Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung and Stephen Chow were all in this 80s Hong Kong TV show

TVB comedy Angels and Devils also featured a host of other future stars but it was Chow Yun-fat who stole the show with his screwball antics

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Chow Yun-Fat (left) and Tony Leung Chiu-wai in Angels and Devils. The 1983 TVB comedy series featured many other future Hong Kong stars, including Stephen Chow, Francis Ng, Sandra Ng, Lau Ching-wan, Lawrence Ng and Bobby Au Yeung. Photo: TVB

Published: 7:15am, 6 Sep 2024Updated: 10:22am, 8 Sep 2024

Lately, a vintage video clip has been doing the rounds on social media of Chow Yun-fat taking part in an athletic meet. No surprises, you might say: well-known for his love of outdoor sports, the actor has frequently made the news during the past year for his near-professional performances in Hong Kong races.

That is not the Chow we see in the newly unearthed clip, however. Here, the gangly, shaggy-haired Chow is seen running barefoot on a muddy track, emerging a very unlikely victor in a 100-metre sprint in a very respectable time of 12 seconds.

The race actually took place in 1979, when Chow was just 24 and on the cusp of stardom in Hong Kong and beyond via two hit TVB soap operas: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly and, the year afterwards, The Bund.

Chow dazzled and mesmerised audiences with his performances as a rugged, conscientious romantic in the two TV series, consolidating his standing as the heartthrob of his generation – and paving the way for the po-faced, tough-as-nails heroes he played to perfection for director John Woo Yu-sum in A Better Tomorrow (1986) and beyond.

Chow Yun-fat (front right) sprints barefoot on his way to victory in a 100-metre race in the 1979 Hong Kong Celebrity Games in a still from a video clip that has recently appeared on social media. Photo: TVB

But the 1979 clip, which ends with the young star celebrating his triumph in a ragged T-shirt and silly grin, reveals the eccentricity beneath the actor’s suave on-screen persona.