Yang Dechang

Yang Dechang

Edward Yang, born in Meixian, Guangdong Province, was born in Shanghai, China on November 6, 1947. He is a film director and screenwriter in Taiwan, China. He graduated from Taiwan Jiaotong University and University of Florida.

In 1981, he directed the drama eleven women, which officially opened his career as a director. In 1983, he directed his first film "a day on the beach" and was nominated for the best director award of the 20th Taiwan Golden Horse Film Awards. In 1985, he directed the crime drama "terrorists", which won the silver leopard award at the 40th Locarno International Film Festival. In 1991, he directed the feature film "Guling Street juvenile homicide", which won the jury award of the 4th Tokyo International Film Festival. In 1994, he directed the feature film "the age of independence" and won the best original script award of the 31st Golden Horse Award for Taiwan film. In 1996, he directed the feature film mahjong, which was shortlisted in the main competition unit of the 46th Berlin International Film Festival.

He won the best director award of the 53rd Cannes International Film Festival in 2000. In 2001, he was a member of the jury of the 54th Cannes International Film Festival. In 2005, he served as the chairman of the jury of the 58th Cannes International Film Festival "short film competition unit and film foundation unit".

On June 29, 2007, Yang Dechang died of colon cancer at his home in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 59. In the same year, he won the "Asian filmmaker of the year" award at the 12th Busan International Film Festival.

Acting experience

In 1981, Yang Dechang, who returned to Taiwan, was invited by Zhang Aijia to shoot the drama eleven women, which officially opened his career as a director. In the same year, he was the screenwriter of the feature film winter of 1905 directed by Yu Weiyan. In 1982, hope, the second story in the feature film the story of time, CO directed by Ke Yizheng and Zhang Yi, was co starred by Zhang Aijia, Wang qiguang and Li Liqun. The film contains the story of personal growth, alienation of interpersonal relationship and 30 years of social change in Taiwan. In 1983, he directed the feature film "a day on the beach", CO starring Zhang Aijia, Hu Yinmeng and Yan Fengjiao. This is Yang Dechang's first film. With this film, he was nominated for the best director award and the best original script award of the 20th Taiwan Golden Horse Film Awards. In 1985, he directed the drama "childhood sweetheart" co starred by Hou Xiaoxian, Cai Qin and Wu nianzhen, which won the International Film Critics Association Award at the 38th Locarno International Film Festival. In 1986, he directed the crime drama "terrorists" co starred by Miao Qianren, Li Liqun and Jin Shijie, which won the silver leopard award at the 40th Locarno International Film Festival. With this film, he was nominated for the best original screenplay award at the 23rd Golden Horse Award of Taiwan film. In November of the same year, he signed a contract with 54 Taiwanese filmmakers, including Hou Xiaoxian and Lai Shengchuan, at room 69, Jinan Road, District 2, Taipei“ "Taiwan film declaration". In 1989, Yang Dechang established his own independent production company. In 1991, he directed the feature film "the murder of a teenager in Guling Street" adapted from a real event, starring Zhang Guozhu, Zhang Zhen and Yang Jingyi. The film won the jury award of the 4th Tokyo International Film Festival, and he won the best original script award of the 28th Golden Horse Award for Taiwan film. In 1994, he directed the feature film "the age of independence", CO starred by Chen Xiangqi, Jin Shijie and Wang Baisen. The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or award at the 47th Cannes International Film Festival, and he won the best original script award at the 31st Golden Horse Award for Taiwan film. In 1996, he directed the feature film mahjong co starred by Zhang Zhen, Tang Congsheng and Colin, which was shortlisted in the main competition unit of the 46th Berlin International Film Festival. In 2000, he directed the feature film "11", starring Wu nianzhen, Jin Yanling and Zhang Yangyang. The film was nominated for the best foreign film award of the 26th French film Caesar Award, the 13th European film award, the global screen award and the 21st Hong Kong Film Awards. He won the best director award of the 53rd Cannes International Film Festival and the 2nd China Film Festival Best director of the film media award. After that, the film was selected as one of the "30 films in ten years" by the British film magazine "seeing and listening" and one of the "100 great works in film history" by "art film". In 2001, he was a member of the jury of the 54th Cannes International Film Festival. In 2005, he served as the chairman of the jury of the 58th Cannes International Film Festival "short film competition unit and film foundation unit". In 2007, he won the lifetime achievement award of the 44th Taiwan Golden Horse Film Award, and the "Asian filmmaker of the year" award of the 12th Busan International Film Festival in the same year.

Personal life

Death

On June 29, 2007, Yang Dechang died of colon cancer at his home in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 59.

Main works

Director's work

Screenwriter's works

Production works

Award winning record

Character evaluation

Yang Dechang is good at rational thinking in his films. He is good at showing the distortion of human nature in extreme modernization and materialization with long lens. In the film, he shows the physical and mental alienation and spiritual crisis of modern people under material oppression, and captures and expresses these anti hero acts with rational and calm audio-visual language. He is a calm observer, standing in the sky of the city overlooking all living beings, the mirror is as sharp as a scalpel, reflecting a strong spirit of critical reality. (review of contemporary literary world) the overall image of Taipei in Yang Dechang's films echoes the urban meaning of Taipei that the government tries to shape. His creation is not manipulated by the mainstream meaning, but presents all aspects of urban life objectively and analytically. There is almost no assumed replacement relationship between Taipei in his works and the urban space in real life. He seldom deals with the urban space by "borrowing", but by restoring the attributes of the background space in the real space to arouse the audience's identity. (review of contemporary film) Yang Dechang has always truthfully recorded his penetrating observation, keen thinking and merciless criticism of life and social reality with film. Although he attaches the most importance to the ideological nature of film, he also has a high degree of consciousness of film form, language and artistic skills, and dares to experiment and innovate. He reveals a kind of modern surplus logic through images, and the extraordinary insight and contradiction shown in his films is undoubtedly an important symptom in the development of capitalism. Through the Intertextuality between film and society, he reproduces the development and changes of different classes in Taipei's modernization. He constructed his own modernity with images, whose typical significance is not to provide some answers, but to show all kinds of unavoidable logical paradoxes. In fact, his film is a starting point rather than an end point of thinking, which stimulates everyone's imagination of future social change. (review of Journal of Nanjing Normal University (SOCIAL SCIENCE EDITION) and Journal of Mianyang Normal University) Yang Dechang is a director who is good at using western film theory and combining its Oriental film aesthetics. He used a very complex film language, and raised the whole Chinese language from a simple, straight-line narrative way to a very modern, non-linear film structure. His films have a strong color of rational speculation. He likes to criticize the society morally, so he always tries to use the most real way to show the distorted side of human nature in modern society. The films directed by him are extremely calm and rational in expression. He has profound ability in dismantling and reshaping film language. He uses unique audio-visual means to turn the expression of artistic practice into a sober and complex understanding of social change. The unique narrative discourse space he used in the film comes down in one continuous line with his calm and rational artistic creation style, and the large-scale use of fixed static long-term focus lens cooperates with each other to form the calm temperament of his film, conveying a kind of emotional experience similar to indifference. (comments on Jiannan Literature (classic reading) and Drama House)