Zhang Yimou (1950– )

Chinese film director and screenwriter. He uses sumptuous colours as imagery to underpin the storyline. Many of his films deal with the social and sexual pressures on women in Chinese history; they include Hong Gaoliang/Red Sorghum (1988), Du Hong Denglong Gao Gao Gua/Raise the Red Lantern (1991), and Qiuju da Guansi/The Story of Qiu Ju (1992).

The foremost member of the ‘fifth generation’ of film-makers that graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in the early 1980s, Zhang has spearheaded renewed international interest in Chinese film-making. He worked as the cinematographer on Chen Kaige's Yellow Earth and The Big Parade before making Red Sorghum. His other films include Daihao ‘Meizhoubao’/Codename ‘Cougar’ (1989), Judou/Ju Dou (1990), and Shi mian mai fu/House of Flying Daggers (2004).