As a newcomer, she drew considerable controversy for her role in the Category-III box office hit Twenty Something, which dealt with sexually explicit themes considered shocking for a former Miss Hong Kong beauty queen.
[5] Her following role in Wong Kar-Wai's widely acclaimed Chungking Express also made an impression and garnered her a Hong Kong Film Award nomination.
The role was ill-received and the image of seductress came to be closely associated with Chow, perhaps further fuelled by earlier rumours of her alleged affair with Tony Leung Chiu Wai (then already dating long-time partner Carina Lau), whose music videos and album cover she also featured in.
The more notable of these were that of the female terrorist in Jing Wong's High Risk, a moderately successful box-office hit, and a guest appearance in Tsui Hark's acclaimed wu-xia feature The Blade.
In late 1996, she left the Hong Kong film industry to pursue a career in Hollywood, adopting a more racially ambiguous screen name, Rachel Shane.
More substantially, she became the first Chinese spokesmodel for Revlon US in 1998, appearing in national print and TV ad campaigns alongside Halle Berry, Salma Hayek, and Melanie Griffith.
Highlights included working with [American filmmaker] David Lynch and [footwear designer] Christian Louboutin at Cafe de Flore, in Paris, and producing the first Guy Bourdin exhibition in Hong Kong.
In September 2010, Chow opened Mama Kid, a children's clothing boutique in Hong Kong's Central District to great success, which has since relocated to Stanley.