Chen Kaige facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Chen Kaige
陈凯歌
Chen at the 2013 Tokyo International Film Festival
Born	Chen Aige（陈皑鸽） (1952-08-12) 12 August 1952 (age 72) Beijing, China
Alma mater	Beijing Film Academy
Occupation	Film director screenwriter film producer
Years active	1984–present
Movement	Fifth Generation
Spouse(s)	Sun Jialin ​ ​ (m. 1983; div. 1986)​ Hung Huang ​ ​ (m. 1989; div. 1993)​ Chen Hong ​ (m. 1997)​
Children	2, including Arthur Chen
Parent(s)	Chen Huai'ai (father) Liu Yanchi (mother)
Relatives	Chen He (nephew)
Awards	Full list

Chen Kaige (Chinese: 陈凯歌; 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. Chen won the Palme d'Or at 1993 Cannes Film Festival and the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Award in 1993 for directing Farewell My Concubine.

Early life

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 Chen Huai'ai [zh] was a well-known director in his own right. His mother Liu Yanchi (Chinese: 刘燕驰) was a senior screenwriter. 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. In 1969, Chen became a sent-down youth in Xishuangbanna Agricultural Reclamation Bureau for a short while before enlisting in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) next year. 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 as part of the so-called Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers.

Career

Upon graduating, Chen was assigned to the Guangxi Film Studio, along with a fellow graduate, Zhang Yimou. 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. 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.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. 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 sanxian musician and his student. In the same year, he was a member of the jury at the 39th Berlin International Film Festival.

His most famous film in the West, Farewell My Concubine (1993), nominated for two Academy Awards and winner of the Palme d'Or at 1993 Cannes Film Festival, follows two Beijing opera stars through decades of change in China during the twentieth century. This made him the first Chinese director to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. 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. This is also Chen Kaige's first work to enter Hollywood, which he referred to as a "secular, life" film. His more recent Together (2002) is an intimate film about a young violinist and his father.It showcases the true desire of young people to grow according to their spiritual guidance, full of sensibility and warmth. "Deep in Flowers" is a collection of short films that opened the Cannes Film Festival in France in 2002. Chen Kaige was responsible for filming "Ten Minutes, Aging", which is the finale of the series. The film selects a theme with strong Chinese and Beijing characteristics - demolition, and tells the story of the mentally ill "Mr. Feng" moving in a seemingly humorous tone. In 2005, he directed The Promise, a fantasy wuxia picture. The Promise saw Chen shifting to a more commercial mindset, a shift regarded by some as a "radical stylistic turn" from his previous works.

In 2006, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 28th Moscow International Film Festival. In 2008, Chen directed the semi-biographical Forever Enthralled, which is a return for him in the sense of directing a film based on Chinese opera. He later went on to direct Sacrifice (2010), which is a re-imagining of the famous play The Orphan of Zhao. His 2012 film Caught in the Web 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. His Monk Comes Down the Mountain (2015) is a critical bomb but a box office success. He then directed Legend of the Demon Cat (2017), a big-budget Chinese-Japanese co-production. The movie is adapted from the novel of the same name by Japanese fantasy novelist Mombasaur.

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.

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

Personal life

Chen's first wife was Sun Jialin (孙加林), 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. They separated in 1991 and divorced in 1993. From 1991, Chen lived with Ni Ping, a television personality, in a six-year relationship. In 1996, Chen married actress Chen Hong. They have two sons, Chen Yu'ang and "Arthur" Chen Feiyu.

Chen Kaige is the holder of a green card to the United States.

Filmography

Year	Title	Chinese Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes
1984	Yellow Earth	黃土地
1986	The Big Parade	大閱兵
1987	King of the Children	孩子王
1991	Life on a String	邊走邊唱
1993	Farewell My Concubine	霸王別姬				Palme d'Or winner at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival
1996	Temptress Moon	風月
1998	The Emperor and the Assassin	荊柯刺秦王
2002	Killing Me Softly	温柔地杀我
2002	100 Flowers Hidden Deep					Segment in the anthology film Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet
2002	Together	和你在一起				2002 Silver Seashell for Best Director at the San Sebastián International Film Festival
2005	The Promise	無極
2007	Zhanxiou Village					Vignette in the anthology film To Each His Cinema
2008	Forever Enthralled	梅兰芳
2010	Sacrifice	趙氏孤兒
2012	Caught in the Web	搜索				Fictional treatment of the human flesh search engine.
2015	Monk Comes Down the Mountain	道士下山
2017	Legend of the Demon Cat	妖猫传
2019	My People, My Country	我和我的祖国
2021	The Battle at Lake Changjin	长津湖
2022	The Battle at Lake Changjin II	长津湖之水门桥
2023	Flowers Bloom in the Ashes	尘埃里开花
	The Volunteers: To the War	志愿军：雄兵出击
2024	The Volunteers: The Battle of Life and Death	志愿军：存亡之战
0TBA	Swan Song

Television (as director)

Executive producer

Actor

Awards and nominations

International

Domestic

See also

In Spanish: Chen Kaige para niños

• Zhang Yimou
• Tian Zhuangzhuang