Jiang Wen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jiang Wen (Chinese: 姜文; pinyin: Jiāng Wén; born January 5, 1963) is a Chinese film actor and director. He is probably best known internationally as the male lead opposite Gong Li in Zhang Yimou's directorial debut Red Sorghum.
Born in Tangshan, Hebei province into an army family, Jiang Wen shifted to Beijing at the age of 6. In 1980, he entered China's foremost acting school, the Central Academy of Drama, graduating in 1984. That same year he started acting both on the stage (with the China Youth Theater) and in films.
After appearing in many television serial and films, Jiang became renowned in China for his starring role in the 1992 TV series A Native of Beijing in New York, which made him one of the well-loved actors of his generation. In addition to these he also starred in Hibiscus Town (1984, directed by Xie Jin), Black Snow (1990, directed by Xie Fei), The Emperor's Shadow (1996, directed by Zhou Xiaowen) and The Soong Sisters (1997). Other than Red Sorghum, Jiang also collaborated with Zhang Yimou for his 1997 film Keep Cool.
Jiang wrote and directed his first film in 1994, In the Heat of the Sun, adapted from a novel by Wang Shuo. A tale set in the Cultural Revolution, it won for its young lead actor Xia Yu the Best Actor prize at the Venice Film Festival and garnered six Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan. Jiang's second feature, Devils on the Doorstep, set during the Japanese occupation of China in the early 1940s, won him the Grand Prix in the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. He has acted in many TV series, the most recent where he portrayed Huang Taiji.
