anyone from the crew of The Replacement Killers, and they'll tell you that Chow is the nicest guy they've ever worked with. "It has nothing to do with being a nice guy," insists the Chinese Clint Eastwood. "It's a working attitude. In Hong Kong, we work like a family system. When you are not performing, you must lend a hand. We work very, very fast. In Hollywood, each department has its specific thing that only it can do. But I don't mind helping people."

It won't be long before Chow is accustomed to the "Hollywood system." Immediately after the opening of The Replacement Killers, he's off to Toronto to film The Corrupter with director James Foley (At Close Range and Fear). "It's about a dirty cop in Chinatown," says Chow. "I'm the bad guy, but don't worry„I always have a good heart." There's been talk for years of a Tarantino script written especially for Chow, who first encountered America's biggest promoter of Hong Kong films in 1989. "I met him at a restaurant in Santa Monica," recalls the actor. "He had on a long jacket, sunglasses, toothpick. It stunned me." But Chow's true American dream is to create a U.S. hit with his coconspirator, John Woo. "I'm dying [to make a film] with John," he says, smiling. "But I have plenty of time. I'm still young...young and single. Ha, ha, ha!"

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