Chen Kaige

Born in 1952 in Bejing, after the cultural revolution Chen – son of a famous Director – was sent to the country to be “re-educated” to work on the land. Later he was enrolled in the regional army. In 1978 Chen was admitted to the newly re-opened Cinema Academy in Bejing. Chen and his contemporaries became known as “Directors of the Fifth Generation” and were influenced by European rather than American cinema. YELLOW EARTH (HUANG TU DI, 1984), his first film, was welcomed as the beginning of a new era in Chinese cinema. His subsequent films are THE BIG PARADE (DA YUE BING, 1986), KING OF THE CHILDREN (HAI ZI WANG, 1987), LIFE ON A STRING (BIAN ZOU BIAN CHANG, 1991), FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE (BA WANG BIE JI, 1993, for which he was awarded the Golden Palm at Cannes in 1993), TEMPTRESS MOON (FENG YUE, 1996), THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN (JING KE CI QIN WANG, 1999), KILLING ME SOFTLY (2002) and TOGETHER (2002).

Director’s statement

“TOGETHER is an educational story that tells of a boy, his father and their search for success in the brutally competitive world of classical music. But a more attentive examination of the film shows how the Chinese people are changing on social, economic and spiritual levels”.