Chen KaigeFilmography

Born:: August 12, 1952 in Beijing, China
Occupation:: Director, Screenwriter
Biography:: Chen Kaige is one of China's most prominent and influential directors, and perhaps the central figure in China's Fifth Generation of filmmakers. Born Chen Aige in Beijing, he was the son of noted director Chen Huaiai, who directed a number of popular films during the 1950s and 1960s. As the chaos...Read More

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Forever Enthralled

Crew: Director

Actors: Leon Lai, Zhang Ziyi, Sun Hong-Lei

Synopsis: Inevitably recalling director Chen Kaige's 1993 masterpiece, the international smash Farewell, My Concubine, the sumptuous period epic Forever Enthralled (originally and more elegantly given the eponymous biographical title Mei Lanfang) dramatizes the life of Lanfang (Leon Lai), widely regarded as Read More

2009
Emperor of the Seas

Crew: Director

Actors: David Kersten

Synopsis: It has been relegated to a mere footnote in naval history - a strange realization given the massive size and scope of the events. Beginning in the year 1405 AD and spanning 28 years, the government of China's Ming Dynasty (under the aegis of Emperor Yongle) sought to dramatically heighten the Read More

2008
To Each His Own Cinema

Crew: Director

Synopsis: At the time of its production, To Each His Own Cinema represented the latest arrival in a tidal wave of internationally oriented omnibus films, with no official relation between them but all produced within a few years of one another. Few could claim a roster of talent comparable to this one Read More

2007
The Promise

Crew: Director, Screen Story, Screenwriter

Actors: Hiroyuki Sanada, Jang Dong-gun, Cecilia Cheung, Nicholas Tse, Liu Ye

Synopsis: Love and war conspire to create a romantic triangle in this lavish historical epic from director Chen Kaige. A young girl who has lost her parents to the violence of war bravely refuses to obey the orders of a warrior's son, and is approached by a spirit who offers her a life of wealth and power Read More

5/5/06
Together

Crew: Director, Executive Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Tang Yun, Liu Peiqi, Chen Hong, Wang Zhiwen, Chen Kaige

Synopsis: Chen Kaige's first Chinese film since the poorly received, Hollywood-produced Killing Me Softly is based on a true story of an adolescent violin prodigy coming of age in Beijing. Raised in a small town, Xiao Chun (Tang Yun) is brought to Beijng by his devoted single father, Lui Cheng (Liu Peiqi) Read More

5/30/03
Killing Me Softly

Crew: Director

Actors: Heather Graham, Joseph Fiennes

Synopsis: The director of such highly regarded films as Yellow Earth (1984) and Farewell, My Concubine (1993), Chinese filmmaker Chen Kaige makes his English-language debut with this erotic thriller adapted from the novel by Nicci French. Alice (Heather Graham) is an American Web designer living in Illinois Read More

2002
Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet

Crew: Director

Actors: Markku Peltola, Kati Outinen, Marko Haavisto Ja Poutahaukat, Ana Sofia Liano, Pelayo Suarez

Synopsis: Seven internationally respected filmmakers offer different perspectives on time and fate -- some witty, some somber -- in this omnibus film, with the stories linked by performances from jazz great Hugh Masekela. Dogs Have No Hell by Aki Kaurismaki follows one man's unusual journey as he celebrates Read More

2002
The Emperor and the Assassin

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Gong Li, Zhang Fengyi, Li Xuejian, Sun Zhou, Wang Zhiwen, Lu Xiaohe

Synopsis: A lavishly produced historical drama from China, Jing Ke Ci Qin Wang/The Emperor and the Assassin tells the complex, multi-facetted story of the man who became the first Emperor of a unified China, another man who has sworn to kill him, and a woman who is loved by both men. Late in the Third Read More

12/17/99
Yang & Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema

Synopsis: This entry in the British Film Institute-sponsored international centenary celebration of cinema -- in which noted directors presented a film exemplifying their country or region's cinema and its origins -- represents China, or rather one aspect of the country's large body of work as seen through Read More

1996
Temptress Moon

Crew: Director

Actors: Leslie Cheung, Gong Li, Kevin Lin, He Saifei, Chang Shi

Synopsis: Chen Kaige, the director of the international smash Farewell My Concubine, reunited that film's stars, Gong Li and Leslie Cheung, for this complexly layered, visually spectacular historical epic. Opening in 1911, shortly before the collapse of the Imperial government, Temptress Moon follows the Read More

1996
Farewell, My Concubine

Crew: Director

Actors: Leslie Cheung, Zhang Fengyi, Gong Li, Lu Qi, Ying Da, Ge You

Synopsis: Until Farewell, My Concubine (Ba Wang Bie Ji), not many people were aware that most members of the Peking Opera were originally orphans or illegitimate castaways with nowhere else to turn. Such is the case of the film's protagonists, Duan Xiaolou (Zhang Fengyi) and Cheng Dieyi (Leslie Cheung), two Read More

1993
Life on a String

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Liu Zhongyuan, Huang Lei, Xu Qing

Synopsis: Life on a String is Chen Kaige's most philosophical and enigmatic work to date. The film depicts the life of two blind musicians, a master and a disciple, as they wander through rural China. Liu Zhongyuan stars as the older, banjo-playing musician who believes that his sight will be restored Read More

1990
King of the Children

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Xie Yuan, Yang Xuewen, Chen Shaohua, Zhang Caimei, Xu Guoqing

Synopsis: Set during the twilight of the Cultural Revolution, Chen Kaige's third film, King of the Children, concerns a young man who is sent from the city to the country for his scheduled tour of farm labor. Upon arriving in this remote mountain area, he -- much to his surprise -- is asked to become a Read More

1988
The Last Emperor

Actors: John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O'Toole, Ying Ruocheng, Victor Wong, Dennis Dun, Ryuichi Sakamoto

Synopsis: The Last Emperor is the true story of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi, the last ruler of the Chinese Ching Dynasty. Told in flashback, the film covers the years 1908 to 1967. We first see the three-year-old Pu Yi being installed in the Forbidden City by ruthless, dying dowager Empress Tzu-Hsui (Lisa Lu). Though Read More

11/20/87
The Big Parade

Crew: Director

Actors: Wang Xueqi, Sun Chun

Synopsis: A battle-toughened Chinese drill sergeant is assigned to whip a ragtag group of raw recruits into a perfect marching unit in this sophomore feature film by noted filmmaker Chen Kaige whose best-known film was the highly acclaimed Yellow Earth. The soldiers in this film are getting ready to Read More

1986
Forced Take-Off

Crew: Director

1985
Yellow Earth

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Xue Bai, Wang Xueqi, Tan Tuo, Liu Qiang

Synopsis: Young Red Army soldier Gu Qing is sent to the northern Shaanxi region of China to learn local folk songs in 1939. He stays with a poor grumpy widower, along with his son Hanhan and his precocious teenage daughter Cuiqiao. The three are initially suspicious of the stranger, but they warm to him Read More

1984