Shou's interest in martial arts developed during his years as a University student. He began practising
wushu after watching
Jet Li's film
Shaolin Temple. He soon became a Hong Kong stuntman. As a martial artist, Shou was an International Forms Champion in 1982 and 1983 and he won several gold and silver medals at prestigious competitions in China. He was also a traditional forms Grand Champion in California. Shou's first dramatic role was in
Forbidden Nights in 1990, with
Melissa Gilbert. Though only a TV film, this was his American debut. However, Shou went back to Hong Kong and continued making movies there such as
Tiger Cage 2 and
Fatal Termination. In 1994, Shou returned to
Los Angeles when he landed his first American leading role as
Liu Kang in
Mortal Kombat (1995), based on the popular
video game of the same name. He reprised the role in the 1997 sequel
Mortal Kombat Annihilation. That same year, he appeared opposite
Chris Farley in the action comedy
Beverly Hills Ninja. Shou also appeared in a minor role in another fighting video game adaptation,
DOA: Dead or Alive, based on
Tecmo's video game series of the same name, produced by
Mortal Kombat director
Paul W. S. Anderson and producer
Jeremy Bolt. He played 14K in the
Death Race series, and also appeared as
Gen in 2009's
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Shou trained
Milla Jovovich for her role in
Resident Evil. He is fluent in English in addition to his native
Chinese. ==Filmography==