
Directing
Jia Zhangke
Born
1970-05-24 (56)
Place of birth
Fenyang, Shanxi, China
Known for
Directing
Credits
76 titles
Jia Zhangke (Chinese: 贾樟柯; pinyin: Jiǎ Zhāngkē, born 24 May 1970; Fenyang) is a Chinese film and television director, screenwriter, producer, actor and writer. He is the dean of the Shanxi Film Academy of Shanxi Media College and the dean of the Vancouver Film School of Shanghai University. He graduated from the Literature Department of Beijing Film Academy. He is generally regarded as a leading figure of the "Sixth Generation" movement of Chinese cinema, a group that also includes such figures as Wang Xiaoshuai, Lou Ye, Wang Quan'an and Zhang Yuan. Jia's early films, a loose trilogy based in his home province of Shanxi, were made outside of China's state-run film bureaucracy, and therefore…
Known for
9.0The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards (Chinese: 台北金馬影展; pinyin: Táiběi Jīnmǎ Yǐngzhǎn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâi-pak Kim-má iáⁿ-tián) is a film festival and awards ceremony held annually in Taiwan. It was founded in 1962 by the Government Information Office of the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. The awards ceremony is usually held in November or December in Taipei, although the event has also been held in other locations in Taiwan in recent times
Golden Horse Awards
1962
8.8No synopsis available yet.
Thirteen Talks
2016
7.1Released from jail, Lang returns to his hometown in Northwest China. As part of a dog patrol tasked with clearing stray dogs before the 2008 Olympics, he bonds with a black stray. The two lonely souls embark on a new journey together.
Black Dog
2024
7.2Teased by hallucinations, Shu, a slacker living in a rural village, struggles with an ever-loosening grip on reality. Yet when one of his visions manifests as real, his fellow villagers come to regard him as a clairvoyant. Can Shu genuinely see into the future? Is he actually just a basket case? Or is he perhaps more lucid than he seems, and pulling a fast one on everyone?
Mr. Tree
2011
10.0This is a long-form, in-depth podcast hosted by Luo Yonghao, with each episode running three to five hours. We engage in extended conversations with figures shaped by the currents of our time, focusing on technology and the humanities—telling personal stories of fate and exploring the forces driving our era.
Crossroads with Luo Yonghao
2025
7.2A town in Fengjie county is gradually being demolished and flooded to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. A man and woman visit the town to locate their estranged spouses, and become witness to the societal changes.
Still Life
2006
Film credits
2020s · 13 titles
7.1Released from jail, Lang returns to his hometown in Northwest China. As part of a dog patrol tasked with clearing stray dogs before the 2008 Olympics, he bonds with a black stray. The two lonely souls embark on a new journey together.
Black Dog
2024
7.3Takeshi Kitano is an international icon. We know the actor, the multi-award-winning filmmaker, but many ignore his double personality: the crazy TV star, the street kid from Tokyo close to the Yakuza, and the political satirist who blasted taboos! Can we dream of a better guide to introduce us to the cultural history of Japan?
Citizen Kitano
2020
7.1A Tang Dynasty minor official risks everything to deliver lychees across China. Li Shande, middle-aged and struggling, sees this dangerous mission as his last chance for success.
The Lychee Road
2025
5.2The idea is to create a film at home, using the environment, the people or the animals in that space. The only outdoor areas that may be used are outdoor living spaces, such as the terrace, the garden, the balcony and the stairwell.
Visit
2020
5.8After a failed suicide attempt, Zhang Xiaobing (Jiang Long) is sent to Ward 10 — a ward for the critically ill, but strangely full of joy. Among patients clinging to life, a man who wanted to die discovers the courage to live.
Being Towards Death
2026
No synopsis available yet.
Presi dall'onda - Conversazione con Jia Zhangke
2026
6.6In the 1990s, a group of students on the campus of the Chinese Southern Academy of Arts are pursuing their studies and preparing to face the world. China is opening up to the West and the students’ lives are a tangle of love stories and friendships, artistic research, ideals and ambitions brought about by new influences. Caught between tradition and modernity, they have to decide who they want to become.
Art College 1994
2025
4.8Wu You is as carefree as his name suggests. He is single and lives with his nearly 70-year-old mother Zhang Baoxia. He joins an organization called Sunshine Club and becomes a senior partner, but his mother suddenly falls ill.
Mostly Sunny
2025
6.1In 2003, Han Dong, a teenager who dropped out of high school, arrives at Beijing with a dream of becoming a journalist.
The Best is Yet to Come
2023
6.8Filmmaker Jia Zhangke chronicles his local literature festival in Shanxi, China which includes a multi-generational roster of the country's most esteemed writers.
Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue
2021
8.0One of Hong Kong's most influential filmmakers, Ann Hui, becomes a “star” for the first time in Man Lim-chung's directorial debut. A forerunner of the New Wave, Hui’s tumultuous, forty-year career is an unequivocal testimony to her unyielding dedication to filmmaking, and her expedition into the metamorphic city. This biopic probes into the acclaimed director’s idiosyncratic world, where we witness her rashness and goofiness, as well as her humanistic concerns for the everyday nobodies which make her films so moving.
Keep Rolling
2020
5.0When gold medal lawyer Hu Gongping was having a secret meeting with his lover She Xiaoman, a body suddenly fell from the sky in the room. Hu Gongping called for help from his assistant Zhu Shiqi, but he didn't want to panic and blurt out several lies, causing a series of chaos! With the emergence of various "family members" such as Xiong Dali, Lin Luanfeng, and Shi Shi, the situation continues to escalate. As the matter is about to be exposed, how will this hilarious "accident" end?
Moonlight Madness
2024
6.0The closing film for 2021's Pingyao Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon International Film Festival.
The Great Director
2021
2010s · 9 titles
7.2Four people in different provinces are driven to violent ends: An angry miner is enraged by corruption in his village. A migrant discovers the possibilities of owning a firearm. A receptionist is pushed beyond her limits by an abusive client. A young factory worker goes from one job to the next.
A Touch of Sin
2013
7.2The closure of an unprofitable state-run coal mine in Shanxi, China forces three middle-aged men who worked there to search for employment elsewhere.
The Hedonists
2016
8.2An abandoned tumbledown theater in the outback of Paraíba state is the initial setting of a film about cinema, which explores the testimonials of the novelist and playwright Ariano Suassuna and other filmmakers such as Ruy Guerra, Julio Bressane, Ken Loach, Andrzej Wajda, Karim Ainouz, José Padilha, Hector Babenco, Vilmos Zsigmond, Béla Tarr, Gus Van Sant and Jia Zhangke. They all respond to two basic questions: why do they make movies and why do they serve the seventh art. The filmmakers share their thoughts about time, narrative, rhythm, light, movement, the meaning of tragedy, the audience‘s desires and the boundaries with other forms of art.
About Cinema
2015
5.5When all four of his children cancel their yearly visits, a widower travels to the far corners of the country to see them and discovers the hidden sides of their lives.
Everybody's Fine
2016
6.2Three men living in the Eastern most island of China go on a road trip to the Western most end of the country, and facing crises of love, friendship, and faith on their journey to the West.
The Continent
2014
6.9Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke returns to the shooting locations of his films, along with his actors, friends and close collaborators. Jia recalls the inspiration sources for his movies, such as Platform, Still Life and A Touch of Sin. The film is the memory of a filmmaker and of a country in convulsion, China, which reveals itself little by little.
Jia Zhangke, A Guy from Fenyang
2016
7.1With Taiwan remaining in the grip of martial law in 1982, a group of filmmakers from that country set out to establish a cultural identity through cinema and to share it with the world. This engaging documentary looks at the movement's legacy.
Flowers of Taipei: Taiwan New Cinema
2014
7.7As Hong Kong's foremost filmmaker, Johnnie To himself becomes the protagonist of this painstaking documentary exploring him and his Boundless world of film. A film student from Beijing and avid Johnnie To fan, Ferris Lin boldly approached To with a proposal to document the master director for his graduation thesis. To agreed immediately and Lin's camera closely followed him for over two years, capturing the man behind the movies and the myths. The result is Boundless, a candid profile of one of Hong Kong's greatest directors and a heartfelt love letter to Hong Kong cinema.
Boundless
2013
a documentary series created by Jia Zhangke, with 10 short films about 10 leading figures in various industries in China, exploring the stories of China's decade. Won the Gold Award at China Marketing Awards
Our Time: A Decade of Daring
2015
2000s · 7 titles
A documentary about Peking in the dawn of the new Millenium. Contains interviews with Jia Zhangke and dj Gaohu
Overloaded Peking
2002
NRA documentary about the making of Jia Zhangke's film the World.
Made in China
2005
6.6Two disaffected, unemployed Chinese youth drift through life on the streets of their industrial town, their paths crossing with that of a local young singer and dancer working for a liquor company as a spokesmodel.
Unknown Pleasures
2002
NRMeet Wang Yuelun, a young and ambitious Chinese who dreams of becoming a film director. Filmmaker Elisabeth O. Sjaastad follows an eventful year in his quest to fulfill his dream.
Shiny Stars, Rusty Red
2003
NRA film about Chinese underground filmmakers who were the first to express their truthful and realistic views on China from 1989 until today. It is also the first film to speak about the Chinese homosexual film scene. The documentary features Chinese intellectuals and directors such as Cui Zi’en, Jia Zhangke, Ju An Qi, Li Yu, Liu Bingjian, Liu Hao, Wang Xiaoshuai, Zhang Yuan.
My Camera Doesn’t Lie
2003
5.0Chen Chuan (Francis Ng) is a simple man who seems to be cursed with bad luck all the time. Convinced by a blind fortune teller that he must eliminate the "villain" that is bringing him the ills, Chen vows to kill the person responsible for his misfortunes. But he soon has second thoughts when he suspect that the "villain" is none other than his own wife.
Karmic Mahjong
2006
3.0Leading Chinese Sixth Generation filmmaker Jia Zhangke returns home to Fenyang in Shanxi province after winning the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival for Still Life (2006). The experiences of his childhood, the people he grew up with, and the changing landscape of his home town gave Jia the inspiration to make his first films. The documentary forms a poignant inquiry into the past of the director's life and Chinese society at the same time.
Xiao Jia Going Home
2007
Series credits
9.0The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards (Chinese: 台北金馬影展; pinyin: Táiběi Jīnmǎ Yǐngzhǎn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâi-pak Kim-má iáⁿ-tián) is a film festival and awards ceremony held annually in Taiwan. It was founded in 1962 by the Government Information Office of the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. The awards ceremony is usually held in November or December in Taipei, although the event has also been held in other locations in Taiwan in recent times
Golden Horse Awards
1962
8.8No synopsis available yet.
Thirteen Talks
2016
10.0This is a long-form, in-depth podcast hosted by Luo Yonghao, with each episode running three to five hours. We engage in extended conversations with figures shaped by the currents of our time, focusing on technology and the humanities—telling personal stories of fate and exploring the forces driving our era.
Crossroads with Luo Yonghao
2025
NRNo synopsis available yet.
不要回答
2022
NRThis talk show was initiated by director Jia Zhangke. It opened an in-depth dialogue with 8 guests from all walks of life to discuss topics such as "the departure and return of hometown" and "the source of nutrition for creation". The resonance of the individual and the times.
Jia's Talk
2022
Behind the camera
7.2Teased by hallucinations, Shu, a slacker living in a rural village, struggles with an ever-loosening grip on reality. Yet when one of his visions manifests as real, his fellow villagers come to regard him as a clairvoyant. Can Shu genuinely see into the future? Is he actually just a basket case? Or is he perhaps more lucid than he seems, and pulling a fast one on everyone?
Mr. Tree
2011
7.2A town in Fengjie county is gradually being demolished and flooded to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. A man and woman visit the town to locate their estranged spouses, and become witness to the societal changes.
Still Life
2006
7.2A town in Fengjie county is gradually being demolished and flooded to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. A man and woman visit the town to locate their estranged spouses, and become witness to the societal changes.
Still Life
2006
7.2Four people in different provinces are driven to violent ends: An angry miner is enraged by corruption in his village. A migrant discovers the possibilities of owning a firearm. A receptionist is pushed beyond her limits by an abusive client. A young factory worker goes from one job to the next.
A Touch of Sin
2013
7.2Four people in different provinces are driven to violent ends: An angry miner is enraged by corruption in his village. A migrant discovers the possibilities of owning a firearm. A receptionist is pushed beyond her limits by an abusive client. A young factory worker goes from one job to the next.
A Touch of Sin
2013
6.9Set in China's underworld, this tale of love and betrayal follows a dancer who fired a gun to protect her mobster boyfriend during a fight. On release from prison 5 years later, she sets out to find him.
Ash Is Purest White
2018
6.9Set in China's underworld, this tale of love and betrayal follows a dancer who fired a gun to protect her mobster boyfriend during a fight. On release from prison 5 years later, she sets out to find him.
Ash Is Purest White
2018
6.7Years after her boyfriend left her for the big city and promised to bring her there after he’s settled down, a Chinese woman sets out on a journey to be reunited with him.
Caught by the Tides
2024
6.7Years after her boyfriend left her for the big city and promised to bring her there after he’s settled down, a Chinese woman sets out on a journey to be reunited with him.
Caught by the Tides
2024
NRFollows a mother who has spent most of her life in Dunhuang, a historic city in western China. With the help of artificial intelligence, she embarks on a journey that takes her from western to eastern China.
Mamma Dunhuang
—
NRFollows a mother who has spent most of her life in Dunhuang, a historic city in western China. With the help of artificial intelligence, she embarks on a journey that takes her from western to eastern China.
Mamma Dunhuang
—
1.0Jia Zhangke, in collaboration with Seedance 2.0 a video generation model by Doubao, ponders about the future of cinema with his AI counterpart.
Jia Zhangke's Dance
2026
1.0Jia Zhangke, in collaboration with Seedance 2.0 a video generation model by Doubao, ponders about the future of cinema with his AI counterpart.
Jia Zhangke's Dance
2026
4.5The 43rd edition screens Neighbors, with five segments about the theme “neighbors”: not only about physical proximity, but also about relationships. In Brazil, Olga is a 90-year-old black woman who lost her husband one year ago; her neighbors, who come from different parts of the world, interrupt her grief. In Russia, an employee tries so hard to please his boss that he becomes inconvenient. An Indian woman, with the help of her male friend, decides to learn how to drive, an uncommon practice for women in the country. In China, an elderly, owner of an old and decadent barbershop, argues with his son, who wants to change the business. In South Africa, a group of homeless fights for the right to housing.
Neighbors
2019
NRThousands of years in the future, a laborer whose job is to recover artifacts of the past tries to free herself from a dystopian caste system.
Still Born
2017
7.1China’s rapid changes from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, as seen through the lives of four performers in a theater troupe.
Platform
2001
7.1China’s rapid changes from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, as seen through the lives of four performers in a theater troupe.
Platform
2001
5.0Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.
Venice 70: Future Reloaded
2013
7.0The life of Tao, and those close to her, is explored in three different time periods: 1999, 2014, and 2025.
Mountains May Depart
2015
7.0The life of Tao, and those close to her, is explored in three different time periods: 1999, 2014, and 2025.
Mountains May Depart
2015
5.2The idea is to create a film at home, using the environment, the people or the animals in that space. The only outdoor areas that may be used are outdoor living spaces, such as the terrace, the garden, the balcony and the stairwell.
Visit
2020
5.2The idea is to create a film at home, using the environment, the people or the animals in that space. The only outdoor areas that may be used are outdoor living spaces, such as the terrace, the garden, the balcony and the stairwell.
Visit
2020
NRThe film uses a documentary approach to tell the stories of 12 Chinese pioneers, chosen from the fields of business and the arts. The protagonists reflect upon their life journeys against the backdrop of modern China.
Yulu
2011
NRThe film uses a documentary approach to tell the stories of 12 Chinese pioneers, chosen from the fields of business and the arts. The protagonists reflect upon their life journeys against the backdrop of modern China.
Yulu
2011
7.2The closure of an unprofitable state-run coal mine in Shanxi, China forces three middle-aged men who worked there to search for employment elsewhere.
The Hedonists
2016
7.2The closure of an unprofitable state-run coal mine in Shanxi, China forces three middle-aged men who worked there to search for employment elsewhere.
The Hedonists
2016
NRIn A Song for You – a road movie and a music industry insider comedy, with lots of songs – young Ngawang leaves behind a nomadic existence on the Tibetan plateau for big city Lhasa nightclubs. His dream is to record an album and be heard around the country. Cutting an album costs money, which he doesn’t have. One day he meets a woman who looks just like his Loyiter, a talisman of the goddess of art and music. Impossible, says his father, as only the pure of heart meet her, only in their dreams. But, Ngawang perseveres. She takes him on a journey of discovery through life and love.
A Song for You
2020
7.2A small town pickpocket whose friends have moved on to higher trades finds himself bitter and unable to adapt.
Pickpocket
1997
7.2A small town pickpocket whose friends have moved on to higher trades finds himself bitter and unable to adapt.
Pickpocket
1997
7.2A small town pickpocket whose friends have moved on to higher trades finds himself bitter and unable to adapt.
Pickpocket
1997
6.1In a future century, after the apocalypse, Gui Dao dynasty controls continental Asia. Zhuai and his younger brother Mian are captured and sent to "Prosperity Camp" for reeducation. They soon discover that the camp's aim is to brainwash people with propaganda. Five years later, there's a change in government and they are free again. Zhuai falls in love for the beautiful Xuelan and together they take her to an old industrial city, now deserted. They get themselves a place to live in an abandoned apartment and try to rediscover the little pleasures of life.
All Tomorrow's Parties
2003
5.4Shows a market where puppies are bought and sold. Several puppies are placed in a cloth bag, and they struggle to break free. One bites through the bag, pokes his head, and is observed in his triumph and then confusion.
The Condition of Dogs
2001
7.0Fang comes back to her parents’ home in Nanjing, to spend some time with them. During her stay, her elder brother’s family comes for a family reunion, she receives a Yengisar knife as a gift and her sister-in-law tries to set her up on a blind date. Around her, time goes by, memories come back in the conversations, some she knows, some not. The present is mixed up with the past, and the steps towards the future may walk along the path of eternal loss.
Memories Look at Me
2012
NRHan Dong adapts his own 1998 novel, about a group of young poets accidentally caught up in an inexplicable dispute with local hoodlums and security guards.
One Night on the Wharf
2017
5.6Jia Zhangke travels with painter Liu Xiaodong from China to Thailand as they as they meet everyday workers in the throes of social turmoil. Liu Xiaodong is well-known for his monumental canvases, particularly those inspired by China's Three Gorges Dam project. Jia Zhangke visits Liu on the banks of Fengjie, a city about to be swallowed up by the Yangtze River. The area is in the process of being "de-constructed" by armies of shirtless male workers who form the subject of Liu's paintings. Liu and Jia next travel to Bangkok, where Liu paints Thai sex workers languishing in brothels. The two sets of paintings are united in their subjects' shared sense of malaise in the face of the dehumanizing labor afforded them.
Dong
2006
5.6Jia Zhangke travels with painter Liu Xiaodong from China to Thailand as they as they meet everyday workers in the throes of social turmoil. Liu Xiaodong is well-known for his monumental canvases, particularly those inspired by China's Three Gorges Dam project. Jia Zhangke visits Liu on the banks of Fengjie, a city about to be swallowed up by the Yangtze River. The area is in the process of being "de-constructed" by armies of shirtless male workers who form the subject of Liu's paintings. Liu and Jia next travel to Bangkok, where Liu paints Thai sex workers languishing in brothels. The two sets of paintings are united in their subjects' shared sense of malaise in the face of the dehumanizing labor afforded them.
Dong
2006
NRIn Close-Up, Jia explores the counterpart to the wide shot. Four elevated surveillance cameras scan a busy traffic intersection, capturing the steady stream of cars, bikes and pedestrians that cross it. Amid all that bustle and movement, a fifth camera with a long telephoto lens picks out one individual. A man with a bandaged hand. A wide shot changes into a close-up. Visitors have the freedom to choose their own context and focus. They can even tell the story of this man. HD video installation on 5 screens, colour, silent
Close-Up
2021
2.0A woman travels from southern China to Turin, Italy, to see her husband. But an unexpected departure leaves her to find herself again, and to find cinema.
Torino Shadow
2026
2.0A woman travels from southern China to Turin, Italy, to see her husband. But an unexpected departure leaves her to find herself again, and to find cinema.
Torino Shadow
2026
7.0As a decades-old state-run aeronautics munitions factory in downtown Chengdu, China is being torn down for the construction of the titular luxury apartment complex, director Jia Zhangke interviews various people affiliated with it about their experiences.
24 City
2008


