Chen Kun-hou

Chen Kun-hou (陳坤厚) is a veteran cinematographer, who started his career in the 1960s. He won his first best cinematography award at Golden Horse Awards in 1978 for He Never Gives Up (汪洋中的一條船), directed by Lee Hsing (李行). In the early 1980s he began to direct his own films in collaboration with Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢). After series of urban comedies, he made quite a few representative films of the Taiwan New Cinema, such as Growing Up (小畢的故事; 1983), which won him the best director award at the Golden Horse Awards, His Matramony (結婚; 1985), which won him the second best cinematography award at Golden Horse Awards, and My Favorite Season (最想念的季節; 1985), and Osmanthus Alley (桂花巷; 1987). He is awarded for his life achievement in Taiwan cinema at the 60th Golden Horse Awards in 2023.

Career
Chen Kun-hou was born in Taichung in 1939. He was enrolled in Central Motion Picture Corporation (CMPC; 中央電影公司) in 1962 to learn cinematographer. His uncle Lai Cheng-ying (賴成英) was an established cinematographer there at CMPC already. He started as an apprentice and was promoted to cinematographer in 1971. His first film as a cinematographer is Story of Mother (母親三十歲; 1973), in which his cinematography adds a tragic-realistic tone this highly accalimed film by Sung Cun-shou’s (宋存壽). He worked with Lee Hsing for many of his films in the late 1970s, including He Never Gives Up, Good Morning Taipei (早安台北; 1979), The Story of A Small Town (小城故事; 1979), and My Native Land (原鄉人; 1980). He won his first best cinematography award at Golden Horse Awards for his cinematography in He Never Gives Up in 1978.

Starting from 1979, Chen Kun-hou and Hou Hsiao-hsien teamed up to produce six films in the style of romantic urban comedy by taking turns to be the director, four of which directed by Chen are Spring in Autumn (天涼好個秋; 1980), Lover on the Wave (我踏浪而來; 1980), Longing (蹦蹦一串心; 1981), and Six Is Company (俏如彩蝶飛飛飛; 1982) and the other two directed by Hou are Cute Girl (就是溜溜的她; 1980) and Cheerful Wind (風兒踢踏踩; 1982). These films copied the successful formula of Qiong Yao’s literary romantic films to cast popular stars, such as Chin Han (秦漢), Kenny Bee (鍾鎮濤), Joan Lin (林鳳嬌), Feng Fei-fei (鳳飛飛), and Shen Yan (沈雁), to present light-hearted urban romance accompanied by namesake theme songs and other interlude songs. Two of the six films were arranged to premiere in theaters during the Chinese new year holidays, Cute Girl and Cheerful Wind, both project the new year blessing of “May you be happy and prosperous” (恭喜發財) at the end of the film on the screen.

In 1982, Chen Kun-hou, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Hsu Shu-zhen (許淑真), and Chang Hua-kun (張華坤) formed Evergreen Film Company (萬年青影業公司). The company’s first film Growing Up, a collaboration with CMPC and directed by Chen, was a big success at the box office (NT$6,309,066 in Taipei City), and it won the best feature film, best director, and best script at the Golden Horse Awards in 1983. The company also produced The Boys from Fengkuei (風櫃來的人; 1983), directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien with Chen as the cinematographer. The film was Hou’s important first film with artistic consciousness of film form but it was also the last film he and Chen collaborated on.

After Chen Kun-hou parted ways with Hou Hsiao-hsien, he was productive as a key director of the Taiwan New Cinema and made six films, mostly adaptations of literary works, from 1984 to 1988, including Out of The Blue (小爸爸的天空; 1984), His Matrimony, My Favorite Season, Drifters (流浪少年路; 1986), Osmanthus Alley, My Mother's Teahouse (春秋茶室; 1988). He won another best cinematography award at the Golden Horse Awards in 1985 for His Matrimony.

Starting from 1989, Chen Kun-hou began to be involved in TV productions, especially documentaries, such as Feiyue Qingchun (飛越青春; 1992) and The Story of Confucius (孔子的故事; 1993). He later went to China and help Chow Ling-Gong (周令剛) establish Fee Tang Stellar Movie-Making Base (飛騰影視城; now Mega Jincheng Movie-Making Base) at Beijing. He directed three more feature films from 2008 to 2012, two of them are made in China: Twin Daggers (雙鏢; 2008) and The Triangle Land (三角地/幸福三角地; 2012) and one Taiwan production: Colorful Mind (新魯冰花：孩子的天空; 2009), a remake of The Dull-Ice Flower (魯冰花; 1989), a popular film based on the namesake novel by Chung Chao-cheng (鍾肇政).