MOVIE NEWS

by AltonMann created 10 Nov 2011 | last updated - 01 Feb 2012

These are key directors from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
I have recommended 10 films (no more than 1 per director) with a notation * as a good introduction to Chinese film. For directors whose films I've yet to see, I've listed those films rated most highly in IMDB.
Note that the biographies for each director below are from their IMDB page. I provided the selected list of titles for each director.

Yimou Zhang

Director, Hero

“ b. 1951
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005) *
Not One Less (1999)
Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
To Live (1994)
The Road Home (2000)
Hero (2002) ” - AltonMann

Kar Wai Wong

Writer, In the Mood for Love

Wong Kar-wai (born 17 July 1956) is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylised, emotionally resonant work, including Ah fei zing zyun (1990), Dung che sai duk (1994), Chung Hing sam lam (1994), Do lok tin si (1995), Chun gwong cha sit (1997)...

“ b. 1956
Chungking Express (1994) *
In the Mood for Love (2000)
Fallen Angels (1995)
Days of Being Wild (1990)
2046 (2004) ” - AltonMann

Xiaogang Feng

Writer, A World Without Thieves

“ b. 1958
World Without Thieves (2004) *
If You Are the One (2008)
The Banquet (2006)
Aftershock (2010)
Assembly (2007) ” - AltonMann

Edward Yang

Writer, Yi Yi

Born on November 6, 1947 in Shanghai, China, Edward Yang has become one of the most talented international filmmakers of his generation. Along with Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Tsai Ming-Liang, Yang ranks among the leading artists of the Taiwanese New Wave, and one of the world's most brilliant auteurs. Growing up in Taipei...

“ b. 1947 - d. 2007
Yi Yi (2000) *
A Brighter Summer Day (1991)
Mahjong (1996)
A Confucian Confusion (1994) ” - AltonMann

Zhangke Jia

Director, A Touch of Sin

“ b. 1970
Still Life (2006) *
The World (2004)
Unknown Pleasures (2002)
I Wish I Knew (2010)
Platform (2000) ” - AltonMann

Chuan Lu

Director, City of Life and Death

Lu Chuan is considered one of the most talented young directors in China. His insightful films have found new ways for the Chinese cinema. After receiving a Master's degree in film studies from Beijing Film Academy in 1998, Lu Chuan started as a co-writer for Black Hole, which became one of most-watched TV series in China...

“ b. 1971
Mountain Patrol (2004)
City of Life and Death (2009)
Missing Gun (2002) ” - AltonMann

Yang Li

Writer, Blind Shaft

“ b. 1959
Blind Shaft (2003) *
Blind Mountain (2007) ” - AltonMann

John Woo

Director, Face/Off

Born in southern China, John Woo grew up in Hong Kong, where he began his film career as an assistant director in 1969, working for Shaw Brothers Studios. He directed his first feature in 1973 and has been a prolific director ever since, working in a wide variety of genres before A Better Tomorrow established...

“ b. 1946
The Killer (1989) *
Hard Boiled (1992)
Red Cliff (2008)
A Better Tomorrow (1986)
Face Off (1997) ” - AltonMann

Alan Mak

Writer, The Departed

Alan Mak Siu Fai was born in Hong Kong in 1965. In 1986, he studied in the School of Drama at the Hong Kong Academy for Performance Arts. Upon graduation in 1990, he started his movie career. Mak made his directorial debut in 1997, with his first film being Nude Fear, which was written and produced by Joe Ma...

“ b. 1965
Infernal Affairs (2002) *
Overheard (2009)
Infernal Affairs II (2003) ” - AltonMann

10.

Wen Jiang

Actor, Devils on the Doorstep

“ b. 1963
Devils on the Doorstep (2000)
In the Heat of the Sun (1994)
Let the Bullets Fly (2010) ” - AltonMann

11.

King Hu

Director, A Touch of Zen

He was educated in art school in Beijing, left China for Hong Kong in 1949 and entered the film industry in 1951 in the art department. In the 1950s he began acting and in 1958 joined Shaw Brothers as an actor and writer, and later a director. In 1967 he left to start his own studio in Taiwan, returned to Hong Kong in 1970s, working in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China before his death.

“ b. 1931 - d. 1997
A Touch of Zen (1971)
Dragon Inn (1967)
Come Drink With Me (1966)
Raining in the Mountain (1979)
The Swordsman (1990) ” - AltonMann

12.

Ming-liang Tsai

Director, What Time Is It Over There?

Born in Kuching, Malaysia, he graduated from the Drama and Cinema Department of the Chinese Cultural University of Taiwan and worked as a theatrical producer and TV director. His second feature film, Vive L'Amour, won the Golden Lion (best picture) at the 1994 Venice Film Festival. His idiosyncratic oeuvre continues to enthrall audiences worldwide.

“ b. 1957
What Time Is It Over There (2001)
Goodbye Dragon Inn (2003)
The Hole (1998)
Vive L'Amour (1994)
The River (1997) ” - AltonMann

13.

Hsiao-Hsien Hou

Director, Three Times

Of the ten films that Hsiao-Hsien Hou directed between 1980 and 1989, seven received best film or best director awards from prestigious international films festivals in Venice, Berlin, Hawaii, and the Festival of the Three Continents in Nantes. In a 1988 worldwide critics' poll, Hou was championed as "one of the three directors most crucial to the future of cinema." Hou's birthplace...

“ b. 1947
Flowers of Shanghai (1998)
Puppetmaster (1993)
Flight of the Red Balloon (2007)
Millenium Mambo (2001)
Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996) ” - AltonMann

14.

Jackie Chan

Actor, Rush Hour

Hong Kong's cheeky, lovable and best known film star, Jackie Chan endured many years of long, hard work and multiple injuries to establish international success via his early beginnings in Hong Kong's manic martial arts cinema industry. Jackie was born Kong-sang Chan on Hong Kong's famous Victoria Peak on April 7...

“ b. 1954
Police Story (1985) *
Legend of the Drunken Master (1994)
The Young Master (1980)
1911 (2011) ” - AltonMann

15.

Kaige Chen

Director, Together

“ b. 1952
Farewell My Concubine (1993)
Together (2002)
Yellow Earth (1985)
The Emperor and the Assassin (1998)
Forever Enthralled (2008) ” - AltonMann

16.

Stephen Chow

Actor, Kung Fu Hustle

Born Chow Sing-Chi in Hong Kong on June twenty-second, 1962, Stephen Chow spent his youth days with three sisters in Shanghai, China. He developed an interest in the martial arts after witnessing the talent of Bruce Lee, where he began training in the style of Wing Chun, which was one of Bruce Lee's specialties...

“ b. 1962
Shaolin Soccer (2001) *
Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
King of Comedy (1999)
Forbidden City Cop (1996) ” - AltonMann