Chen Kaige

Directing

Chen Kaige

Born

1952-08-12 (74)

Place of birth

Beijing, China

Known for

Directing

Credits

56 titles

Chen Kaige (陈凯歌) is a Chinese film director born on born August 12, 1952. He is a leading figure of the fifth generation of Chinese cinema. His films are known for their visual flair and epic storytelling.

Known for

Voice poster
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

Voice

2012

The Last Emperor poster
7.6

A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.

The Last Emperor

1987

Farewell My Concubine poster
8.0

In an epic tale of theater, gender, love and class, two Beijing opera actors navigate political turmoil as their friendship evolves over decades.

Farewell My Concubine

1993

Everybody Stand By poster
3.0

50 different actors and actresses come together to get tested their acting abilities, while 4 esteemed directors will be coaching and challenging them to see who advances to the next stage! Who will survive until the end to become "The Best Actor"?

Everybody Stand By

2019

The Grand Mansion Gate poster
8.9

This Chinese period drama series follows the fortunes of a prominent merchant family engaged in Traditional Chinese Medicine during the waning years of the Ching dynasty. The affairs of this family of doctors/pharmacists (which in those days were one and the same) are intimately linked with social upheavals of the time such as the encroachment of Christian missionaries and foreign imperialism as well as conflicts that inevitably emerge in a large upper class family. Comparable in scope and production value to such recent titles as "Downton Abbey", the lives and character of both masters and servants intertwine in plot lines that spans more than a generation.

The Grand Mansion Gate

2001

Killing Me Softly poster
5.6

A woman grows suspicious of her controlling husband after she discovers secrets about the women in his past.

Killing Me Softly

2002

Film credits

2000s · 3 titles

1990s · 2 titles

Series credits

Behind the camera

Farewell My Concubine poster
8.0

In an epic tale of theater, gender, love and class, two Beijing opera actors navigate political turmoil as their friendship evolves over decades.

Farewell My Concubine

1993

Killing Me Softly poster
5.6

A woman grows suspicious of her controlling husband after she discovers secrets about the women in his past.

Killing Me Softly

2002

The Battle at Lake Changjin II: Water Gate Bridge poster
6.3

Commander Wu Qianli leads the 7th Infantry Company soldiers to Funchilin Pass where they are tasked to destroy a bridge to stop enemy troops from retreating.

The Battle at Lake Changjin II: Water Gate Bridge

2022

The Battle at Lake Changjin II: Water Gate Bridge poster
6.3

Commander Wu Qianli leads the 7th Infantry Company soldiers to Funchilin Pass where they are tasked to destroy a bridge to stop enemy troops from retreating.

The Battle at Lake Changjin II: Water Gate Bridge

2022

The Battle at Lake Changjin poster
6.4

Korean War, winter 1950. In the frozen and snowy area of Changjin Lake, a bloody battle is about to begin between the elite troops of the United States and China.

The Battle at Lake Changjin

2021

The Promise poster
5.6

An orphaned girl, driven by poverty at such a young age, makes a promise with an enchantress. In return for beauty and the admiration of every man, she will never be with the man she loves. This spell cannot be broken unless the impossible happens: snow falling in spring and the dead coming back to life. Now a grown and beautiful princess, she regrets her promise, for all of the men she's loved has always been met with tragedy.

The Promise

2005

The Promise poster
5.6

An orphaned girl, driven by poverty at such a young age, makes a promise with an enchantress. In return for beauty and the admiration of every man, she will never be with the man she loves. This spell cannot be broken unless the impossible happens: snow falling in spring and the dead coming back to life. Now a grown and beautiful princess, she regrets her promise, for all of the men she's loved has always been met with tragedy.

The Promise

2005

Legend of the Demon Cat poster
6.2

During the Late Tang Dynasty, a manor is invaded by a demon cat and a sense of unrest befalls the capital of Changan. A poet is charged with investigating the case and meets up with a monk. The two work together and pull apart the thread of clues to reveal a history of truths leading to the events.

Legend of the Demon Cat

2017

Legend of the Demon Cat poster
6.2

During the Late Tang Dynasty, a manor is invaded by a demon cat and a sense of unrest befalls the capital of Changan. A poet is charged with investigating the case and meets up with a monk. The two work together and pull apart the thread of clues to reveal a history of truths leading to the events.

Legend of the Demon Cat

2017

Monk Comes Down the Mountain poster
5.2

A monk leaves his monastery and ventures out into the real world for the first time in his life, and ends up in an adventure with a kung-fu master who is guarding a special artifact.

Monk Comes Down the Mountain

2015

Monk Comes Down the Mountain poster
5.2

A monk leaves his monastery and ventures out into the real world for the first time in his life, and ends up in an adventure with a kung-fu master who is guarding a special artifact.

Monk Comes Down the Mountain

2015

The Volunteers: The Battle of Life and Death poster
6.6

The movie focuses on the battle of Cheolwon, where the 63rd Army of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army (CPVA) was ordered to enter the battlefield of Cheolwon in May 1951, just after a month-long battle, to fight against four divisions of the United Nations Army (UNA). The volunteers fought with bloodshed and finally brought the enemy to the negotiation table.

The Volunteers: The Battle of Life and Death

2024

The Volunteers: The Battle of Life and Death poster
6.6

The movie focuses on the battle of Cheolwon, where the 63rd Army of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army (CPVA) was ordered to enter the battlefield of Cheolwon in May 1951, just after a month-long battle, to fight against four divisions of the United Nations Army (UNA). The volunteers fought with bloodshed and finally brought the enemy to the negotiation table.

The Volunteers: The Battle of Life and Death

2024

To Each His Own Cinema poster
6.4

Commissioned to mark the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, "To Each His Own Cinema" brought together 33 of the world's pre-eminent filmmakers to produce short pieces exploring the multifarious facets of cinema and their perspective on the state of their chosen artform in the early 21st century.

To Each His Own Cinema

2007

The Volunteers: Peace at Last poster
8.2

Set during the final phase of the War to Resist U.S. and Aid Korea, the film depicts the tense final battles and simultaneous peace negotiations leading to the armistice, capturing the spirit of perseverance and sacrifice on both the battlefield and the diplomatic front.

The Volunteers: Peace at Last

2025

The Volunteers: Peace at Last poster
8.2

Set during the final phase of the War to Resist U.S. and Aid Korea, the film depicts the tense final battles and simultaneous peace negotiations leading to the armistice, capturing the spirit of perseverance and sacrifice on both the battlefield and the diplomatic front.

The Volunteers: Peace at Last

2025

The Emperor and the Assassin poster
6.9

In pre-unified China, the King of Qin sends his concubine to a rival kingdom to produce an assassin for a political plot, but as the king's cruelty mounts she finds her loyalty faltering.

The Emperor and the Assassin

1998

The Emperor and the Assassin poster
6.9

In pre-unified China, the King of Qin sends his concubine to a rival kingdom to produce an assassin for a political plot, but as the king's cruelty mounts she finds her loyalty faltering.

The Emperor and the Assassin

1998

The Emperor and the Assassin poster
6.9

In pre-unified China, the King of Qin sends his concubine to a rival kingdom to produce an assassin for a political plot, but as the king's cruelty mounts she finds her loyalty faltering.

The Emperor and the Assassin

1998

My People, My Country poster
6.6

Anthology of short films directed by several different directors.

My People, My Country

2019

Yellow Earth poster
7.2

A communist soldier is sent to a remote region of China in order to collect folk songs. Staying with a peasant family (a widower with two small children), he discovers a community whose way of life is completely alien to him, but he gradually wins their trust.

Yellow Earth

1984

Yellow Earth poster
7.2

A communist soldier is sent to a remote region of China in order to collect folk songs. Staying with a peasant family (a widower with two small children), he discovers a community whose way of life is completely alien to him, but he gradually wins their trust.

Yellow Earth

1984

The Volunteers: To the War poster
6.2

In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, New China was faced with "internal and external troubles". Since the outbreak of the Korean Civil War, the U.S. military has repeatedly provoked the border between China and North Korea, and civilians have been brutally bombed. In order to maintain the hard-won peace and long-term stability for generations, in October 1950, the Chinese People's Volunteers entered North Korea, and the "Resist US Aid Korea" war kicked off.

The Volunteers: To the War

2023

Sacrifice poster
6.0

For generations the Zhao family has wielded power, until their mortal enemy TU’AN GU slaughters the entire clan, determined to wipe out their influence forever. But one Zhao baby survives hidden by CHENG YING the doctor who delivered him. When Tu’an Gu learns of the baby’s escape he seizes every infant in the city, vowing to kill them all unless the Zhao baby is surrendered. As the tyrant’s soldiers arrive at Cheng Ying’s home the frantic doctor hides his wife with their own baby whilst surrendering the Zhao child as his own. But his family is discovered; his baby is presumed to be the Zhao heir and murdered along with his wife for harboring the infant. Now set on revenge Cheng Ying enrolls the Zhao orphan into the service of the Tu’an Gu household, plotting to use him as an instrument of vengeance when he comes of age.

Sacrifice

2010

Sacrifice poster
6.0

For generations the Zhao family has wielded power, until their mortal enemy TU’AN GU slaughters the entire clan, determined to wipe out their influence forever. But one Zhao baby survives hidden by CHENG YING the doctor who delivered him. When Tu’an Gu learns of the baby’s escape he seizes every infant in the city, vowing to kill them all unless the Zhao baby is surrendered. As the tyrant’s soldiers arrive at Cheng Ying’s home the frantic doctor hides his wife with their own baby whilst surrendering the Zhao child as his own. But his family is discovered; his baby is presumed to be the Zhao heir and murdered along with his wife for harboring the infant. Now set on revenge Cheng Ying enrolls the Zhao orphan into the service of the Tu’an Gu household, plotting to use him as an instrument of vengeance when he comes of age.

Sacrifice

2010

Temptress Moon poster
6.7

Set in the decadent 1920s, Temptress Moon tells the very complicated story of a wealthy family living on the outskirts of Shanghai. Their youngest daughter, Ruyi, is brought up as a servant to her opium-addicted father and brother. Meanwhile, her brother-in-law Zhongliang has a successful, if illegal, career seducing and blackmailing married women in the city. When he comes to Ruyi's home the two fall in love, and trouble ensues.

Temptress Moon

1996

Together poster
6.9

When a violin prodigy Xiaochun and his father head to Beijing seeking fame and fortune, they soon discover a fierce world of cutthroat ambition. But when Xiaochun is "adopted" by a famous music tutor, success finally seems within reach - until a shocking discovery begins to unravel his entire world, and the boy must make the most difficult choice of his life. Can he achieve the fame his father had always hoped for without losing the extraordinary passion that sets him apart?

Together

2002

Together poster
6.9

When a violin prodigy Xiaochun and his father head to Beijing seeking fame and fortune, they soon discover a fierce world of cutthroat ambition. But when Xiaochun is "adopted" by a famous music tutor, success finally seems within reach - until a shocking discovery begins to unravel his entire world, and the boy must make the most difficult choice of his life. Can he achieve the fame his father had always hoped for without losing the extraordinary passion that sets him apart?

Together

2002

Forever Enthralled poster
6.2

The epic story Mei Lanfang, who overcame the prejudice against artists in 1930s China to become the country's greatest opera star.

Forever Enthralled

2008

Forever Enthralled poster
6.2

The epic story Mei Lanfang, who overcame the prejudice against artists in 1930s China to become the country's greatest opera star.

Forever Enthralled

2008

China's Megatomb Revealed poster
5.8

Albert Lin and National Geographic Channel unearth the terrible secrets that lie hidden in the tomb of China's first Emperor. The Terracotta Warriors are just the tip of the iceberg in this mausoleum the size of Manhattan, that has gone largely unexcavated…until now. These silent statues guard explosive, macabre findings that rewrite history and paint a very different picture of the ancient world from what we thought we knew.

China's Megatomb Revealed

2016

Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet poster
6.9

Ten Minutes Older is a 2002 film project consisting of two compilation feature films entitled The Trumpet and The Cello. The project was conceived by the producer Nicolas McClintock as a reflection on the theme of time at the turn of the Millennium. Fifteen celebrated film-makers were invited to create their own vision of what time means in ten minutes of film.

Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet

2002

Caught in the Web poster
6.7

The story of three women whose worlds collide - a social commentary about the 'sound bite' society we are becoming, where perception becomes reality and judgments based on limited facts quickly spread, without regard for the truth or the damage they could cause.

Caught in the Web

2012

Caught in the Web poster
6.7

The story of three women whose worlds collide - a social commentary about the 'sound bite' society we are becoming, where perception becomes reality and judgments based on limited facts quickly spread, without regard for the truth or the damage they could cause.

Caught in the Web

2012

The Big Parade poster
5.9

Army volunteers train for places in China's 1984 National Day parade, where they are expected to be a perfect marching unit.

The Big Parade

1986

King of the Children poster
7.0

An unschooled young man, one of the countless victims of Mao's Cultural Revolution, is laboring in the countryside when he is assigned to teach in a nearby school. Gradually, he abandons the Maoist textbook and encourages the barely literate kids to write about their own lives and feelings.

King of the Children

1987

King of the Children poster
7.0

An unschooled young man, one of the countless victims of Mao's Cultural Revolution, is laboring in the countryside when he is assigned to teach in a nearby school. Gradually, he abandons the Maoist textbook and encourages the barely literate kids to write about their own lives and feelings.

King of the Children

1987

Forced Take-off poster
9.0

Two-part TV film made by Chen Kaige for Air Force Political Department Drama Troupe.

Forced Take-off

1984

100 Flowers Hidden Deep poster
NR

The rural memories, the lost places, and the crazy modernization in Beijing.

100 Flowers Hidden Deep

2002

Life on a String poster
6.9

A blind man's master told him that after he has broken 1000 strings on his Banjo, he can open the Banjo to get a script for his eyes. After 60 years he broke the 1000th string.

Life on a String

1991