AKA Mr. Chow (2023)

January 9, 2024 4:53 PM

Explores the life and career of Michael Chow - a Zelig figure who owns restaurants around the world that celebrities and artists flocked to, is the son of a Chinese opera star, and now is asserting himself as an artist.
posted by larrybob (2 comments total)

Recently I watched the American Masters doc on Jean-Michel Basquiat. In passing, it mentioned him hanging out at Mr Chow restaurant in New York. Then a few days later I stumbled across this documentary. It puts together many of the pieces.

For instance, Michael Chow was introduced to his second wife, Tina, by Antonio Lopez, the fashion illustrator who discovered Jessica Lange (Antonio is the subject of a biodoc which Michael Chow appears in). (Lopez also introduced Bill Cunningham (Previously) to the guy who gave him his first camera.)

Michael Chow got a few supporting roles in films before he started his first restaurant in London. His older sister Tsai Chin has had a much longer acting career.

Basquiat and Keith Haring were among the many artists who painted portraits of Michael Chow. While he did attend art school in England, only recently has he publicly displayed his own art, and there are dramatic scenes of him whacking globs of paint with an hammer and applying a blowtorch to large canvasses.

His life definitely has had some tragedies to weather, including the fate of his father, who was a Chinese Opera star who fell afoul of the Cultural Revolution.
posted by larrybob at 5:10 PM on January 9 [3 favorites]

You can watch on HBO/Max.
posted by Ideefixe at 7:47 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]