Cheng Yu-Chieh

Cheng Yu-Chieh (born November 27, 1977) is a Taiwanese director, a screenwriter and an actor. His first feature film Do Over (一年之初) in 2006 won the top price in Taipei Film Festival and was invited to various international film festivals and gained Cheng international attention.

Besides being a screenwriter and director, Cheng is also known as an actor. In 2008 his portrayal of the police officer, Pan Shi-Yuan, in Wang Shau-Di's TV drama Police et vous (波麗士大人) was highly appreciated by the audience. Additionally, in 2009, he played Xu Fang-Guo in Chen Hui-Ling's TV drama Autumn's concerto (下一站，幸福).

Cheng Yu-Chieh's second feature film, Yang Yang (陽陽), was released on August 7, 2009, and was selected for the Berlin Film Festival. In 2010, Cheng Yu-Chieh wrote and directed a five-episode mini-series entitled They explode the day before graduation (他們在畢業的前一天爆炸), which premiered on Public Television Service (公視). The mini-series received eight nominations at the 46th Golden Bell Awards in 2011, winning five major awards, including Cheng Yu-Chieh’s Mini-Series/Movie Screenplay Award.

On April 5, 2012, Cheng founded the Filmosa Pictures Production Company (一期一會影像製作有限公司), producing films, stage shows, music videos, etc.

Early life
Cheng Yu-Chieh began to participate in filmmaking while he was a student at National Taiwan University majoring in Economics. He starred in a few student films and attempted scriptwriting. His then wrote, directed, and acted in his first short film Baby face, which won the Special Jury Prize at the 2002 Taipei Film Festival for Student Film Golden Lion Awards. His 2001 short film Summer, dream (石碇的夏天) won multiple awards, including Best Short Film at the 38th Golden Horse Awards and Best Narrative Feature at the 2002 Taipei Film Awards.

Cheng was able to procure NT$8 million of subsidy from the Taiwanese government's film funding program to make his first feature film Do over, which is based on his award winning script (the 26th Excellent Screenplay Awards in 2003).

Cheng Yu-Chieh and his wife Dai Hai-Lun were married in June 2008. Dai Hai-Lun also works in the film industry and has served as the Director of the Domestic Affairs Department of the Golden Horse Awards.

Cheng Yu-Chieh's father is an overseas Chinese living in Japan. Cheng learned Japanese from a young age and is fluent in the language. He is also the translator of the Chinese version of the Japanese novel Still walking.

Political concerns
Cheng Yu-Chieh is straightforward with his political views in his films in interviews. In 2011, his short film Unwritten rules in Ten Plus Ten, which was supported by Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Executive Committee, revealed his concern about the inevitable political consequences of embracing China’s film market: loss of creative freedom. Wawa No Cidal (2015), a film Cheng co-directed with Lekal Sumi Cilangasan, is critical about the government’s economic development plan that did not take into consideration the destruction of the environment and the aboriginal people in the east coast of Taiwan. His TV series, Days We Stared at The Sun II, sets the story in the political climate of post-sunflower student movement from 2013 to 2017. When being asked whether he would compromise or revise his future works due to political considerations, he answered that “What motivated me is faith, not fear. I would not let fear decide my future.”