Zhang Yimou was born in the ancient Chinese city of Xi’an in Shaanxi Province. As a child, he suffered derision and stigmatization because of his family’s association with the Kuomintang (Nationalist party). His father had been a major under Chiang Kai-shek and an elder brother had followed the Nationalist forces to Taiwan after the 1949 civil war defeat. “Five Black Categories”. When the Cultural Revolution erupted in 1966 he was forced to suspend studying and worked, first as a farm hand, and then, for seven years, as a labourer in a cotton textile mill, much like the one he portrayed in Ju Dou. During this time he took up painting and amateur still photography. He had to sell his blood for five months to get enough money to purchase his first camera when he was 18. When the Beijing Film Academy opened in 1978, Zhang was already 27, over-aged and without the prerequisite academic qualifications. He wrote a personal appeal to the Ministry of Culture, citing “ten years lost during the Cultural Revolution” and offered a portfolio of his personal photographic works. The authorities finally relented and admitted him into the Department of Cinematography.As a result, Zhang graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1982 along with compatriots Chen Kaige and Tian Zhuangzhuang (the latter two from the Directing class). They were often referred in unison as the Class of 1982. The students saw both the films of Chinese directors and also European, Japanese, and American art directors – far more than any of their precessors – which includes works of Tarkovsky, Antonioni, Scorsese, Truffaut, Fei Mu, Wu Yonggang, Kurosawa, Kubrick, Malick and Alain Resnais amongst others.As was the norm, Zhang and his co-graduates was assigned to small inland studios, and as a cinematographer, he began working for the Guangxi Film Studio. Though pencilled in to work as director’s assistants, they soon learned there were a dearth of directors (owing to the Revolution), and appealed successively to make their own films. Zhang’s first work, One and Eight (as director of photography), was made in 1984 together with Zhang Junzhao. Zhang’s input was telling: he shot from obscure angles, and positioned actors and actresses at the side, rather than center, to heighten dramatic effect, using a “unique and emphatic visual style, based on the asymmetrical and unbalanced composition of the shots and the shooting of color stock as though it were black and white”. Like his fellow students, theses aesthetics signaled a departure from the tradition interrupted by the Cultural Revolution. Local critics immediately sat up and took notice of this new cohort of daring artistes who were defying conventions of Chinese cinema. Zhang’s next collaboration, with fellow graduate Chen Kaige, the latter acting as director, was to be one of the defining Chinese films of the 1980s, Yellow Earth (1984). This is widely considered the inauguration film for the Chinese Fifth Generation directors that were apart of an artistic reemergence in China after the end of the Cultural Revolution. Zhang continued to work with Chen for the latter’s next film, The Big Parade (1985). Their collaboration was one of the most fruitful of the Fifth Generation period. In 1985, in appreciation of his talent, Fourth Generation director Wu Tianming invited Zhang to Xi’an Film Studio for his upcoming project Old Well. Filming of Old Well was completed in 1986, with Zhang as co-acting as cinematographer and actor — a role that won him Best Actor at the Tokyo International Film Festival. In return for his participation in Wu’s project, Zhang made Wu promise logistics support for his own first directorial effort, a project that he had envisioned for some time. In 1987 Zhang embarked on his directorial debut, Red Sorghum, starring Chinese actress Gong Li, handpicked by Zhang, in her first leading role. Released to widespread critical acclaim, Red Sorghum catapulted Zhang into the forefront of the world’s art directors, winning him the Golden Bear for Best Picture at the 1988 Berlin Film Festival. Its rich, earthy visual style of narrative storytelling came to be the hallmark of Zhang’s early films.
Recieved from Wikipedia
filmography
Director:
Chacun son cinéma ou Ce petit coup au coeur quand la lumière s’éteint et que le film commence (2007) (segment “En Regardant le Film”)
… aka Chacun son cinéma (France: short title)
… aka To Each His Cinema (International: English title)
Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia (2006)
… aka Curse of the Golden Flower (International: English title)
千里走单骑 (2005)
… aka Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (USA: new title)
… aka Tanki, senri o hashiru. (Japan)
十面埋伏 (2004)
… aka House of Flying Daggers (Hong Kong: English title) (International: English title) (Singapore: English title) (USA)
… aka Attack from Ten Directions (International: English title: literal title)
英雄 (2002)
… aka Hero (USA)
… aka Jet Li’s Hero (USA)
… aka Quentin Tarantino Presents Hero (USA: promotional title)
幸福时光 (2000)
… aka Happy Times (UK) (USA)
… aka Happy Time (International: English title)
… aka Happy Times Hotel (UK: DVD title)
一个都不能少 (1999)
… aka Not One Less
我的父亲母亲 (1999)
… aka The Road Home (International: English title) (USA: DVD title)
… aka My Father and Mother (literal English title)
有话好好说 (1997)
… aka Keep Cool
Lumière et compagnie (1995)
… aka Lumière and Company (International: English title)
… aka Lumiere y compa?ía (Spain)
摇啊摇啊摇到外婆桥 (1995)
… aka Shanghai Triad
活着 (1994)
… aka Lifetimes
… aka Living
… aka To Live
… aka Woot jeuk (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)
秋菊打官司 (1992)
… aka Qiu Ju Goes to Court
… aka The Story of Qiu Ju
大红灯笼高高挂 (1991)
… aka Raise the Red Lantern (USA)
菊豆 Ju Dou (1990)
代号美洲豹 (1989)
… aka Codename Cougar
… aka Operation Cougar (Hong Kong: English title)
… aka The Puma Action
红高粱 (1987)
… aka Red Sorghum
Producer:
“Great Performances” (producer) (1 episode, 2007)
– The First Emperor (2007) TV Episode (producer)
Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia (2006) (producer)
… aka Curse of the Golden Flower (International: English title)
Qian li zou dan qi (2005) (producer)
… aka Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (USA: new title)
… aka Tanki, senri o hashiru. (Japan)
Shi mian mai fu (2004) (producer)
… aka House of Flying Daggers (Hong Kong: English title) (International: English title) (Singapore: English title) (USA)
… aka Attack from Ten Directions (International: English title: literal title)
Ying xiong (2002) (producer)
… aka Hero (USA)
… aka Jet Li’s Hero (USA)
… aka Quentin Tarantino Presents Hero (USA: promotional title)
Long cheng zheng yue (1997) (executive producer) (producer)
… aka Dragon Town Story
… aka Lung sing jing yuet (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)
Xi chu bawang (1994) (producer)
… aka King of Western Chu
… aka Sai choh ba wong (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)
… aka The Great Conqueror’s Concubine (Hong Kong: English title)
Writer:
Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia (2006)
… aka Curse of the Golden Flower (International: English title)
Qian li zou dan qi (2005)
… aka Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (USA: new title)
… aka Tanki, senri o hashiru. (Japan)
Shi mian mai fu (2004)
… aka House of Flying Daggers (Hong Kong: English title) (International: English title) (Singapore: English title) (USA)
… aka Attack from Ten Directions (International: English title: literal title)
Ying xiong (2002)
… aka Hero (USA)
… aka Jet Li’s Hero (USA)
… aka Quentin Tarantino Presents Hero (USA: promotional title)
Hua hun (1994)
… aka A Soul Haunted by Painting (USA: cable TV title)
… aka Pan Yu Liang, a Woman Painter
… aka Pan Yuliang artiste peintre (France)
… aka Peintre, La (France)
… aka Soul of a Painter
Actor:
You hua hao hao shuo (1997) …. Junk-peddler
… aka Keep Cool
Qin yong (1990) …. Tian Fong
… aka A Terracotta Warrior (Europe: English title)
… aka Gu jin da zhan qin yon qing
Hong gao liang (1987)
… aka Red Sorghum
Lao jing (1986) …. Shun, Wangquan
… aka Old Well
Cinematographer:
Da yue bing (1986)
… aka The Big Parade
Lao jing (1986)
… aka Old Well
Huang tu di (1984)
… aka Yellow Earth
Yi ge he ba ge (1983)
… aka One and Eight
Miscellaneous Crew:
Turandot in the Forbidden City of Beijing (1999) (TV) (stage director)
Camera and Electrical Department:
Hong xiang (1982) (camera operator)
… aka The Red Elephant (USA: informal English title)