Zhang Yimou

Based on Su Tong's novel Wives and Concubines, the film depicted the realities of life in a wealthy family compound during the 1920s.

Zhang's father, Zhang Bingjun, a dermatologist, had been an officer in the National Revolutionary Army under Chiang Kai-shek during the Chinese Civil War; an uncle and an elder brother had followed the Nationalist forces to Taiwan after their 1949 defeat.

Zhang's mother, Zhang Xiaoyou, was a doctor at the 2nd Hospital affiliated Xi'an Jiao Tong University who graduated from Xi'an Medical University.

He has two younger brothers, Zhang Weimou and Zhang Qimou.

As a result of his family's ties to the Nationalist movement, Zhang faced difficulties in his early life.

Zhang Yimou (born 14 November 1951) is a Chinese film director, producer, writer, actor, professor and former cinematographer.

Zhang was born on 14 November 1951 in Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province.

During the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, Zhang left his school studies and went to work, first as a farm labourer for 3 years, and later at a cotton textile mill for 7 years in the city of Xianyang.

During this time he took up painting and amateur still photography, selling his own blood to buy his first camera.

In 1978, he went to Beijing Film Academy and majored in photography.

He has an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Boston University and also one from Yale University.

When the Beijing Film Academy reopened its doors to new students in 1978, following the abandonment of policies adopted during the Cultural Revolution, Zhang, at 27, was over the regulation age for admission, and was without the prerequisite academic qualifications.

After a personal appeal to the Ministry of Culture, and showing a portfolio of his personal photographic works, the authorities relented and admitted him to the Faculty of Cinematography.

Zhang graduated with the class of 1982, which also included Chen Kaige, Tian Zhuangzhuang, and Zhang Junzhao.

The class went on to form the core of the Fifth Generation, who were a part of an artistic reemergence in China after the end of the Cultural Revolution.

Zhang and his co-graduates were assigned to small regional studios, and Zhang was sent to work for the Guangxi Film Studio as a cinematographer.

Though originally intended to work as director's assistants, the graduates soon discovered there was a dearth of directors so soon after the Cultural Revolution, and gained permission to start making their own films.

This led to the production of Zhang Junzhao's One and Eight, on which Zhang Yimou worked as director of photography, and Chen Kaige's Yellow Earth, in 1984.

These two films were successes at the Hong Kong Film Festival and helped to bring the new Chinese cinema to the attention of worldwide audiences, signaling a departure from the earlier propagandist films of the Cultural Revolution.

Yellow Earth is today widely considered the inaugural film of the Fifth Generation directors.

In 1985, after moving back to his home town of Xi'an, Zhang was engaged as cinematographer and lead actor for director Wu Tianming's upcoming film Old Well, which was subsequently released in 1987.

The lead role won Zhang a Best Actor award at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Considered a key figure of China's Fifth Generation filmmakers, he made his directorial debut in 1988 with Red Sorghum, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.

1988 saw the release of Zhang's directorial debut, Red Sorghum, starring Chinese actress Gong Li in her first leading role.

Red Sorghum was met with critical acclaim, bringing Zhang to the forefront of the world's art directors, and winning him a Golden Bear for Best Picture at the 38th Berlin International Film Festival in 1988.

Codename Cougar (or The Puma Action), a minor experiment in the political thriller genre, was released in 1989, featuring Gong Li and eminent Chinese actor Ge You.

However, it garnered less-than-positive reviews at home and Zhang himself later dismissed the film as his worst.

In the same year, Zhang began work on his next project, the period drama Ju Dou.

Starring Gong Li in the eponymous lead role, along with Li Baotian as the male lead, Ju Dou, garnered as much critical acclaim as had Red Sorghum, and became China's first film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Ju Dou highlighted the way in which the "gaze" can have different meanings, from voyeurism to ethical appeal.

In 1989, he was a member of the jury at the 16th Moscow International Film Festival.

After the success of Ju Dou, Zhang began work on Raise the Red Lantern.

Zhang has won numerous awards and recognitions, with three Academy Awards nominations for Best Foreign Language Film for Ju Dou in 1990, Raise the Red Lantern in 1991, and Hero in 2003; a Silver Lion, two Golden Lion prizes and the Glory to the Filmmaker Award at the Venice Film Festival; Grand Jury Prize, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and Technical Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival; the Golden Bear, the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Berlin International Film Festival.

In 1993, he was a member of the jury at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival.

One of Zhang's recurrent themes is the resilience of Chinese people in the face of hardship and adversity, a theme which has been explored in such films as To Live (1994) and Not One Less (1999).

His films are particularly noted for their rich use of colour, as can be seen in some of his early films, like Raise the Red Lantern, and in his wuxia films like Hero and House of Flying Daggers.

Zhang directed the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games as well as the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, which received considerable international acclaim.

In 2010, Zhang received an honorary doctorate from Yale, and in 2018, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Boston University.

In 2022, he joined the Beijing Film Academy as a distinguished professor.

His highest-budgeted film to date is the 2016 monster film The Great Wall, set in Imperial China and starring Matt Damon.