Directors and Actors

Just the other day, I happened to read about some famous Chinese movie directors who also acts in movies. Top on  the list must be Zhang Yimou. After studying cinematography at Beijing Film Academy, he worked as a cinematographer and then played his first leading role in the  film Old Well. The 1987 film won the 8th Golden Rooster awards for Best Picture, Director, Leading Male Actor, and Supporting Female Actor and at the Tokyo International Film Festival, it bagged the Best Feature Film and Leading Male Actor awards . Feng Xiaogang who directed the 2010 disaster drama Aftershock, also won the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor for the movie Mr. Six. Chen Kaige who directed Farewell My Concubine appeared in Bertolucci's The Last Emperor and two other famous directors from Mainland China and Hong Kong respectively, Jia Zhangke and Tsui Hark acts too. Jia Zhangke who won Venice Film Festival's top award Golden Lion for Still Life appeared in several movies since 2002 and Tsui Hark who was born in Vietnam acted in all the three Aces Go Places movies, two of which he directed. Left out of the list were the late Lo Wei who always appeared as cameos in his own movies and the late Gao Baoshu who acted in over 100 movies and directed Lily Ho in a Shaw movie, Lady With a Sword. Then, of course, there is the very much alive  and still active Taiwanese Sylvia Chang Ai Jia who has acted since 18 and directed so many beautiful movies that one just loses count.