Zhu Wen (director)

Zhu Wen is a Chinese short story writer turned director.

Early life and writing

Zhu Wen was born in 1967 in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province. He attended Southeast University in Nanjing, and graduated with a degree in electric power. After working in a state-owned thermal power plant for five years, he quit his job in 1994 to become a freelance writer.

His first published short story, ''I Love Dollars'', was denounced by some critics as the "shameless and indecent novel of a hooligan."

In 1998, he instigated and became identified with the ''Rupture'' movement to voice dissatisfaction with the literary establishment. He sent questionnaires to about 70 writers, about 55 of which responded. The responses were sarcastic and mostly expressed discontent, and later spawned publications that nurtured more independence among writers.

In an introduction to Zhu Wen's short stories, the translator Julia Lovell characterized his 'trademark narrative style' as "a loosely punctuated, first-person voice in which speech, both direct and indirect, run on within sentences of descriptive prose, designed to capture the unceremonious, free-flowing rhythms of action and dialogue in contemporary China."


As a writer, he was labeled as part of a 'newly-born generation' movement.

He began writing short stories and novellas in 1991.
He has written the following novellas:
* ''I Love Dollars''《我爱美元》
* ''A Boat Crossing''《三生修得同舟渡》
* ''A Hospital Night'' 《幸亏这些年有了一点钱》
* ''Wheels'' 《把穷人统统打昏》
* ''Ah, Xiao Xie''《小谢啊小谢》
*《因为孤独》
*《弟弟的演奏》
*《人民到底需不需要桑拿》
*《大汗淋漓》

His only novel-length work is ''What is Garbage, What is Love''. .

A selection of his short stories were translated by Julia Lovell and published by Columbia University Press in January 2007.

Directorial career

Zhu decided to direct a movie in 2000. He has said that most of the directors he admires come from Continental Europe and Russia, including Andrei Tarkovsky.

He is considered a member of the Sixth Generation of Chinese film makers. His first movie was '''', about a policeman and prostitute's friendship in Beidaihe. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the 58th Venice Film Festival. It cost about 300,000RMB to produce.

His second film, ''South of the Clouds'' , was awarded the NETPAC Prize at the Berlin Film Festival and won 'Asia's Best New Director Prize' at the Shanghai International Film Festival, sharing the prize and half of the 150,000RMB prize with a Thai director.
He explained the title referred to desires that cannot be fulfilled.
It cost about 100,000RMB to produce.

Zhu has also been highly critical of some of the , saying of Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, "They're successful directors, but they're not good directors."

Filmography

*Director

*Screenwriter

Zhu Shilin

Zhu Shilin . was a film director, born in Taicang, Jiangsu, China. Zhu began his career in the thriving film industry of Shanghai, directing actresses like Ruan Lingyu with the Lianhua Film Company. After the war, Zhu moved to Hong Kong, where he founded the Longma Film Company along with fellow Shanghai emigrant Fei Mu.

Between 1930 and 1964 he directed 80 films. Two of his films, ''Sorrows of the Forbidden City'' and '''' were ranked in the .

Zheng Junli

Zheng Junli was a Chinese actor and director born in Shanghai and who rose to prominence in the golden age of .

Biography

Early years

Zheng was born into an impoverished family, often harassed by creditors. At early ages, he showed great interest in reading and art performing. He left junior high at second grade and entered "Nanguo Art School" led by Tian Han and studied play acting.

During the 1930s, Zheng was an actor under contract with Lianhua Film Company. While with Lianhua, he played a number of roles, notably as the love-interest Yu Haichou in the film ''New Women'' opposite Ruan Lingyu.

From Sino-Japanese War to Establishment of PRC

After the Zheng began to focus his efforts on directing, most notably with the film ''The Spring River Flows East'' and his anti- polemic ''Crows and Sparrows''. In 1957, the latter was awarded Excellent Movie Award first-class by Minister of Culture of PRC.

PRC period

Zheng welcomed the establishment of the new government of CPC. As a left-wing director, he was at first one of the beneficiaries. He moved his family from dilapidated dormitory in Kunlun Studio to the best residential area in Shanghai, opposite to the house of Song Qingling.

On 2nd meeting of CPC 7th national congress, Mao Zedong mentioned some issues of CPC cadres after entering the cities. Zheng immediately followed the directive and made the movie "The Married Couple" , starring Zhao Dan and Jiang Tianliu. It told a story that a CPC cadre ditched his original wife in village in order to marry a girl in the city, showing his failure to resist the temptation of "sugar-coated bullet". This movie was banned even before the public release.

Zheng was a member of Art Commission of Shanghai Film Studio, and used to support the making of "The Life of Wu Xun" . This movie was severely excoriated by CPC authority and Zheng felt guilty of that. His former production, "The Married Couple", was also criticized at this time, which exerted great pressure on the director.

In order to criticize "The Life of Wu Xun", Jiang Qing and her gang went to Shandong to do research. They found another figure, Song Jingshi, a peasant uprising leader of "Black Flag Army" in history. They thus erected Song and Black Flag Army as revolutionary examples to further denounce Wu Xun. They borrowed Zheng Junli for a long time to study this movie script. However, a dilemma was encountered by Zheng and , another screenplay writer. In the real history, Song Jingshi eventually surrendered to Qing Dynasty, but for political purpose, Song must be depicted as a determined revolutionist. A compromise was finally reached as Song's surrendering was designed as a tactic. Due to the false position of "The Life of Wu Xun", Shanghai Film Studio hoped new production "Song Jingshi" would redeem its political mistakes. The then vice director of movie bureau, Cui Wei, acted as Song Jingshi himself. Other famed actors and actresses were all willing to perform minor supporting roles. But because of the fact that Song surrendered to Qing authority, the movie was only allowed to be released for a short period after four-five years after its completion. In the end, this film of "atonement" didn't pass the censorship and was banned.

After continuous lack of success, Zheng's next two on Nie Er and Lin Zexu won wide acclaims, and somehow alleviated his feeling of guilty.

Zheng was severely persecuted in Cultural Revolution, and died in prison in 1969.

He was a delegate to Shanghai municipal People's Congress, a member of 3rd and 4th CPPCC, a councilman of China Film Association, China Playwrights Association and Shanghai Film Association.

Academics

Zheng devoted to translating and authoring works on films and plays. So far his published works include ''The Birth of a Role'' and ''Voice-over'' , among others.

He used to think his performance was rigid and not satisfactory. Thus he made great efforts to study performing theories. He first tried to translate ''Acting: The First Six Lessons'' authored by Richard Boleslavsky. Since he hadn't completed his junior high study, his English was poor. Nevertheless he was very diligent. He did the translation relying on the English dictionary, and then double-checked the original book using a Russian-English dictionary and corrected any mistakes. After that, his English was greatly improved. He was also the first one who introduced the performing system of Constantin Stanislavski into China. Stanislavski's works were all written in Russian. Zheng thus found a English-Russian & Russian-English dictionary and translated Russian to Chinese through English, which was indeed a formidable job. His translation of ''An Actor Prepares'' of Stanislavski, co-authored by Zhang Min, was the first systematic work on art performing in plays in China.

Zheng also authored the book ''Art History of World's Movies''. At the time when no one in China dared to break ideological shackle and compare films of western world with ones of Soviet Union's, it was a breakthrough by Zheng to write a chronicle of world films from a universal perspective.

Selected filmography

As director

* ''The Spring River Flows East''
* ''Crows and Sparrows''
* ''The Married Couple''
* ''Song Jingshi''
* ''''
* ''''
* ''Spring Comes to the Withered Tree''

As actor

* ''''
* ''The Big Road'' (
* ''New Women'' - Yu Haichou
* ''Song of China''
* ''Guo Feng'' - Chen Zuo

Zhao Dan

Zhao Dan was a actor popular in the golden age of .

Biography

Born as Zhao Feng'ao in Yangzhou in Jiangsu province, Zhao first became famous working in the Mingxing Film Company in the 1930s including playing opposite Zhou Xuan in '''' . After the , Zhao began a creative relationship with director Zheng Junli, with films such as the 1948 anti-Kuomintang drama-comedy, ''Crows and Sparrows''.

Zhao remained on the mainland following the victory in 1949 and continued to make films throughout the 1950s and 1960s notably in biographical films playing historical figures of Nie Er, Lin Zexu and Li Shizhen.

He joined Communist Party of China in 1957. During Cultural Revolution, he was persecuted and imprisoned for 5 years. He died of pancreas cancer in Beijing in 1980.

He was married to Ye Luqian in 1936. When he was arrested by Sheng Shicai in Xinjiang in 1939, it was rumored he had been dead. Thus Ye was married to playwright Du Xuan. After the war, he was released and returned to Shanghai. He later was married to Huang Zongying.

Selected filmography

As actor

As director

Zhao Benshan

Zhao Benshan is a skit and sitcom actor, and recently turned director. Having initially gained immense popularity from performances on the CCTV New Year's Gala, Zhao is now a household-name comedy actor on Mainland China.

Born in Shizui Cottage in Lianhua County in Tieling, Liaoning, in a peasant family, he was orphaned when he was only 6. Apprenticed to his uncle, he learned many local traditional performance arts, including Er hu, Er Ren Zhuan etc.

He gained some popularity in local areas, which caught attention of Jiang Kun, a famous Chinese Xiangsheng artist, who recommend him to the 1987 CCTV New Year's Gala, a TV program broadcast all around China. After his first appearance, he had appeared in each Gala show every year. Some of his highlights included "Yesterday, today and Tomorrow", and "Fixing up the house".

Since the turn of the century, Zhao had also turned attention towards acting and directing sitcoms, appearing as the main character in Liu Laogen and Ma Dashuai, and their sequels. Some of his associates in acting are Gao Xiumin Song Dan Dan and Fan Wei. In 2007 Zhao went on a tour in the United States, making a stop in New York City. After his return, he attended the 2007 National People's Congress as a delegate from Liaoning.

Filmography

* '''' - Poet reader
* ''The Emperor and the Assassin'' - Gao Jianli
* ''Happy Times'' - Zhao
* ''Getting Home''
* ''Liu Laogen'' - Title character
* ''Ma DaShuai'' - Title character

Zhang Yibai

Zhang Yibai is a Chinese film director. Zhang began his career in television and music videos before directing his debut, ''Spring Subway'' in 2002.

Zhang, like many other modern Chinese directors, has focused primarily on life in modern Chinese cities. ''Spring Subway'', for example, follows its protagonist as he wanders through Beijing's system, while the mystery-thriller ''Curiosity Killed the Cat'' follows its characters through the central China boomtown of Chongqing .

Zhang's two most recent films, 2007's ''The Longest Night in Shanghai'' and 2008's ''Lost, Indulgence'' have seen the director's exposure and successes extending increasingly overseas. ''Longest Night'', starring Zhao Wei, constitutes one of the first China-Japan coproductions, while ''Lost'' was selected to premiere at New York City's Tribeca Film Festival in 2008.

Filmography

Zhang Yang (director)

Zhang Yang is a Chinese film director, screenwriter, and occasional actor. He is the son of Zhang Huaxun, who is also a Chinese film director.

Zhang Yang uses a realistic style, and achieved great recognition for his 1999 independent production '''' , which was successful at Chinese box offices as well as international film festivals. This was followed in 2001 by ''Zuotian'' . The actors in this unusual story about a real actor, Jia Hongsheng, and his struggle with drug addiction are Jia himself, Jia's parents, fellow inmates in a mental institution, the director, Zhang, and others playing themselves. The relationship between parents and their grown children is as central to this film as it was in ''Shower''.

Zhang grew up in Beijing, studied until 1988 at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong, from which he graduated with a degree in Chinese literature, and then went to the Central Academy of Drama , graduating in 1992.

Filmography

As director

As actor

Zhang Guoli

Zhang Guoli is a . A native of Tianjin, Zhang often plays the role of Emperor of China during the Qing Dynasty. He also plays some modern political drama roles. His wife is Deng Jie. In 2006, he directed the drama-comedy, ''The 601st Phone Call''.

TV Series

*''Golden Anniversary'' , as Tong Zhi

Yueh Feng

Griffin Yueh Feng born Da Zichun in Shanghai was a film director and screenwriter who worked in the Cinema of Hong Kong. He worked at the Shaw Brothers Studio's for many years and directed nearly 90 films.

He studied at the Asia Photography School in Shanghai, and starred in a film as an extra in 1929. By 1933 he had become a director following some experience as an assistant. In 1949, Yueh relocated to Hong Kong and was employed by the Great Wall Company for some ten years, finally becoming employed as a director at the Shaw Brothers Studio from 1959 where he shot many films between then and 1974 on retiring.

He received numerous nominations throughout his career but never won an award but in the 1990s his films gained much more respect and he was accoladed for his lifetime contribution to Hong Kong and Chinese cinema.

He died on July 3, 1999 aged 89.

Yuan Muzhi

Yuan Muzhi was an actor and from the Republic of China and later of the People's Republic of China.

As an actor, Yuan became extremely popular and took on the nickname "man with a thousand faces." Yuan gained prominence in a series of films for the leftist Diantong Film Company. These included the film ''Plunder of Peach and Plum'' and the ''Sons and Daughters in a Time of Storm'' where he was one of the two original singers of the movie's theme song, '''', which later became the national anthem of China.

His career eventually brought him to director's chair. His direction of the film '''' , which starred the famous singer Zhou Xuan as the lead actress, is still considered one of the best films from the "second generation" of Chinese filmmakers. Yuan also continued to act in roles, notably '''' depicting the events of the Defense of Sihang Warehouse.

After 1949, Yuan continued to be a major figure in the film industry, helping to found , which eventually became the first state-controlled in the People's Republic of China.

Yuan was a delegate to the first National People's Congress and the third Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Selected filmography

Actor

Director

Ying Liang

Ying Liang graduated from the Department of Directing at the Chongqing Film Academy and Beijing Normal University. His short film "The Missing House" won the best script award at the Beijing Student Film Festival, and Critics Award at the Hong Kong Independent Short Film Festival.

After the success of his short films, he directed his first feature film ''Taking Father Home'' , which won awards at the Tokyo Filmex Film Festival, the Hong Kong International Film Festival, and the San Francisco International Film Festival. ''Taking Father Home'' was also selected at more than thirty international film festivals including The Tiger awards competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Vancouver International Film Festival, the London Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival, and the Fribourg International Film Festival.

In 2006, Ying made ''The Other Half '', which is supported by the Hubert Bals Fund from the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The film also won the Special Jury Prize at the Tokyo Filmex Film Festival.

Filmography

As director

Awards

* at the Jeonju International Film Festival for '''' 2007
* Special Jury Award at the Singapore International Film Festival for '''' 2007
* The Special Jury Prize Kodak VISION Award at Tokyo Filmex Film Festival for '''' 2006
* SKYY Prize for First Feature at the San Francisco International Film Festival for ''Taking Father Home'' 2006
* Golden Digital Award at the Hong Kong International Film Festival for ''Taking Father Home'' 2006
* FIPRESCI Prize at the Singapore International Film Festival for ''Taking Father Home'' 2006
* NETPAC Award at the Singapore International Film Festival for ''Taking Father Home'' 2006
* Special Jury Prize at the Tokyo Filmex Film Festival for ''Taking Father Home'' 2005

Yin Lichuan

Yin Lichuan is a Chinese writer, poet, and filmmaker. A graduate of Peking University, Yin made her name writing novels and poetry including ''A Little More Comfort'' and ''Fucker''. She is known as a member of the "Lower Body Poets."

Recently, Yin has expanded into film. Her debut, '''' , was produced as part of the Yunnan New Film Project. Her sophomore effort, '''', was released in 2008.

Filmography

Yang Fengliang

Yang Fengliang is a film director. He is best known for co-directing the -nominated film ''Ju Dou'' with Zhang Yimou.

Xie Jin

Xie Jin is a Chinese film director.

Biography

Xie was born in Shangyu, Zhejiang Province, and spent his childhood in his hometown and attended primary school for one year there. In 1930s, he moved to Shanghai with his parents and continued his education. In 1938, he followed his father to Hong Kong and studied there for one year. When returning to Shanghai in 1939, Xie enrolled in Daxia Affiliated High School and Jishan High School. In leisure time, Xie took courses at Huaguang Drama School and Jinxing Film Training School. His teachers included Huang Zuolin and Wu Renzhi. Meanwhile, he participated students drama activities led by Yu Ling, and acted as Yue Yun in multi-stage play ''Yue Yun''.

In 1941, Xie enrolled in the play department of Jiang'an National Drama School in Sichuan, and was educated by Cao Yu, Hong Shen, Jiao Juyin, Ma Yanxiang, Chen Liting, among other notable figures. In 1943, he voluntarily ceased his study and started working in China Youth Play Agency in Chongqing, and became stage manager, scenario writer and actor. In 1946, Xie reassumed his study at National Drama School in Nanjing, majoring in directing. In 1948, he entered Datong Film Corporation and became assistant director, and associate director.

After establishment of , Xie enrolled in the research institute of politics of North China Revolutionary University. Later, he became an associate director and a director in Changjiang Film Studio and Shanghai Film Studio.

Xie directed more than 20 films in his career. His debut work, ''Woman Basketball Player No. 5'', was the first colored sports film in PRC, which won the silver prize in 6th International Youth Film Festival in 1957, and the Silver Hat Prize in Mexico International Film Week in 1958.

''The Red Detachment of Women'' won the Best Picture and Best Directing of the 1st Hundred Flowers Awards, and it also won the Wanlong Prize of 3rd Asia-Africa Film Festival in 1964.

''Two Stage Sisters'' won the Sutherland Trophy of British Film Institute Awards in 24th London Film Festival. It also won prizes in Portugal and Manila international film festivals.

Filmography

Xie Fei (director)

Xie Fei is a world-recognized Chinese film director.

Xie was born in Yan'an, Shaanxi Province.

Selected films

Xiaolu Guo

Xiaolu Guo is a novelist and filmmaker, who uses film and literary language to explore themes of alienation, memory, personal journeys, daily tragedies and develops her own vision of China's past and its future in a global environment.

Her novel ''A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers'' was nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2007. She was also the 2005 Pearl Award winner for Creative Excellence. Her previous novel ''Village of Stone'' was nominated for the best Foreign Fiction Prize as well as the International Dublin IMPAC Awards. Her feature film ''How Is Your Fish Today?'' was in Official Selection at Sundance Film Festival 2007 and received the Grand Jury Prize at the Créteil International Women Film Festival, Paris 2007. Her documentary "We Went to Wonderland" was selected for the New Directors/New Films series at the MoMA/Lincoln Center in New York in 2008.

List of books

* ''20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth''
* ''A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers''
* ''Village of Stone ''
* ''Movie Map ''
* ''Film Notes ''
* ''Fenfang's 37.2 Degrees ''
* ''Who is my mother's boyfriend? ''

List of films

as Director/Producer

* ''We Went to Wonderland''
* ''Address Unknown''
* ''How is Your Fish today ? ''
* ''The Concrete Revolution''
* ''Far and Near''

as Scriptwriter

* ''Love in the Internet age ''
* ''House ''

Books

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers

The novel tells the story of a Chinese woman who is sent by her parents to study in London. She soon renames herself "Z" because she finds that no one can pronounce her name, and then meets an English man without a name. Through the encounter, they both get to discover their own identity as well as the impossibility of two lovers to communicate.

The novel is deliberately written in the heroine's broken English, to begin with, in a post modern, near experimental dictionary form. With each chapter this broken English gradually improves, reflecting the improvement of the heroines's own English over the year in which the novel is set.

Nominations

On April 17, 2007, this book was nominated for the for Fiction.

Films

We Went to Wonderland

Two elderly Chinese communists arrive in the rundown East End of London and comment the Western Wonderland from their astonished Chinese perspective.
The film which premiered at the Rotterdam IFFR was immediately picked for the prestigious New Directors/New Films series of the MoMa / Lincoln Film Society in New York.

How is your Fish today?

A writer's dreamed trip between city and village, reality and fiction, in a chaotic contemporary China.
"How is your Fish today?" explores the way we imagine reality, the way a writer plays with his subject and his story telling, and suggests how one's life gains meaning and weight through imagination.

The Concrete Revolution

A meditation on the price paid for the building of the new China. This film essay starts with unemployed peasants rushing into Beijing to work on the demolition and construction of the city. New China uses these people's desperation to realize its huge ambitions. But the workers don't belong in Beijing, and Beijing has no place for them either. They long to return home.

As China sends rockets into space and prepares to host the 2008 Olympics, this poetic film essay shows a crucial turning point in China's history, and captures a rapidly disappearing past and erosion of its roots.

Film Awards

*How is your Fish today?
Grand Prix, Créteil International Women Film Festival 2007; nominated at Sundance Film Festival 2007; special mentions at the Rotterdam Film Festival's Tiger Award 2007, the Pesaro Film Festival 2007 and the Fribourg Film Festival 2007.

*The Concrete Revolution
Grand Prix, International Human Rights Film Festival, Paris 2005;
Special Jury Prize at EBS International Documetary Festival, Seoul 2005

*Far and Near
Beck's Future Prize 2003, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London

Wu Yonggang

Wu Yonggang was a prominent film director during the 1930s. Today Wu is best known for his directorial debut, ''''. Wu had a long career with the Lianhua Film Company in the 1930s, in Chongqing during the war, and in the mainland after the 1949 Communist takeover.

Biography

Born in Jiangsu province, Wu Yonggang, was one of the major leftist film directors of pre-Communist China. For the early part of his career, Wu was a set designer with Dazhonghua Baihe, before transferring to the Shaw Brothers' Tianyi Film Company. He was eventually noticed by Shi Dongshan at the newly formed Lianhua Film Company.

Selected filmography

Wei Shiyu

Wei Shiyu is a filmmaker, film producer, script and educator.

Early life

Wei Shiyu was born in Dongying City of Shandong Province, but grew up in Xian. Her father is from one of the seven prominent families of the early 20th century in Fuzhou City of Fujian Province. The Wei family has one of the earliest overseas students of China, Wei Han , who studied ship building in France from 1875 to 1879 and was the earliest masters of ship building in China. Such a tradition of sending children to study in overseas has continued over several generations in the Wei families. Louisa studied comparative literature and film in Canada from 1992 to 1999, receiving her MA from Carleton University in 1994 and PhD from University of Alberta in 2002.

Film career

After working in Japan for two years, Louisa moved to Hong Kong and began to have close contact with people in China’s film circles. In February 2006, she made her first music documentary, Cui Jian: Rocking China, a 35-minute video in retrospection of Cui Jian’s performances from 1986 to 2005. The video was co-produced by Blue Queen Cultural Communicated Ltd. and EMI Music and broadcasted on Channel 13 of Cable TV Hong Kong.

In July 2006, she made her first feature documentary ''A Piece of Heaven: Primary Documents'', a rather personal documentation of her very first documentary experience with Professor Situ Zhaodun of Beijing Film Academy. This film follows Situ’s teaching of Hong Kong students in 2003 and 2005, but meanwhile constructs a brief biography of Situ through his family history. Shanghai based director Peng Xiaolian speaks very highly of the work, calling it “a lyrical prose of a family history shared by many in China, and a work with depth about the very concept of documentation through puzzle pieces of documentary history.”

In November 2006, Wei co-directed a documentary with Xiaolian Peng — a 160-minute epic about the 1955 national campaign initiated by Chairman Mao Zedong and against Hu Feng, a leading literary critic at the time. The film is titled ''Storm under the Sun'' and the first film representation of the case. The film is a political saga with impressive historical news reel footages, woodcut prints and cartoons, authentic interviews and stylized animations.

Louisa also has credits as script writer for two feature films released in 2007— Susie Au’s ''Ming Ming'' and Xiao Feng’s ''Gun of Mercy''. She has also translated many feature film scripts for award-winning films during their productions. This list includes '''' , '''' , ''Curse of the Golden Flower'' , and '''' among other films in production.

Wang Guangli

Wang Guangli , nicknamed "King Death" In 2001, however Wang decided to obtain official state backing for his film ''Go For Broke'', which despite its support from the Shanghai Film Studio, was limited in its release, even domestically, due to its use of the Shanghainese dialect.

Wang has since shifted away from more serious works with the comedies ''Karmic Mahjong'' and 2007's ''''.

Filmography

Wang Bing (director)

Wang Bing is a Chinese director, often referred to as one of the foremost figures in documentary film-making. The founder of his own production company, Wang Bing Studios, Wang's 9 hour epic documentary of industrial China, ''Tie Xi Qu'' was considered a major success. ''Tie Xi Qu'' went on to win the Grand Prix at the Marseille Festival of Documentary Film and was show, for the first time in Spain, at the Punto de Vista International Documentary Film Festival. His film ''Fengming, a Chinese Memoir'', premiered at both
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Sun Yu (director)

Sun Yu was a major leftist film director active in the 1930s in Shanghai.

Sun Yu was born in the city of Chongqing and educated first at Tsinghua University in Beijing before continuing his education in drama at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Columbia University in the 1920s.

Beginning in the 1930s, Sun Yu began a collaboration with the leftist film studio, , where he became one of the core group of "socially conscious" directors along with Cai Chusheng, Fei Mu, and others.

In the 1950s, Sun was denounced by Mao Zedong, and his career effectively stalled. Sun died in Shanghai in 1990.

Selected filmography

Sun Daolin

Sun Daolin was a actor and film director.

Biography

Sun Daolin was born in [then Peiping] on November 20, 1921. He was born Sun Yi-liang 孙以亮 in Beijing from a family of four children. His father Sun Wen-Yau was a Brussel educated railroad engineer. His mother Fan Nian-Hua and father both are from Jiashan, Chikiang. He attended Yan Ching University and studies were interrupted during Sino-Japanese War. During the War he was active in patriotic activities including stage acting and he was jailed briefly by the Japanese Poppet Regime. He received a degree in philosophy in 1947.

His career had spanned much of recent PRC history. One of his earliest roles was in director Zheng Junli’s ''Crows and Sparrows'', a polemic on the corruption of the Nationalist Government just prior to their defeat in the Chinese Civil War. After 1949, Sun continued to act, notably as the eldest brother in an of Ba Jin’s novel, ''Family''.

Sun Daolin is one of the most famous actors for the 1950-70's movie goer generations in China. Some four decades ago, to many Chinese, he was an idol and Perfect Mr. Right for all unmarried women at his time.

In the 1980s, Sun began to focus increasing energy on directing. In 1983, he wrote, directed and starred in the well-received '''', based on the by Cao Yu. His second try behind the camera was 1992’s ''''. After his semi-retirement he was active in poetry, Hamlet, Schubert songs.

Sun died in Shanghai on December 28, 2007 at the age of 86. He is survived by his wife Wang Wen Jun,,a Yue actress and a daughter Sun Qin-Yuan, one grand child . He Wang was best known for her show in "The Dream of Red Chamber". -edited by Sam Shueh in 2008.

Selected filmography

As actor

*1949- ''Crows and Sparrows''
*1950- ''Min zhu qing nian jin xing qu''
*1955- ''Nan dao feng yun''
*1957- '''' （家）
*1958- ''Yong bu xiao shi de dian bo'' （永不消失的电波）
*1961- ''A Revolutionary Family'' （革命家庭）
*1963- '''' （早春二月）
*1977- ''Spring'' to celebrate the collapse of the Gang of Four.
*1982- ''The Go Masters'' （一盘没有下完的棋）
*1983- '''' (雷雨）

As director

*1983 - ''Thunderstorm''
*1992 - ''''

Shi Runjiu

Shi Runjiu , is a Beijing-based filmmaker.

After graduating from the directing department of the Beijing Central Drama Academy in 1992, he went on to direct many and music videos for MTV.

He served as assistant director to Zhang Yimou and Lü Yue on their films '''' and ''Mr. Zhao'', respectively. His first feature was ''A Beautiful New World'' , a romantic comedy about a peasant who wins an apartment in Shanghai in a lottery.

Shi works for the Imar Film Company, and is a member of the "Sixth Generation" of Chinese filmmakers. He considers his work an exploration of changing Chinese social conventions.

Filmography

Sherwood Hu

Sherwood Xuehua Hu is a Chinese American and film director.

Career

Hu studied theatre and film in China and the United States of America. He has a masters degree in theater and film production from State University of New York, and a Ph.D. in directing from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He also studied under Joseph Papp at New York's .

Hu began his professional career directing theatre, including '''', ''Constant Prince'', ''The Chairman's Wife''. He also acted in the lead role of Song Liling in several productions of David Henry Hwang's ''M. Butterfly''.

Hu created ''The Legend of Prince Lanling'', a lavish stage production set in ancient China; this received an Honorable Mention from the Kennedy Arts Center. He later adapted this into his first feature film, the epic ''Warrior Lanling'', which was launched at the Telluride Film Festival, San Sebastian Film Festival, Hawaii International Film Festival and others.

In 1998, Francis Ford Coppola and Wayne Wang were executive producers of his second feature, one of the first co-productions between American and China. ''Lani Loa - The Passage'' was a Hawaiian ghost story/cop movie/spiritual love story, shot in Shanghai and Hawaii, and starred Angus Macfadyen, Ray Bumatai and Chris Tashima. Tashima also starred in his next film, ''On The Roof'' , a small filmed in Pasadena, California.

In 2003, Hu returned to China to direct a 40-episode television series, ''Purple Jade'' for China Central Television. He returned to epic costume period film work with ''Prince of the Himalayas'' , his own adaptation of Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'', set in ancient Tibet, and performed entirely in the Tibetan language.

Hu also has continued with theatre work, recently directing stage productions of A.R. Gurney's '''', Jean-Paul Sartre's ''Dirty Hands'' and a modern ballet, ''Shakespeare and His Women'', for the 8th Shanghai International Arts Festival .

Hu has served as guest professor at the Shanghai Drama Academy where he supervises and mentors graduate students.

Trivia

*Hu is sometimes credited as Sherwood X. Hu.
*He has a sister who is an actress and a brother who is also a filmmaker.