Taiwanese Directors

Born in 1954 in Pingtung, Taiwan, Ang Lee has become one of today's greatest contemporary filmmakers. Ang graduated from the National Taiwan College of Arts in 1975 and then came to the U.S. to receive a B.F.A. Degree in Theatre/Theater Direction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a Masters Degree in Film Production at New York University. At NYU, he served as Assistant Director on Spike Lee's student film, Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983). After Lee wrote a couple of screenplays, he eventually appeared on the film scene with Pushing Hands (1991), a dramatic-comedy reflecting on generational conflicts and cultural adaptation, centering on the metaphor of the grandfather's Tai-Chi technique of "Pushing Hands". The Wedding Banquet (1993) (aka The Wedding Banquet) was Lee's next film, an exploration of cultural and generational conflicts through a homosexual Taiwanese man who feigns a marriage in order to satisfy the traditional demands of his Taiwanese parents. It garnered Golden Globe and Oscar nominations, and won a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The third movie in his trilogy of Taiwanese-Culture/Generation films, all of them featuring his patriarch figure Sihung Lung, was Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) (aka Eat Drink Man Woman), which received a Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination. Lee followed this with Sense and Sensibility (1995), his first Hollywood-mainstream movie. It acquired a Best Picture Oscar nomination, and won Best Adapted Screenplay, for the film's screenwriter and lead actress, Emma Thompson. Lee was also voted the year's Best Director by the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle. Lee and frequent collaborator James Schamus next filmed The Ice Storm (1997), an adaptation of Rick Moody's novel involving 1970s New England suburbia. The movie acquired the 1997 Best Screenplay at Cannes for screenwriter James Schamus, among other accolades. The Civil War drama Ride with the Devil (1999) soon followed and received critical praise, but it was Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) (aka Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) that is considered one of his greatest works, a sprawling period film and martial-arts epic that dealt with love, loyalty and loss. It swept the Oscar nominations, eventually winning Best Foreign Language Film, as well as Best Director at the Golden Globes, and became the highest grossing foreign-language film ever released in America. Lee then filmed the comic-book adaptation, Hulk (2003) - an elegantly and skillfully made film with nice action scenes. Lee has also shot a short film - Chosen (2001) (aka Hire, The Chosen) - and most recently won the 2005 Best Director Academy Award for Brokeback Mountain (2005), a film based on a short story by Annie Proulx. In 2012 Lee directed Life of Pi which earned 11 Academy Award nominations and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Director. In 2013 Ang Lee was selected as a member of the main competition jury at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

Jay Chou is a Taiwanese musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, actor and director. He was born in Taipei to schoolteachers, Yeh Hui-Mei, who taught fine arts, and Chou Yao-Chung, a biomedical researcher. In 2000, Chou released his first album, titled Jay (2000), under the record company Alfa Music. Since then, his music has gained recognition throughout Asia, most notably in regions such as Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and in western Asian communities such as in the United States and Australia. He has sold more than 30 million albums since his debut. Chou continues to write songs for other artists, work on his album and went on to win numerous awards in the music industry. In 2003, he was the cover story of Time magazine (Asia version), titled New King of Asian Pop, acknowledging his influence on popular culture. He has since held five world tours, performing in cities around the world to more than 10 million people. Chou debuted his acting career and made his film debut in Initial D (2005), and also since ventured into many movie projects. He made his Hollywood debut in 2011 with The Green Hornet (2011), starring alongside Seth Rogen and Christoph Waltz. Chou also manages his own record and management company, JVR Music.

Doze Niu was born on 22 June 1966 in Taipei, Taiwan. He is an actor and director, known for What on Earth Have I Done Wrong?! (2007), Monga (2010) and Love (2012).

Tom Lin was born on 8 February 1976 in Hsinchu, Taiwan. He is a director and assistant director, known for Winds of September (2008), Starry Starry Night (2011) and Zinnia Flower (2015). He has been married to Kimi Hsia since 31 May 2019. He was previously married to Jo-Hsuan Huang.

Born in 1969, Te-Sheng's film career began when he got a job in a small production house. Then he became an assistant in Edward Yang's film studio in 1995. When Yang was filming "Mahjong" (1996), he was promoted to assistant director from a grip assistant. From 1995 to 1998, he had shot shorts including "Face in the Evening" (1995), "Three Dialogues" (1996) and "Before Dawn" (1997), and all three films had won Golden Harvest Award for Film and Digital Video. Moreover, his 1999 16 mm film "About July" won great reviews from film critics in Taiwan, and was honored with a Special Mention from the Alcan Dragons And Tigers Award For Young Cinema at the Vancouver International Film Festival. He was also the associate producer of "Double Vision" (2002), produced by Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia. In 2004, he raised 2.5 million NT dollars by himself and shot the teaser of "Seediq Bale," in order to further raise 200 million dollars for the finance of shooting the complete film.

He is good at manipulating dramatic elements and shaping characters, which create more tension and levels in his films. Moreover, to overcome the predicament of unable to produce big budget films, which is due to the restricted finance in Taiwan's film industry, he always endeavors to prove the talent and ability of Taiwanese filmmakers. Although he failed to raise the money needed to shoot "Seediq Bale," the vast scenery and epic atmosphere presented in the film teaser surprised and amazed the film circle in Taiwan. This shows his unquestionable ability to create films. "Cape No. 7" is the highest grossing film ever produced in Taiwan surpassing even Ang Lee's "Lust: Caution" and "Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon" and is on its way to becoming the highest-grossing film ever in Taiwanese box-office history. "Cape No. 7" is also the winner of the Grand Prize of the 2008 Taipei Award, the winner of Grand Prize of the 4th Asian Marine Film Festival in Japan as well as the winner of Best Narrative Feature of 28th Hawaii International Film Festival.

Kai Fung was born on 4 July 1961 in Taiwan. He is a director and producer, known for Din Tao: Leader of the Parade (2012), Rookie Chef (2016) and Sweet Sweet Bodyguard (2012).

Giddens Ko was born on 25 August 1978 in Changhua, Taiwan. He is a writer and director, known for You Are the Apple of My Eye (2011), Mon Mon Mon Monsters (2017) and Till We Meet Again (2021).

Essay Liu was born on 20 October 1980 in Tianwei, Changhua, Taiwan. She is a writer and director, known for Seven Days in Heaven (2010), All Because of Love (2017) and The Tenants Downstairs (2016).

Yu-Lin Wang was born in Taipei in 1964. He graduated from the School of Forestry at National Taiwan University, and studied Film and Video at the School of Visual Arts, New York. He founded Magnifique Creative Media Pro. Ltd. Co. (later re-named as Filmer Creative Media), where he is in charge of editing, directing and producing films. In addition to this extensive background and his ability in overall planning and execution, he is known for his extreme sensitivity as a filmmaker.

Nelson Yeh, Taiwanese film maker, born in 1975, is known for his directorial debut "Night Market Hero( 2011)", which not only drew rave reviews but also topped the Taiwan box office that year. Night Market Hero went on to win the Best Feature Film award at the International Guam Film Festival.

Nelson Yeh studied Film Making in World Journalism College and started off as a voice actor, he also dabbled in theatre before he decided to concentrate on film making. His TV drama "Flavour of Life" won 9 Golden Bell nominations in 2013. His second film "Twa-Tiu-Tiann", a time-traveling Sci-Fi drama, is produced on a far grander scale than his previous works and is the most highly anticipated Taiwanese film in 2014.

Born in Washington D.C., he holds a PhD in Dramatic Art from Berkeley. He taught at Taiwan's National Institute of the Arts and helped established the Graduate School of Theatre. Founder of renowned theatrical troupe, Performance Workshop, he is one of Taiwan's leading playwright and theatre director.

Yonfan wrote, directed and produced all 14 of his motion pictures.

He was born in Wuhan, China and brought up in Taiwan now lives in Hong Kong. Throughout his career, he gave Maggie Cheung her first on-screen romantic role and made Chow Yun-fat a box-office star, Story of Rose (1985), discovered Daniel Wu, Bishonen (1998) and revived the career of the legendary Rie Miyazawa, Peony Pavilion (2002). He has pioneered LGBT theme in the Hong Kong mainstream cinema. He has worked with practically every Chinese screen siren of his era. He also restored his complete film library and is now restoring his photographic work including images of China and Tibet in the late 70's and 80's. In 1997, French President Jacques Chirac presented the title of Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur to Yonfan to honor his contribution to film art.

As a connoisseur of Chinese paintings, Yonfan has made donations to Musée Guimet Paris and the Arthur M Sackler Gallery. He is also a renowned writer in Chinese and has had books of his essays and short stories, memoirs of world cinema, his photography and his art collections published in Chinese, English and Japanese.

No.7 Cherry Lane is Yonfan's debut animation and his first new film in a decade (Prince of Tears in 66th Venice Competition, 2009) and awarded "Best Screenplay" in 76th Venice Competition, 2019.

Fung-Bok Lee was born on 12 February 1971 in Taiwan. Fung-Bok was a director, known for B.T.S. (Better Than Sex) (2002), The Killer Who Never Kills (2011) and Mayday: The Wings of Dream (2002). Fung-Bok died in September 2020 in Shanghai, China.

Chi-Man Wan is known for Lover's Discourse (2010), Love Off the Cuff (2017) and Zero to Hero (2021).

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, a county in Kuangtung Province, had been well-known as an intellectual center in China. In 1948, his family moved to Taiwan and, like all children raised there, he went through an extremely demanding educational system. In 1969, he studied film at the National Taiwan Arts Academy. After graduation in 1972, he worked briefly as a salesman. Later he began his film career as a scriptwriter and assistant director.

Hou's films are often concerned with his experiences of growing up in rural Taiwan in the 1950s and 1960s. The 1950s marked a time in which refugee families from the mainland were struggling painfully for survival, while the 1960s saw the beginning of the most significant social change in modern Taiwan. The economic boom of that period meant the beginning of Western-style industrialization and urbanization. The normal frustrations of growing up were aggravated by these complicated changes, and Hou's films are intimate expressions of those experiences.

His emotionally charged work is replete with highly nostalgic images and beautiful compositions; their power lies in his total identification with the past and the fate of families who suffered through difficult times. His stories, often written in collaboration with scriptwriters T'ien-wen Chu and Nien-Jen Wu, depict the complex intertwining of the different strands that shape the lives of individuals. In a poetic yet relaxed style, they reflect a deep sympathy and a profound humanism.

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 (1994), won the Golden Lion (best picture) at the 1994 Venice Film Festival. His idiosyncratic oeuvre continues to enthrall audiences worldwide.

Kuo-Fu Chen was born on 13 May 1958 in Taiwan. He is a producer and writer, known for The Message (2009), The Personals (1998) and Double Vision (2002).