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It's been twenty-five years since Chen Kaige began his studies at the Bieijing Film Academy. Little did he suspect back then that the "class of '78"-which included future luminaries Zhang Yimou and Tian Zhuangzhuang, among others-would first change the face of Chinese cinema, then go on to make an indelible impression on the international film scene. Chert was one of the first group of students to enroll in the Academy in 1978, when it reopened after twelve years of closure during the Cultural Revolution. Like all educational establishments, the Academy was closed while Mao's political drama played out.
The young Chen, like most of the Academy students, had seen his education interrupted by the Cultural Revolution. he was sent to work in the countryside, in the southwestern province of Yunnan, where he chopped trees in the vast forests of Xishuangbanna. He then spent five years in the army. When schools and colleges reopened, Chen-the son of film director Chen Huaikai and Liu Yanchi, who worked in the script department of the Beijing Film Studio-took an admission exam Jor Beijing University's Literature Department. He failed, and decided to try his luck at the Film Academy instead. This time, he passed the entrance exam.
Chen graduated from the Academy in 1982. His first film, 1984's Yellow Earth, radically changed the face of Chinese cinema. The film, which was photographed by his Academy colleague Zhang Yimou, was controversial in China because it was the first Chinese film, at least since the 1949 Communist Liberation, to tell a story through images rather than dialog. It was also equivocal about the Communist Party's ability to help the peasants during the Communist Revolution, something that stood in stark contrast to China's posl-1949 propaganda films. Yellow Earth proved a sensation at its international premiere at the Hong Kong International Film Festival in 1985. It immediately brought intention to the group of young filmmakers who became known as the 'Fifth Generation,' the majority of whom were former Academy students.
In the West, Chen is best known for his grand, historical films like Farewell, My Concubine and the less successful Temptress Moon and The Emperor and the Assassin. Yet his primary talent is for directing smaller scale films, which encompass numerous layers of meaning....