Cai Chusheng

Cai Chusheng

Cai Chusheng ( Chinese  蔡楚生 , Pinyin Cài Chǔshēng ; born January 12, 1906 in Shanghai , † July 15, 1968 ) was a Chinese film director. Before the international successes of the fifth generation of Chinese directors since the mid-1980s, he was one of the most well-known Chinese filmmakers in the West.

Life

Cai was born into a Cantonese family. Since he was twelve he had to work, including as a salesman and banker apprentice. In 1927 he found employment in a small Shanghai film studio. He later met Zheng Zhengqiu and was his assistant director at the Mingxing film company from 1929 to 1931 .

In 1931, Cai joined the newly formed Lianhua Company and made his directorial debut the following year with the films Spring in the South and Pink Dream . His next film Dawn Over the Metropolis (1933) dealt with class conflict, social injustice and corruption; Cai Chusheng's socially critical approach became increasingly clear. With the Song of the Fishermen , composed in 1934 , Cai gained international fame. The film received an honorary award at the Moscow International Film Festival in 1935, the first major international award for a Chinese film . Cai Chusheng continued his style until the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937. His important works of this era include Xin nüxing (New Woman) (1934) - the last films with Ruan Lingyu before her suicide, Lost Children (1936) and The Life of Mr. Wang (1937).

When the war began, Cai went to Hong Kong where he made the patriotic films Orphan Island Paradise (1939) and Bountless Future (1940). After the city was captured by the Japanese in 1941, he moved to Chongqing and worked for the Nationalist Central Film Studio. In 1945 Cai returned to Shanghai.

In 1947 he shot there together with Zheng Junli The Waters of the Spring Current Flow East (Yi jiang chun shui xiang dong liu) . The film, one of the most important Chinese productions , was shown in sold-out movie theaters for over three months. Cai, who had grown closer to the communists, traveled to Hong Kong again in 1948 - this time to escape the nationalist police - and oversaw the production of Wang Weiyi's film Tears over the Pearl River in 1949 .

After the Communist seizure of power in 1949, Cai Chusheng mainly performed administrative work for the government. He was employed in the state film office and was temporarily its deputy chief. Cai was a member of the first three national congresses and chairman of the All China Filmmakers' Association. In 1956, Cai became a member of the Communist Party .

His filmmaking in the People's Republic of China is limited to a film from 1963 ( The Waves of the Southern Sea ) and the publication of a few essays on film directing. During the Cultural Revolution , Cai Chusheng was persecuted and died in 1968.

Web links

• Cai Chusheng in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Cai Chusheng - Restless explorer of cinematography
• to Xin nüxing (with photo by Cai Chusheng)

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Cai is the family name here, Chusheng is the first name.