Gu Changwei

Known for Camera

12/12/1957(Age 68)

Xi'an, Shanxi Province, China

Biography

Gu Changwei (顾长卫) is a Chinese cinematographer and director born in Xi'an on December 12, 1957. He has loved painting since childhood and dreamed of becoming a painter. In 1978, he was admitted to the Photography Department of Beijing Film Academy. After graduating in 1982, he worked as a photography assistant in Xi'an Film Studio.

Known For (7 credits)

The 40th Anniversary of Chinese Film Since China's Reform and Opening-Up

2018

Documentary about China's film industry and the monumental changes in the past 40 years from beginning with propaganda films to the "5th generation" filmmakers and beyond, who embraced art and commercial films to make China the second largest box office market in the world after Hollywood.

4.8

Movie

Fate Express

2018

A loser deep in debt tries to use his girlfriend to seduce a rich boss for money.

Movie

Nice to Meet You

2018

Love stories of students in a re-preparing school for college entrance exams.

7.0

Movie

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

2012

An account of the many tribulations that Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, known for his subversive art and political activism, endured between 2008 and 2011, from his rise to world fame via the Internet to his highly publicized arrest due to his frequent and daring confrontations with the Chinese authorities.

6.0

Movie

Together

2010

Zhao Liang’s film portrays AIDS sufferers of both genders; they are all people with very different biographies. As if it wasn’t bad enough being infected by HIV, their suffering is compounded by the fact that in the People’s Republic of China the disease is hushed up and people living with AIDS are ostracised. In China, the public at large knows very little about the disease and most people associate the virus with promiscuity. This fear of discrimination forces most patients to hide the fact that they are positive. The AIDS sufferers in Zhao Liang’s film were willing to share their experiences with him. The filmmaker was able to make contact with them via internet support groups; he also visited children with Aids at a ‘red ribbon’ school; but above all, he talked to AIDS sufferers during the making of Gu Changwei’s film. It is their presence which lends Changwei’s film its particular authenticity.

5.0

Movie

Crazy English

1999

A documentary about Li Yang, who tries to teach large numbers of Chinese to speak English, using unusual methods. He holds motivational rallies, where he gets the crowd to shout out English phrases, in order to instill confidence, and tells them not to be afraid of losing face. His goal is to increase Chinese trade, and export Chinese culture, to the main world markets: North America, Japan, and Europe. After the rally, they can continue their English lessons using his taped courses.

7.0

Movie

King of the Children

1987

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.