Chen Kaige

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This is a Chinese name; the family name is Chen.
Chen Kaige
Born August 12, 1952
Flag of People's Republic of China Beijing, China
Occupation Director

Chen Kaige (Simplified Chinese: 陈凯歌; Traditional Chinese: 陳凱歌; pinyin: Chén Kǎigē; Wade-Giles: Ch'en K'ai-ko) (born August 12, 1952) is a famous Chinese film director.

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[edit] Early life

Chen Kaige was born in Beijing, and grew up with fellow Fifth Generation alumnus Tian Zhuangzhuang as a childhood friend. During the Cultural Revolution, Chen joined the Red Guards. As a teenage member of the Red Guards, Chen, like many other youths, denounced his own father, a fateful decision he eventually learned to regret. Indeed, this period of his life continues to influence much of his work today, notably in the unblinking depictions of the Cultural Revolution in Farewell, My Concubine, and in the father-son relationship in Together[1]. With the end of the Cultural Revolution, Chen, in 1978 joined the Beijing Film Academy, where he graduated from in 1982 as part of the so-called Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers.

[edit] Directorial career

His films are known for their visual flair and epic storytelling. His first movie, Yellow Earth (1984), is one of his most famous and important works. Together with Zhang Yimou as cinematographer, the film established itself as one of the most important works of Fifth Generation filmmaking; though simple, its powerful visual imagery and elliptical storytelling style strongly influenced contemporary Chinese filmmaking. The Big Parade (1986) and King of Children (1987) expanded on his filmic vocabulary and are often seen together with Yellow Earth as an early informal trilogy. Early in 1989, he did further experimenting in a music video for the song "Do You Believe In Shame" by Duran Duran. 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 er-hu musician and his student.

His most famous film in the West, Farewell My Concubine (1993), nominated for two Academy Awards and winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival, follows two Beijing opera stars through decades of change in China during the twentieth century. Chen followed up the unprecedented success of Farewell My Concubine with Temptress Moon (1996), another period drama starring 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. But Kaige doesn't limit himself to epics, 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. His more recent Together (2002) is an intimate film about a young violinist and his father. In 2005, he directed The Promise, which sees him returning to the historical epic.

Chen has also acted in several films, including Bertolucci's The Last Emperor (1987) and his own The Emperor and the Assassin.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Director

[edit] Partial actor credits

  • The Last Emperor (1987) Imperial Guard Chief
  • The Emperor and the Assassin (荊柯刺秦王, 1999) Lu Buwei

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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Films directed by Chen Kaige
Yellow Earth (1984) • The Big Parade (1986) • King of Children (1987) • Life on a String (1991) • Farewell My Concubine (1992) • Temptress Moon (1996) • The Emperor and the Assassin (1999) • Killing Me Softly (2002) • Together (2003) • The Promise (2005)
Cinema of China

Actors • Directors • Films A-Z • Film chronology • Cinematographers • Festivals • Producers • Screenwriters •
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