Chen Kaige
Template:Short description Template:Family name hatnote Template:Infobox person Template:Infobox Chinese
Chen Kaige (Template:Lang-zh; born 12 August 1952) is a Chinese filmmaker. A leading figure of the fifth generation of Chinese directors, Chen is known for his visual flair and epic storytelling.<ref name="Berry83">Berry, Michael (2002). "Chen Kaige: Historical Revolution and Cinematic Rebellion" in Speaking in Images: Interviews with Contemporary Chinese Filmmakers. Columbia University Press, pg. 83; Template:ISBN</ref><ref>(7 January 1994) FILM / Critical Round-up independent.co.uk</ref> For Farewell My Concubine (1993), Chen became the first Chinese director to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.<ref name="festival-cannes.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Early lifeEdit
Chen Kaige was born in Beijing, China into a family of Changle, Fuzhou origin, and grew up with fellow Fifth Generation alumnus Tian Zhuangzhuang as a childhood friend. His father Template:Ill was a well-known director in his own right.<ref name=Berry83/> His mother Liu Yanchi (Template:Lang-zh) was a senior screenwriter. During the Cultural Revolution, Chen joined the Red Guards and denounced his own father, a fateful decision he eventually learned to regret and informs much of his work, notably in the unblinking depictions of the Cultural Revolution in Farewell My Concubine, and in the father-son relationship in Together.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1969, Chen became a sent-down youth in Xishuangbanna Agricultural Reclamation Bureau before enlisting in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) next year.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1975, Chen was discharged from the army and returned to Beijing, where he worked as a worker in Beijing Film Printing Factory. In 1978 Chen joined the Beijing Film Academy, where he graduated in 1982.<ref name=Berry83/>
CareerEdit
Upon graduating, Chen was assigned to the Guangxi Film Studio, along with a fellow graduate, Zhang Yimou.<ref name=Berry83/> His first movie, Yellow Earth (1984), established itself as one of the most important works of Fifth Generation filmmaking; though simple, its powerful visual imagery, courtesy of cinematography by Zhang, and revolutionary storytelling style marked a sea change in how films were seen and perceived in the People's Republic of China.<ref name=Berry83/> The film is unique in terms of concept, structure, and style, in line with the "cultural roots seeking" trend that emerged in China in the 1980s. The purpose of filming this film is to attempt to explore the deep cultural heritage of national history and spirit from a cultural perspective.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Big Parade (1986) and King of the Children (1987) expanded on his filmic repertoire. In 1987, he was awarded a fellowship by the Asian Cultural Council and served as a visiting scholar at the New York University Film School.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Early in 1989, he did further experiment in a music video for the song "Do You Believe in Shame?" by Duran Duran.<ref name=MM>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Later that year, he made Life on a String, a highly esoteric movie which uses mythical allegory and lush scenery to tell the story of a blind sanxian musician and his student. In the same year, he was a member of the jury at the 39th Berlin International Film Festival.<ref name="Berlinale">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
His most famous film in the West, Farewell My Concubine (1993), follows two Beijing opera stars through decades of change in China during the twentieth century. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards and won the Palme d'Or at 1993 Cannes Film Festival and the 1993 International Federation of Film Critics Award.<ref name="festival-cannes.com" /><ref>Template:Citation</ref> Chen followed up the unprecedented success of Farewell My Concubine with Temptress Moon (1996), another period drama starring Leslie Cheung and Gong Li. Though it was well received by most critics, it did not achieve the accolades that Concubine did, and many were put off by the film's convoluted plot line. Almost as famous is his The Emperor and the Assassin (1999), an epic involving the legendary King of Qin and the reluctant assassin who aims to kill him.
In 2002, Chen made his first, and to-date only, English-language film, Killing Me Softly, a thriller starring Heather Graham and Joseph Fiennes, though it proved to be both a critical and popular disappointment.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Together (2002) in the same year, which marked the beginning of his wife Chen Hong as his producer, is an intimate film about a young violinist and his father, showing the desire of young people to grow according to their spiritual guidance.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the short "Ten Minutes, Aging", the finale of the collection "Deep in Flowers," which opened the Cannes Film Festival in France in 2002, Chen selects the theme of urban renewal, a nation-wide program across China at the time characterized by large-scale demolition, and tells the story of the mentally ill "Mr. Feng" moving in a seemingly humorous tone.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2005, he directed The Promise, an all-star fantasy wuxia picture, which saw Chen shifting to a more commercial mindset, regarded by some as a "radical stylistic turn" from his previous works.<ref name=MM/>
In 2006, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 28th Moscow International Film Festival.<ref name="Moscow2006">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2008, Chen directed Forever Enthralled, a biopic of Peking opera artist Mei Lanfang, followed by Sacrifice (2010), a re-imagining of the Chinese play The Orphan of Zhao.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> His 2012 film Caught in the Web, a reflection on internet culture—sometimes interpreted as his response to the parody frenzy surrounding The Promise—was selected as the Chinese entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist.<ref name="Oscar">Template:Cite news</ref> His film Monk Comes Down the Mountain (2015), which may have suffered from editing issues due to the drug scandal involving one of its stars, Jaycee Chan, was a critical failure but achieved commercial success. He then directed Legend of the Demon Cat (2017), a big-budget Chinese-Japanese co-production adapted from the novel of the same name by Japanese fantasy novelist Baku Yumemakura.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Since 2019, Chen directed or produced a series of propaganda films that are sometimes commissioned by the Chinese government, including co-directing The Battle at Lake Changjin (2021), China's highest-grossing film of all time.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In addition to directing, Chen has acted in several films, including Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor (1987) and his own The Emperor and the Assassin and Together.
Personal lifeEdit
Chen's first wife was Sun Jialin ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), whom he knew while working at the Beijing Film Factory from 1975 to 1978; they married in 1983 and divorced three years later. His second wife was Hong Huang, daughter of Zhang Hanzhi, a diplomat and English teacher of Mao Zedong. Through his second marriage, Chen obtained a US green card.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They separated in 1991 and divorced in 1993. From 1991, Chen lived with Ni Ping, a television personality, in a six-year relationship.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1996, Chen married actress Chen Hong, who has been his producer since Together (2002). They have two sons, Chen Yu'ang and "Arthur" Chen Feiyu.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
FilmographyEdit
Television (as director)Edit
| Year | English Tltle | Chinese Title | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Emergency Take-off | lang}} | citation | CitationClass=web
}}</ref> |
| 2002 | Lubu and Diaochan | lang}} | citation | CitationClass=web
}}</ref> |
Executive producerEdit
| Year | English Tltle | Chinese Title | Notes | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Template:Ill | lang}} | iQiyi web series | citation | CitationClass=web
}}</ref> |
| Template:Ill | lang}} | citation | CitationClass=web
}}</ref> |
ActorEdit
| Year | English Title | Chinese Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | The Last Emperor | {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} | Captain of Imperial Guard | |
| 1999 | The Emperor and the Assassin | {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} | Lü Buwei | |
| 2001 | The Grand Mansion Gate | lang}} | An official | guest |
| 2002 | Together | {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} | Yu Shifeng | |
| 2009 | The Founding of a Republic | {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} | Feng Yuxiang | |
| 2012 | The Monkey King 3D: Uproar in Heaven | {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} | Dragon King of the East China Sea | Voice role |
Awards and nominationsEdit
InternationalEdit
DomesticEdit
See alsoEdit
NotesEdit
External linksEdit
- Chen Kaige at They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?
- [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 0155280
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- Chen Kaige: "Freedom Above All Else"
- Chen Kaige – Star of Chinese Fifth-Generation Cinema Directors
- Chen Kaige at the Hong Kong Movie Database
Template:Chen Kaige Template:Golden Rooster Award Best Director Template:Silver Shell for Best Director Template:Authority control