Wu Tianming

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Wu Tianming bigraphy, stories - Chinese film director

Wu Tianming : biography

October 19, 1939 –

Wu Tianming () (born October 19, 1939) is a Chinese film director.

Filmography

As director

Year English Title Chinese Title Notes
1979 Reverberations of Life 生活的颤音
1980 Kith and Kin 亲缘
1984 River Without Buoys 没有航标的河流
1984 Life 人生
1986 Old Well 老井 1988 Golden Rooster for Best Director
1996 The King of Masks 变脸 1996 Golden Rooster for Best Director
1998 An Unusual Love 世界
2002 C.E.O.

As producer

Year English Title Chinese Title Director Notes
1985 The Black Cannon Incident 黑炮事件 Huang Jianxin
1986 The Horse Thief 盗马贼 Tian Zhuangzhuang
1987 Red Sorghum 紅高梁 Zhang Yimou 1988 Golden Rooster for Best Picture (shared with Wu’s own Old Well)
2007 Mr. Cinema 老港正传 Samson Chiu

Biography

Born in Shaanxi Province, China, Wu Tianming attended the Beijing Film Academy, majoring in directing before the Cultural Revolution. As part of China’s Fourth Generation filmmakers, his style is heavily influenced by his studies in Soviet Social Realism, telling realistic stories in a realistic manner.

Wu was the head of China’s renowned Xi’an Studio from the beginning of 1984, until political differences forced him to flee to the United States in 1989. Because of his position as the studio head and his oversight of such widely known "Fifth Generation" directors as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, he is sometimes referred to as the "Godfather of the Fifth Generation."

Wu returned to China from his U.S. exile in 1994, and is currently working in the Chinese film and television industry.

He gives himself a small speaking cameo in all of his films.