Chen Kai Ge is a Chinese film director and a leading figure of the fifth generation of Chinese cinema. His films are known for their visuals and epic storytelling. Kai Ge won the Palme d'Or Award at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival and the International Federation of Film Critics Award in 1993.

Chen Kaige was born in Beijing, China, and grew up with fellow fifth-generation alumnus Tian Zhuang Zhuang as a childhood friend. During the Cultural Revolution, Kai Ge joined the Red Guards. His father, Chen Huai Ai, was a well-known director in his own time, and as a teenage member of the Red Guards, Kai Ge, like many other youths, denounced his own father - a fateful decision he eventually learned to regret.

This period of his life continues to influence much of his work today, notably in the unblinking depictions of the Cultural Revolution in "Farewell My Concubine" and in the father-son relationship in "Together". With the end of the Cultural Revolution, Kai Ge joined Beijing Film Academy in 1978, where he graduated in 1982 as part of the so-called Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers.

Upon graduating, Kai Ge was assigned to a studio in Guangxi along with his fellow graduate mate, Zhang Yi Mou. His first movie, "Yellow Earth" (1984), established itself as one of the most important works of Fifth-generation filmmaking. Although it was simple, its powerful visual imagery and revolutionary storytelling style marked a sea change in how films were seen and perceived in the People's Republic of China. "The Big Parade" (1986) and "King of the Children" (1987) expanded on his filming reputation. In 1987, he was awarded a fellowship by the Asian Cultural Council and served as a visiting scholar at the New York University Film School.

Early in 1989, he did further experimenting in a music video for the song "Do You Believe In Shame?" by Duran Duran. Later that year, he made "Life on a String", a highly esoteric movie that uses mythical allegory and lush scenery to tell the story of a blind san xian musician and his student. In the same year, he was a member of the jury at the 39th Berlin International Film Festival.

His most famous film, "Farewell My Concubine" (1993), was nominated for two Academy Awards and was the winner of the Palme d'Or Award at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival, which follows two Beijing Opera stars through decades of change in China during the 20th century.

In 2002, Kaige made his first, and to date only, English-language film, "Killing Me Softly".

In 2006, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 28th Moscow International Film Festival.

Kai Ge has also acted in several films, including Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor" (1987) and in his own movies "The Emperor and the Assassin "and "Together" (1999).

Kai Ge's first wife was Sun Jia Lin (孙加林), whom he met while working at the Beijing Film Factory between 1975 and 1978; they married in 1983. He later married Hong Huang, the daughter of Zhang Han Zhi, a diplomat who had worked as an English translator for Mao Ze Dong. She graduated from Vassar College in New York and is the current CEO of China Interactive Media Group.

In the early 1990s, after their divorce, Chen lived with Ni Ping, a female television personality. In 1996, Kaige married actress Chen Hong, with whom he has two children, Chen Yuang and the rising up-and-coming actor Chen Fei Yu.

Chen Kaige is a green card holder in the United States.

In 2024, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 14th Beijing International Film Festival.

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