Jiang Wen

Jiang Wen (born 5 January 1963) is a Chinese actor, screenwriter, and director.

In 1973 he attended Beijing No. 72 Middle School, where he studied alongside Ying Da.

In 1980, he entered China's foremost acting school, the Central Academy of Drama, graduating in 1984.

After graduation, he was assigned to China Youth Art Institute as an actor.

That same year, he started acting both on the stage (with the China Youth Theater) and in films.

Jiang's debut role was in the film The Last Empress, where he portrayed Puyi.

He then starred in Hibiscus Town directed by Xie Jin; his role as an intellectual revolutionary earned him the Best Actor Award at the Hundred Flowers Awards.

Jiang once again paired with Hibiscus Town co-star in the film Chun Tao directed by Ling Zifeng.

Jiang was cast in Zhang Yimou's debut film Red Sorghum.

Jiang also featured in the France-Chinese film Tears of the Bridal Sedan, and his first commercial film The Trial.

Jiang is also well known internationally as an actor, having starred with Gong Li in Zhang Yimou's debut film Red Sorghum (1986), and more recently as Baze Malbus in the Star Wars film Rogue One (2016).

He is the older brother of fellow actor Jiang Wu.

Born in Tangshan, Hebei, in a family of military personnel, Jiang relocated to Beijing at the age of ten.

As a director, he is sometimes grouped with the "Sixth Generation" that emerged in the 1990s.

In addition to these he also starred in Black Snow (1990), Li Lianying: The Imperial Eunuch (1991), The Emperor's Shadow (1996), and The Soong Sisters (1997).

The film was China's submission to the 91st Academy Awards.

Jiang is set to return to the small screen in upcoming historical drama Cao Cao.

Jiang Wen's father is Jiang Hongqi, a veteran of the Korean War.

After appearing in many television series and films, Jiang became known in China for his role in the 1992 television series A Native of Beijing in New York, based on the novel Beijinger in New York, which made him one of the most popular actors of his generation.

Jiang wrote and directed his first film in 1994, In the Heat of the Sun, adapted from a novel by Wang Shuo.

A tale set in the Cultural Revolution, it won for its young lead actor Xia Yu the Best Actor prize at the Venice Film Festival and garnered six Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan.

Apart from Red Sorghum, Jiang also collaborated with Zhang Yimou for the 1997 film Keep Cool.

In 2000, Jiang co-wrote and directed the black comedy film Devils on the Doorstep.

The film premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and clinched the Grand Prix but was subsequently banned in its home country; said to undermine the country because it "seriously distorts Chinese history".

Jiang himself was banned from making films for seven years.

Jiang starred in several films in the early 2000s; namely The Missing Gun, Green Tea, My Father and I, Warriors of Heaven and Earth, Jasmine Women and Letter from an Unknown Woman.

In 2001 he was a member of the jury at the 23rd Moscow International Film Festival.

Jiang has also acted in television series, such as Da Qing Fengyun (2006), in which he played Hong Taiji.

He also played notable historical figures, Mao Renfeng in the propaganda film The Founding of a Republic; and Cao Cao in the historical war film The Lost Bladesman.

Jiang returned with his fourth feature The Sun Also Rises in 2007; a fantasy realism film which contains a polyptych of interconnected stories in different time-zones; the film received positive reviews from critics but bombed at the box office.

He then collaborated with 10 other directors on the romance anthology film New York, I Love You.

Jiang's fifth feature, a Western-styled action comedy Let the Bullets Fly set a box office record by becoming the fastest Chinese-language film to break RMB100m mark ($15.15m) in Chinese cinemas; and received critical acclaim.

Described as taciturn and bookish, he played a minor role in his son's 2011 film, Let the Bullets Fly.

Jiang's mother Gao Yang — “a cheerful, extroverted woman” — worked as a piano teacher.

Jiang Wen is the eldest son in the family; in addition to his younger brother, Jiang Wu, he has a younger sister, Jiang Huan.

In 2013 he was named as a member of the jury at the 70th Venice International Film Festival.

In 2014, Jiang directed the action comedy film Gone with the Bullets, which screened at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival.

Jiang co-starred in the Star Wars anthology film Rogue One, released in December 2016.

In the film, he portrays Baze Malbus, a native of the moon of Jedha who is drawn into the war against the Galactic Empire.

In 2018, Jiang directed the Republican-era spy comedy Hidden Man.