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Wu Nien-jen is a Actor, Scriptwriter and Producer Taiwanais born on 5 august 1952

Wu Nien-jen

Wu Nien-jen
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Birth name 吳念真
Nationality Taiwan
Birth 5 august 1952 (71 years)

Wu Nien-jen (, birth name: Wú Wēnqīn 吳文欽; born August 5, 1952 in Ruifang, Taipei County (now New Taipei City), Taiwan) is a scriptwriter, director, and author from Taiwan. He is one of the most prolific and highly regarded scriptwriters in the country and a leading member of the New Taiwanese Cinema, although he has also acted in a number of films. He starred in Edward Yang's 2000 film Yi Yi. Wu is a well-known supporter of the Democratic Progressive Party and has filmed commercials for the party.

Biography

Wu was born into a coal miner's family. He started writing short stories for newspapers in 1975, when he was still an accounting major in college. After penning his first screenplay in 1978, Wu entered Central Motion Picture Corporation as a creative supervisor and worked with several leading Taiwanese New Wave directors such as Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang. Wu has since wrote more than 70 screenplays that were made into films, and has become one of the leading artists of the Taiwanese Cinema of the 1980s. Wu has also set the record for winning the most Golden Horse Awards to date (Taiwan's Film Awards), including a collaboration with the internationally acclaimed Hong Kong director Anne Hui on her film Song of Exile, a.k.a. Ketu Qiuhen (1990). His novels and screenplays have also made him one of Taiwan's best-selling authors.

Wu made his directorial debut in 1994 with A Borrowed Life (1994), aka Tò-sàng (多桑). The award-winning movie commemorates Wu's Japanese-educated, hard-working coal-miner father. The film won the Grand Prize at The Torino Film Festival in Italy, and Best Actor and The International Critics Award in The Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece. Martin Scorsese also has cited Tò-sàng as one of his favorite films, and picked the film as one of the best films of the 1990s. In 1996, Wu wrote and directed his second film Buddha Bless America, a.k.a. 太平天國 Taiping Tianguo (1996), a political satire set in the 1960s. Besides directing and writing, Wu appears in film cameos from time to time. However, it was not until he acted in several beer and food product commercials that his true acting talent was discovered. He was cast as the lead ("NJ") in Edward Yang's film, Yi Yi (2000), which was critically acclaimed and won several international awards (including Best Director for Yang at Cannes). Currently, Wu runs his own production company Wu's Productions and actively writes, directs, produces and performs in commercials and television programs. He is an artist of many versatile talents, being a published novelist, author, writer and well-respected Taiwanese filmmaker.

Usually with

Source : Wikidata

Filmography of Wu Nien-jen (22 films)

Display filmography as list

Actor

Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above, 1h33
Origin Taiwan
Genres Documentary
Actors Wu Nien-jen
Roles Narrator
Rating78% 3.9267353.9267353.9267353.9267353.926735
Zone Pro Site: The Moveable Feast, 2h24
Origin Taiwan
Genres Drama, Comedy
Actors Wu Nien-jen, Rhydian Vaughan
Roles Master Silly Mortal
Rating64% 3.243383.243383.243383.243383.24338
Island Etude
Genres Drama
Themes Transport films, Road movies
Actors Wu Nien-jen
Roles Tour Bus Driver
Rating70% 3.5396053.5396053.5396053.5396053.539605
Yi Yi
Yi Yi (2000)
, 2h53
Directed by Edward Yang (楊德昌)
Origin Taiwan
Genres Drama, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about children, Films about families
Actors Wu Nien-jen, Elaine Jin, Issei Ogata, Kenjiro Tsuda, Edward Yang (楊德昌), Cheryl Yang (楊謹華)
Roles N.J.
Rating80% 4.0476154.0476154.0476154.0476154.047615
Yi Yi is an epic story about the Taipei Jian family seen through three perspectives: the middle-age father NJ (Nien-Jen Wu), the young son Yang-Yang (Jonathan Chang), and the teenage daughter, Ting-Ting (Kelly Lee). The three-hour piece starts with a wedding, concludes with a funeral, and contemplates areas of human life in between.
Mahjong
Mahjong (1996)
, 2h1
Directed by Edward Yang (楊德昌)
Origin Taiwan
Genres Drama, Comedy, Crime
Actors Chang Chen, Virginie Ledoyen, Kaizo Hayashi, Wu Nien-jen, Elaine Jin, Carrie Ng
Roles Gangster in Black Suit
Rating73% 3.6935353.6935353.6935353.6935353.693535
Marthe, une adolescente française, débarque à Taipei afin de retrouver un homme plus âgé avec qui elle a eu une relation à Londres. Sans argent, sans connaissance sur la ville, elle est rapidement prise en charge par un groupe de jeunes Taïwanais désœuvrés, qui comptent bien profiter d'elle.
A City of Sadness, 2h37
Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien
Origin Hong kong
Genres Drama, Historical
Actors Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Jack Kao, Wu Nien-jen
Roles Mr. Wu
Rating77% 3.8926853.8926853.8926853.8926853.892685
The film depicts the Lin family's experiences during the February 28 Incident. The eldest brother Wen-heung (Sung Young Chen) is murdered by a Shanghai mafia boss, the middle brother Wen-leung (Jack Kao) suffers a traumatic brain injury in a KMT jailhouse, and the youngest brother Wen-ching (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), who is both deaf and mute, hopes to flee to the mountains with his friend to fight in the anti-KMT resistance movement. By the end of the film even the photographer Wen-ching has been arrested by the authorities, leaving only his wife to tell the story of the family's destruction.
Daughter of the Nile, 1h31
Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien
Origin Taiwan
Genres Drama, Crime
Actors Jack Kao, Yonfan, Wu Nien-jen
Roles Tutor
Rating69% 3.492833.492833.492833.492833.49283
Lin Hsiao-yang (Lin Yang), tries to keep her family together while working as a waitress at Kentucky Fried Chicken and going to night school. Her mother and older brother are dead. Her father (Fu Sheng Tsui) works out of town. It's up to Lin Hsiao-yang to take care of her pre-teen sister, who has already begun to steal, and a brother (Jack Kao) who is a burglar and gang member.
Taipei Story, 1h50
Directed by Edward Yang (楊德昌)
Origin Taiwan
Genres Drama, Action
Actors Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Chin, Tsai Chin, Wu Nien-jen, Cynthia Khan
Roles Chen
Rating75% 3.7945953.7945953.7945953.7945953.794595
Taipei Story concerns a young woman (Tsai Chin) urgently seeking to navigate the maze of contemporary Taipei, and find a future. She hopes that her boyfriend Lung (Hou Hsiao-hsien) is the key to the future, but Lung is stuck in a past that combines baseball and traditional loyalty that leads him to squander his nest egg bailing her father out of financial trouble.
That Day, on the Beach, 2h39
Directed by Edward Yang (楊德昌)
Origin Taiwan
Genres Drama
Actors Sylvia Chang, Terry Hu, Wu Nien-jen, Hou Hsiao-hsien
Roles Piano Tuner
Rating75% 3.7927953.7927953.7927953.7927953.792795
Deux amies qui ne se sont pas vues depuis de nombreuses années se retrouvent à Taipei. L'une qui est devenue une pianiste de renom rentre d'Europe, l'autre démarre une nouvelle affaire.

Scriptwriter

Forever Friends, 1h23
Origin Taiwan
Genres War, Comedy
Actors Takeshi Kaneshiro, Jimmy Lin
Rating65% 3.254913.254913.254913.254913.25491
In the mid 1990s with rumor of Mainland China declaring war on Taiwan, both sides tense up afraid of war breaking out. Taiwan in order to show their military power against Mainland gives all of their troops a strict intense war training in order to prepare for war.
Super Citizen Ko, 1h44
Directed by Wan Jen
Origin Taiwan
Genres Drama
Rating70% 3.5232653.5232653.5232653.5232653.523265
The Puppetmaster, 2h22
Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien
Origin Taiwan
Genres Drama, War, Biography
Actors Vicky Wei
Roles Writer
Rating70% 3.5414853.5414853.5414853.5414853.541485
It tells the story of Li Tian-lu who becomes a master puppeteer but is faced with demands to turn his skills to propaganda during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan in World War II. This film is the second in Hou's trilogy of historical films that include A City of Sadness (1989) and Good Men, Good Women (1995).
Zodiac Killers, 1h37
Directed by Ann Hui
Origin Hong kong
Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime, Romance, Martial arts
Themes Seafaring films, Sports films, Transport films, Martial arts films, Yakuza films, Gangster films
Actors Andy Lau, Cherie Chung, Jun'ichi Ishida, Kyōko Kishida
Roles Writer
Rating54% 2.7163652.7163652.7163652.7163652.716365
Ben, un étudiant hongkongais à Tokyo rencontre Tieh-Lan, une jeune chinoise qui travaille comme hotesse dans un bar de Shinjuku. Il se trouve bientôt confronté au monde des yakuzas.
Song of the Exile, 1h40
Directed by Ann Hui
Origin Hong kong
Genres Drama, Action
Actors Maggie Cheung, Tien Feng
Roles Writer
Rating73% 3.6820753.6820753.6820753.6820753.682075
In 1973, 26-year-old Cheung Hueyin is abroad in London studying media. Upon her graduation, she learns that she, unlike her Caucasian roommates, has been rejected the chance for a job interview by the BBC. Receiving a letter from her mother, she returns to Hong Kong to attend her younger sister's wedding. The relationship between Hueyin and mother Aiko, who is Japanese, has been strained since childhood, partly a result of Aiko's nationality and the cultural problems she encountered living in Hong Kong. From many flashbacks, we see it was Hueyin's paternal grandparents who did much of the early child-rearing, however, they would often overstep boundaries, resulting in family dysfunction.
A City of Sadness, 2h37
Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien
Origin Hong kong
Genres Drama, Historical
Actors Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Jack Kao, Wu Nien-jen
Roles Writer
Rating77% 3.8926853.8926853.8926853.8926853.892685
The film depicts the Lin family's experiences during the February 28 Incident. The eldest brother Wen-heung (Sung Young Chen) is murdered by a Shanghai mafia boss, the middle brother Wen-leung (Jack Kao) suffers a traumatic brain injury in a KMT jailhouse, and the youngest brother Wen-ching (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), who is both deaf and mute, hopes to flee to the mountains with his friend to fight in the anti-KMT resistance movement. By the end of the film even the photographer Wen-ching has been arrested by the authorities, leaving only his wife to tell the story of the family's destruction.