Chen Kaige
3 titles · chinese fifth generation
Chinese history told through people it grinds down. Chen's best-known work sets private devotion against half a century of political upheaval and lets the politics win; his recent turn to state-scale war spectacle is the same subject filmed from the other side.
Signature
- Personal loyalty tested by decades of political reversal.
- Opera, performance and ritual as the frame for identity.
- Sweeping historical span within one relationship.
- Later work co-directed on national epics — see Tsui Hark.
The Battle at Lake Changjin
The Battle at Lake Changjin II: Water Gate Bridge
Keep browsing
against typetwo worlds, one passportthe dream, curdledlove you can't trustone for themsomeone always knows moresad & funnysad fairytalesthe chance meeting that wasn'tsmall town, big secretthe mask that can't slipthe moment you're seentransformative mentorshipthe friendship that makes no sensesomeone is always watchingthe job goes sideways, charminglymoral ambiguityfound familycoming of ageloneliness & isolationidentity crisisrevenge & justiceforbidden loveredemptionpsychological horrorcultural dislocationnostalgia & longingunderdog triumphclass warfareorganized crimeartistic obsessionsurvivalinstitutional corruptionmental health struggleurban alienationimmigrant experiencewar traumatoxic relationshipsmidlife crisissurveillance & controlenvironmental crisiscivil unresttime travel & paradoxai & consciousnesspsychological unravelingcosmic horrormemory losspost-apocalyptic