Sun Yu (director)
| Sun Yu | |
|---|---|
| Chinese name | 孫瑜 (Traditional) |
| Chinese name | 孙瑜 (Simplified) |
| Pinyin | Sūn Yú (Mandarin) |
| Born | March 21, 1900 Chongqing, China |
| Died | July 11, 1990 (aged 90) Shanghai, China |
| Occupation | Film director |
Sun Yu (simplified Chinese: 孙瑜; traditional Chinese: 孫瑜; pinyin: Sūn Yú) (March 21, 1900 – July 11, 1990) was a major leftist film director active in the 1930s in Shanghai. One of the core directors of the Lianhua Film Company, Sun Yu made a name for himself with a series of socially conscious dramas in the early to mid 1930s. With the war, Sun Yu made his way to the interior of the country, where he continued to make films glorifying the war effort against the Japanese.
His career took a turn for the worse upon his return to Shanghai in the late 1940s. In The Life of Wu Xun, Sun Yu's big-budget biographical picture of the titular Qing Dynasty educator, Sun attracted the wrath of Mao Zedong himself, who personally criticized the film in an essay. Though Sun never fully recovered from the episode, today, Sun Yu has emerged as one of the foremost filmmakers of China's golden age.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Sun Yu was born in the city of Chongqing and educated first at Tsinghua University in Beijing before continuing his education in drama at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Columbia University in the 1920s.[1]
Upon returning to China, Sun Yu directed his first film, A Romantic Swordsman, with the faltering Minxin Film Company.[2] Beginning in the 1930s, Sun Yu began a collaboration with the leftist film studio, Lianhua, where he became one of the core group of "socially conscious" directors along with Cai Chusheng, Fei Mu, and others.[2] While with Lianhua, Sun directed some of his most lasting works, including Wild Rose (1932), Loving Blood of the Volcano (1932), Daybreak (1933), Little Toys (1933), and The Big Road (1934).[2]
With the outbreak of the full-fledged war with Japan in 1937, Sun, like many of his colleagues, fled to the interior to the Nationalist wartime capital of Chongqing where he directed several propaganda films praising the war effort.[2]
Upon the end of the war, Sun Yu began preparing for his most important production yet, a biographical epic of the Qing Dynasty education, Wu Xun. Sun's last major work, The Life of Wu Xun was made with the Kunlun Film Company and starred one of the top actors of the day, Zhao Dan, in the titular role. Shortly after its release, however, The Life of Wu Xun was personally denounced by Mao Zedong in a piece written for the People's Daily. The flurry of criticism that Mao's denunciation triggered was the "first major politico-ideological campaign" of the post-1949 revolution, and its effects were immediate.[3] As a result, Sun Yu's reputation was soon in ruins, and his career effectively stalled.[2] Sun Yu would go on to direct only a handful of titles over the next twenty years. In 1985, thirty-five years after the release of The Life of Wuxun, members of the Chinese politburo finally admitted that Mao's campaign, and the criticisms that it instigated against the film, was essentially baseless.[3]
Sun Yu died in Shanghai in 1990.
[edit] Selected filmography
| Year | English Title | Chinese Title | Studio | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1928 | A Romantic Swordsman | 鱼叉怪侠 | Minxin Film Company | Directorial debut |
| 1930 | Spring Dream of an Old Capital | 故都春梦 | Lianhua Film Company | |
| 1930 | Wild Flowers | 野草閒花 | Lianhua | Also known as Wild Flowers by the Road |
| 1932 | Wild Rose | 野玫瑰 | Lianhua | |
| 1932 | Facing the National Crisis | 共赴国难 | Lianhua | Co-directed with Cai Chusheng, Shi Dongshan, and Wang Cilong |
| 1932 | Loving Blood of the Volcano | 火山情血 | Lianhua | Also known as Volcano in the Blood |
| 1933 | Daybreak | 天明 | Lianhua | |
| 1933 | Little Toys | 小玩意 | Lianhua | |
| 1934 | Queen of Sports | 体育皇后 | Lianhua | |
| 1935 | The Big Road | 大路 | Lianhua | |
| 1937 | Madman's Rhapsody | 疯人狂想曲 | Lianhua | Segment of an anthology film, Symphony of Lianhua |
| 1950 | The Life of Wu Xun | 武训传 | Kunlun Film Company | |
| 1955 | Song Jingshi | 宋景诗 | Shanghai Film Studio | Co-directed with Zheng Junli |
| 1957 | Brave the Wind and Waves | 乘风破浪 | Shanghai | |
| 1958 | The Legend of Lu Ban | 鲁班的传说 | Shanghai |
[edit] Notes
- ^ Pickowicz, Paul G. (Jan. 1991), "The Theme of Spiritual Pollution in Chinese Films of the 1930s", Modern China 17 (1): 49
- ^ a b c d e Zhang, Yingjin & Xiao, Zhiwei. "Sun Yu" in Encyclopedia of Chinese Film. Taylor & Francis (1998), p. 324-25. ISBN 0-4151-5168-6.
- ^ a b He, Henry Yuhuai, Dictionary of Political Thought of the People's Republic of China. M.E. Sharpe (2001), p. 297. ISBN 0-7656-0569-4.
[edit] External links
- Sun Yu at the Internet Movie Database
- Sun Yu at the Chinese Movie Data base
- Sun Yu and National Cinema
- Biography
|
|||||||
