Born on November 6, 1947 in Shanghai, China, Edward Yang has become one of the most talented international filmmakers of his generation. Along with Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Tsai Ming-Liang, Yang ranks among the leading artists of the Taiwanese New Wave, and one of the world's most brilliant auteurs. Growing up in Taipei, Taiwan, he was very interested in Japanese Manga/Comic Books, which led to the writing of his own screenplays. After studying engineering in Taiwan, he enrolled in the Electrical Engineering program at The University of Florida, receiving his Masters degree in 1974 while doing work with The Center for Informatics Research. Yang did not pursue a PhD and instead attended USC Film School briefly, but dropped out after feeling disenchanted by the program's commerce-and-business focus and his own misgivings of pursuing a Film Career. Upon working in Seattle with microcomputers and Defense software, an encounter with a piece by Werner Herzog (Aguirre, Wrath of God) gave him inspiration to observe classics in world cinema and reignited his interest in Film. He eventually wrote the script and served as a production aide on the Hong Kong TV movie, The Winter of 1905 (1981). Although he returned to Taiwan to direct a number of television shows, his break came in 1982 with the direction and writing of the film short, Desires (1982), in the seminal Taiwanese New Wave collaboration In Our Time(1982). While Hou Hsiao-Hsien's movies dealt primarily with history or Taiwan's countryside, Yang created films analyzing and revealing the many themes of city and urban life. His first major piece was That Day On The Beach (1983), a modernist narrative reflecting on couples and family. He followed with the urban films Taipei Story (1984), a reflection on urban-Taiwan through a couple - where he cast fellow auteur Hou Hsiao Hsien as the lead - and The Terrorizer (1986), a complex multi-narrative tale. In Yang's brilliant A Brighter Summer Day (1991), a sprawling examination of teen gangs, societal clashes, the influence of American pop-culture and youth, his first authentic masterpiece was crafted. He has followed with the satires A Confucian Confusion (1995), and Mahjong (1996), films that looked at the struggle between the modern and the traditional, the relationship between business and art, and how capitalistic greed may corrupt, influence, or effect art. It is, however, his most recent film, Yi Yi (2000), that is considered his magnum opus, an epic story about the Jian family seen through their different perspectives. The three-hour masterwork begins with a wedding, ends with a funeral, and examines all areas of human life in a variety of interesting, artistic ways. He has also collaborated with fellow auteur, novelist, and screenwriter Nien-Jen Wu on the piece, casting him as one of the leads, NJ. Yang's filmmaking style looks at the uncertain future of modernizing Taiwan in an enlightening manner, and his vision is one of the most original operating in world cinema today.
Coordinates | 44°06′16″N39°04′38″N |
---|---|
name | Edward Yang |
tradchinesename | 楊德昌 |
simpchinesename | 杨德昌 |
pinyinchinesename | Yáng Déchāng |
birth date | November 06, 1947 |
birth place | Shanghai, China |
ancestry | Meixian, Guangdong |
death date | June 29, 2007 |
death place | Los Angeles, California |
spouse | Tsai Chin (1985-1995)Kaili Peng |
goldenhorseawards | Best Film1986 ''The Terrorizers''1991 ''A Brighter Summer Day''Best Original Screenplay1994 ''A Confucian Confusion'' |
awards | Best Director Award (Cannes Film Festival)2000 ''Yi Yi'' }} |
Edward Yang (; November 6, 1947 – June 29, 2007), along with Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Tsai Ming Liang, was one of the leading filmmakers of the Taiwanese New Wave and Taiwanese Cinema. He won the Best Director Award at Cannes for his 2000 film ''Yi Yi'' ("A One and a Two").
While working in Seattle, Yang came across the Werner Herzog film ''Aguirre, the Wrath of God'' (1972). This encounter rekindled Yang's passion for film and introduced him to a wide range of classics in world and European cinema. Yang was particularly inspired by the films of Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni (Antonioni's influence has shown up in some of Yang's later works). He married Taiwanese pop-singer and music legend Tsai Chin in May 1985. They divorced in August 1995, and he subsequently married pianist Kai-Li Peng.
Yang then followed that short with several of his major works. While his contemporary Hou Hsiao-Hsien focused more on the countryside, Yang was a poet of the city, analyzing the environment and relationships of urban Taiwan in nearly all his films. His first piece, ''That Day, on the Beach'' (1983), was a fractured modernist narrative reflecting on couples and families that spliced time-lines. He followed with ''Taipei Story'' (1985), where he casted fellow auteur Hou Hsiao-Hsien as the lead, a former Little-League baseball star trying to find his way in Taipei, and ''The Terrorizers'' (1986), a complex multi-narrrative urban thriller that reflected on city life and that contained the crime elements and alienation themes of an Antonioni film, that won a Silver Leopard at The Locarno International Film Festival.
Yang then followed with ''A Brighter Summer Day'' (1991), a sprawling examination of youth-teen gangs, 1949 Taiwanese societal developments, and American pop-culture (the title was taken from an Elvis refrain); the film was considered by many critics to be a masterpiece. For ''A Brighter Summer Day,'' Yang won the FIPRESCI Prize at The Tokyo International Film Festival, and a Golden Horse award for Best Film. Yang then followed with the satires ''A Confucian Confusion'' (1994) (a multi-character comedy set in urban Taiwan), which garnered a Golden Horse Award for Best Screenplay Originally Written for The Screen, and ''Mahjong'' (1996) (a sharp, incisive reflection of modern urban-Taiwan seen through foreign eyes, which also starred several foreign actors), which won The Alfred Bauer Award at The Berlin International Film Festival and garnered Yang a "Best Asian Director" Award at The Singapore International Film Festival. However, Yang was most likely known for his film, ''Yi Yi'' (2000) - it was for this film that he received the Best Director at Cannes in 2000, among other notable film awards. ''Yi Yi'' was an epic story about the Jian family seen through three different perspectives: the father NJ (Nien-Jen Wu), the son Yang-Yang (Jonathan Chang), and the daughter, Ting-Ting (Kelly Lee). The three-hour piece started with a wedding, concluded with a funeral, and contemplated all areas of human life in-between with profound humor, beauty and tragedy.
At the 2007 Pusan International Film Festival, he won an award for Asian Filmmaker of the Year.
Also, Yang always set his works in the cities of Taiwan. As a result, Yang's films - especially ''A Confucian Confusion,'' ''Taipei Story,'' ''Mahjong'' and ''The Terrorizers,'' are commentaries on Taiwanese urban life and insightful explorations of Taiwanese urban society.
He has also collaborated with many of his fellow Taiwanese filmmakers in his films: for instance, in ''Yi Yi'' he casted as the lead well-known auteur, novelist, and screenwriter Nien-Jen Wu, director of the award-winning ''Duo Sang'', or ''A Borrowed Life'', which Martin Scorsese has cited as one of his favorite works and one of the most influential films of the 90s. He also cast fellow filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien as the lead in his 1985 film, ''Taipei Story''. Yang also taught Theatre and Film classes at the Taipei National University of the Arts. Several of his students showed up in his films as actors/actresses.
He died on June 29, 2007, at his home in Beverly Hills, as a result of complications from a seven-year struggle with colon cancer. He is survived by his wife, concert pianist Kaili Peng, and son Sean.
Category:1947 births Category:2007 deaths Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:American people of Taiwanese descent Category:Chinese film directors Category:Deaths from colorectal cancer Category:Taiwanese Hakka people Category:Taiwanese film directors Category:University of Florida alumni Category:People from Shanghai
de:Edward Yang el:Έντουαρντ Γιανγκ fr:Edward Yang it:Edward Yang ja:エドワード・ヤン no:Edward Yang zh:楊德昌This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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