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
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.
