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Wuershan

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Wuershan
Wuershan at the 2010 Hong Kong Asian Film Festival
Born (1972-06-10) June 10, 1972 (age 52)
Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese烏爾善
Simplified Chinese乌尔善
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinWūěrshàn

Wuershan (乌尔善) is a Chinese film director of Mongol descent, who was born in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia on June 10, 1972.

Wuershan's first feature film was Soap Opera (2004), for which he was awarded the FIPRESCI Award at the Pusan International Film Festival. He went on to direct blockbusters The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman (2010), Painted Skin: The Resurrection (2012), and Mojin: The Lost Legend (2015), for which he was awarded the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Director at the 33rd Hundred Flowers Awards. In 2019, he started on the production of the Fengshen Trilogy.

Early life

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Wuershan was born in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China, in 1972.[1][2]

At 16 he enrolled to a high school affiliated to China's Central Academy of Fine Arts, and in 1992 he was admitted to the oil painting department of the latter. However, he dropped out the following year, and in 1994 started studying directing at the Beijing Film Academy, graduating from the latter in 1998.[3] He started his career by making TV commercials,[1][3] becoming successful in the business.[3] He continued to work as a TV commercials director, video artist and avant-garde artist until his debut in movie industry with the 2004 film Soap Opera.[1][4]

Career

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Wuershan's film debut came with Soap Opera (2004). For this movie, he won the FIPRESCI Award at the Pusan International Film Festival in 2004.[1][4]

The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman

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On September 16, 2010, Wuershan's second feature film debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman premiered on September 16, 2010, at the Toronto International Film Festival in the Midnight Madness section marking the first time a film from China has been shown at this sidebar.[5][6] It received mixed reviews from critics.[7][8] The film was also screened at the Pusan Film Festival.[9] It was presented by Doug Liman at the festival.[10] It was released theatrically on 17 March 2011 in Southeast Asia, North America, Australia and New Zealand simultaneously.[11] Described as an avant-garde martial arts comedy,[3] the film is split into three stories titled "Desire", "Vengeance" and "Greed," and it follows the "journey of a mystical blade as it passes through the hands of three ambitious men."[12]

Painted Skin: The Resurrection

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Wuershan's third feature film, Painted Skin: The Resurrection, was released on June 28, 2012. The film, which has an 83% approval rating on aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes,[13] and is described as a "deliciously nutty love story,"[14] tells about Xiaowei, a malevolent fox spirit, who consumes men's hearts to preserve her beauty and is looking for a heart that must be freely given to her in order to become human, while lovesick Princess Jing, who wears a mask to conceal her scarred face, looks for true love. She winds up deciding to exchange her pure heart for the fox daemon's beauty.[14] With a total box office gross of $115.07 million,[15] the film became the highest grossing domestic film in China beating the previous record holder Let the Bullets Fly.[16]

Mojin: The Lost Legend

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His fourth feature film was Mojin: The Lost Legend, an action adventure fantasy thriller film based on the novel Ghost Blows Out the Light.[17] It was released on December 18, 2015.[18][19] The film won several awards, including Best Visual Effects at the Beijing College Student Film Festival and the Golden Horse Awards, and Wuershan was named Best Director at the 33rd Hundred Flowers Awards. The movie however received mixed reviews from western critics.[20] The film was a huge box-office success, grossing over US$278 million[21] from a budget of 37.[22]

Fengshen Trilogy

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In 2019, he began on the production on the Fengshen Trilogy. Sometimes dubbed as "China’s ‘Lord of the Rings’",[23] it is the "most ambitious and expensive production in Chinese history."[23][2] The production has a crew of over two thousands employees.[23] The movie is a retelling of Investiture of the Gods, a 16th-century Chinese novel and one of the major vernacular Chinese works in the gods-and-demons (shenmo) genre written during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644).[24]

The novel combines elements of history, folklore, mythology, legends and fantasy,[25] with a story set in the era of the decline of the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BC) and the rise of the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC). It tells about the downfall of King Zhou, the Shang Dynasty's last ruler. He becomes a tyrant after having been "bewitched by a fox spirit posing as his concubine." An epic battle "rages to defeat him, involving gods, demons and other supernatural beings."[23] Barrie M. Osborne, producer of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, was involved in the production.[23]

The first film of the trilogy Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms was released in July 20, 2023.

Filmography

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Director

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Producer

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Awards and nominations

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Year Award Category Project Result Ref.
2016 Hundred Flowers Awards Best Director Mojin: The Lost Legend Won [27]
2011 Golden Horse Awards Best New Director The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman Won [28]
2004 Pusan International Film Festival FIPRESCI Award Soap Opera Won [4]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Tong, Wang. "乌尔善执导《封神三部曲》蓄势待发". inews.nmgnews.com. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  2. ^ a b Grogan, Bryan. ""Jiang Ziya," "Ne Zha" and How Not to Make an Expanded Cinematic Universe". radiichina.com. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d "Wuershan Biography". IMDb. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  4. ^ a b c Yingjin Zhang (2012). A Companion to Chinese Cinema. Wiley. p. 253. ISBN 978-1-444-33029-8.
  5. ^ Elley, Derek (September 17, 2010). "The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman (刀見笑)". Film Business Asia. Archived from the original on February 22, 2011. Retrieved September 21, 2010.
  6. ^ "Toronto unleashes Butcher in madness". Film Business Asia. August 18, 2010. Archived from the original on August 20, 2010. Retrieved September 21, 2010.
  7. ^ Anderson, John (September 19, 2010). "The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman". Variety. Retrieved September 21, 2010.
  8. ^ Bilton, Chris (September 14, 2010). "The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman". Eye Weekly. Retrieved September 21, 2010.
  9. ^ "Fox to release Chinese martial arts film The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman". Asia Pacific Arts. February 23, 2011.
  10. ^ Fleming, Mike (August 26, 2010). "Doug Liman Carries Torch For China Film". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 21, 2010.
  11. ^ "《刀見笑》敲定春季檔上映 3月17日全球公映".
  12. ^ "The Butcher, the Chef, and the Swordsman". Fox International Productions. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  13. ^ "Painted Skin: The Resurrection". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 6, 2012.
  14. ^ a b Catsoulis, Jeanette. "The Butcher, the Chef, and the Swordsman". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  15. ^ "Mainland Box Office Chart for Week 31, 2012". EntGroup Consulting. Retrieved 2012-09-02.
  16. ^ Cremin, Stephen (July 24, 2012). "Resurrection takes China BO record". Film Business Asia. Archived from the original on July 30, 2012. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
  17. ^ "Movie giants to make blockbuster tomb raider story". China Internet Information Center. 2014-08-08. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  18. ^ "China releasing schedule revealed at seminar". Film Business Asia. 2015-04-10. Retrieved 2015-04-12.
  19. ^ "寻龙诀 (2015)". movie.douban.com (in Chinese). douban.com. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  20. ^ "Mojin – The Lost Legend (2015)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 19, 2015.
  21. ^ "BOX OFFICE DATA FOR TUESDAY, 9TH FEBRUARY 2016 (ESTIMATES AS OF 21:30 CST)". Box Office China. Retrieved February 9, 2016.
  22. ^ "Mojin: The Lost Legend (2015)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
  23. ^ a b c d e Davis, Rebecca. "Director Wuershan Wants to Make China's 'Lord of the Rings' With 'Fengshen Trilogy'". Variety. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  24. ^ Haase, Donald (2008). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales: A-F. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 340. ISBN 978-0-313-33442-9.
  25. ^ Chew, Katherine Liang (2002). Tales of the Teahouse Retold: Investiture of the Gods. Page XI. ISBN 0-595-65161-5.
  26. ^ "寻龙诀 (2015)". movie.douban.com (in Chinese). douban.com. Retrieved February 7, 2015.
  27. ^ "Winners revealed at Chinese famous film awards". China Radio International. 2016-09-25.[dead link]
  28. ^ "台北金馬影展 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival". www.goldenhorse.org.tw. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
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